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Carpentry & Joinery
Broken bullnose on Victorian stairs "fixed". 1 year on, stair is creaking. Advice on what to do next
Anonymous user 23 February 2024 - 3.13 PM
Hi, we had a carpet runner fitted on the stairs of our victorian terrace last year. A couple of the bullnoses were broken in the middle and the carpet fitter recommended we got them fixed before painting the stairs white and laying the carpet.
So, they brought in a carpenter who cut the middle (75% or so) out of three of the steps and replaced them with new wood, with a matching profile. He then filled the gaps, sanded down and repainted. It seemed like a fairly neat job.
Unfortunately one year on, one of these steps is now very creaky, enough that we completely avoid standing on that step now.
The carpet isn't continuous, each piece fits with each step, so should be easy to lift. But access to under the stair will be very difficult - we had built in cupboards made, and I don't want to have to rip them apart!
Can anyone advise on what we might do next? Is it worth trying to get someone to re-do his original work, or am I going to further weaken things if we try the same?
Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks
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I think the best solution would to get someone in to thoroughly go through the work that was done, I believe it could be as simple as forgetting to use wood adhesive or using nails instead of screws,
The glue should be used with the insertion of the new treads and risers and also the wedges behind the steps that hold the tread and riser in place.
The problem is likely to be that the new tread fitted with the bullnose is butted up to the 25% of tread left in place and this edge joint is squeaking because they have not been joined properly and are moving against each other. There can be quite an easy solution if this is the case as long as the new section of tread can be taken back up easily. Take up the carpet and identify how the new tread has been fixed down. Remove any screws and gently lever the tread off the riser with an old chisel or screwdriver. This will be tricky if the tread is glued to the riser but as the tread is squeaking it is likely that glue was not used. Once the new tread is removed cut a length of 4x1 to fit to the width of the underside of the tread. Using plenty of good quality PVA wood glue (slap it on), glue and cramp this batten in place with 2 inches under the old tread. The new tread is unlikely to have been jointed into the strings so cut two pieces of 2x1 batten to take the weight of the edge of the new tread and glue and screw these into place. Remove the cramps, put glue onto the top of the 2 inch section of the 4x1 batten, the top of the 2x1 battens at the edge and the top of the riser and then screw and glue the new tread onto all four surfaces so that the new tread is fully supported at all edges.This repair, if done well, will make the new tread and the old tread effectively one piece of wood securely fixed to the strings and the riser, they will not move against each other and the squeak will stop.
Without see the job it is difficult to acertain. When the joiner chiselled away the damaged bullnose and replaced, he may , although unknown to him at the time have caused the glue blocks to come adrift. If there was shrinkage at the time of installation of the staircase and the subsequent loss of the glue blocks this could cause squeaking. So if that is the case you would have to get under the stair at that point and replace them with the use of PVA and leave to set. It could be as simple as that. Glue blocks are positioned in the right angle between riser board and tread, usually three. The riser has rebate cut along the length which fits into a groove along the tread. This is hard up when stair is assembled and glue blocks fitted with glue and sometimes with small pins. If later there is shrinkage the riser feather will slip slightly in the groove and cause movement. The blocks help to prevent that movement
