Hi all, my first post to this forum…
I need some ideas for repairing a stair tread. I’ve refinished the second floor of my house, now the steps are next. One of the treads is split about 4 inches from the nose, parallel with the nose, all the way across. Not loose enough to be dangerous, but enough to need repair before I sand and finish them.
I should get a pic, but for now just some ideas would be good. I’m thinking of spreading apart the crack as much as possible or scraping out a small V-shaped groove, enough to squeeze some gorilla glue in there and clamp it up. How should I go about hiding the glue, assuming it won’t take a stain very well. Just clean it up as much as possible when wet? I will then tighten all the treads on the step to the rise with the finish nail gun or some screws and plug the screwholes, to fix some squeaks. Any tips on doing this?
I can’t remove the tread b/c the ends set into the sides like most finished stairs, and I can’t replace b/c the wood will not match the rest of the steps afterwards.
TIA,
PJ
Replies
Basic plan is good...here's what I'd do. Don't vee the crack, strength is derived from intimate contact between glue and wood, it's not like welding where you vee out for a bead.
Drill and counter bore for screw in nosing, wood screw, not sheetrock screw! Plug and flush later.
Clean area well, vacuum crud out of crack, might even use denatured alcohol or lacuer thinner. Let dry. Wide strip of blue masking tape over and paralell to crack. slit tape in crack with razor blade. I wouldn't bother with poly glue, dang stuff is really messy and hard to clean up. Titebond or similar will give same results.
Wedge open crack, might be optional depending on width. Squeeze glue onto crack, force further into crack with finger. Tape isolates glue to crack, smears on step will surely cause problems later.
Draw up screws untill crack is almost closed, I'd probably have dry run this to be certain it works. Pull tape just before you trap it in crack. Draw up remaining gap. Leave glue squeeze out till semi hard and skim off with chisel.
If everthing goes as planned, crack will be imperceptible. If all goes wrong you'll have glue all over hindering finishing and it will crack ajacent to glue line. Make sure that cause of crack wasn't some kind of fulcrum effect from something underneath.
This is assuming you can't get to underside of steps, which is another lesson...
PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Heh, I'm a Peter J too, Peter Joseph....
So would a carpenters wood glue work ok, I've got plenty of that.
I figure I'll do all the gluing before I take off the old finish and use plenty of painter's tape.
Thanks.
Sure, carpenters glue, Titebond, Elmers, etc. Good bond lines are stronger than the wood itself, beyond that it's getting to the point of no concern.
You've got the right idea. Keeping glue off in the first place is a bunch easier than sanding it off later.
Peter James here....we kinda have those biblical names covered, huh?PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
>> Make sure that cause of crack wasn't some kind of fulcrum effect from something underneath.I think this point needs more emphasis. Either the tread is unsupported under the crack, or there is a high point under the crack leaving the nose unsupported. If the underlying problem isn't fixed, the best glue job in the world isn't going to help for very long.
I like Peter J's plan - - if the crack is rather tight, you can force glue into/thru it using compressed air -
Glue as directed, but you might just want to paste wax the heck out of the top surface first. Glue will clean off very easily, and wax on the top only won't interfere with the glueing of the split.
Greg