Squeaky treads in a 92 year old house
PatrickL
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’ve just started ripping out the lath and plaster from the stairwell of my 1915 Vancouver home to get at the knob and tube (and to get rid of the crumby plaster) and I want to take the opportunity to quiet the squeaky treads that are now exposed from below. They are edge-grain fir — 42″ across. Any suggestions on how to go about this?
Patrick
Replies
How are you gonna have any decent ghosts without squeaky stairs?
That depends to some degree how they are fastened now...
But presuming they are nailed down over the stringers, look for spots where ti is squeaking. Odds are that the wood has shrunk since they were built and there is a slight space between tread and cut stringer. The sqeak probably comes from wood riding up and down on a nial there.
To stop the noise, you take a cedar shim, lay some carpenterss glue or gorrilla glue att he tip, and tap it into the srack till it fits snug, then after the glue kiks, cut off the excess shim
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Piffins way with the shims works well. I also have added glue blocks ,like a cleat on the stringers.I spread some glue on a 3/4x3x4" x10" or so scrap pine and screwed the block to the stringer.Keep the block up tight to the bottom of the tread as you fasten the glue block.I ran out of shims , figured the glue blocks would work. No more squeaks in this 161 year old staircase.
If the stairs will be carpeted ,you could screw down from the top instead.
mike
I've fixed a few successfully by taking construction adhesive and glue caulking every wood joint. Stay off the stairs for 48 hours and they are usually squeek free.
I have had stairs last 5+ years with this method.
The shim and wood glue method is ideal but can be time consuming and if you dont get the shims in along full length of gap, the squeek could show up at another nail later.
There were stairs in a 1930s house that creaked badly. When I pulled away the plaster under the stairs I couldn't believe the gaps. Someone green cut the stringers but I don't think they learned anything. Check out the gaps in photo 1-2!
I cut blocks and screwed and glued with PL poly from underneath. No more squeeks.
Billy