Steep Creaking

A thread title that’d work so much better on a kayaking forum…oh well.

I got these wooden stairs see, and the thing is, is that they creak like a mofo.

The carpet is up, and I’ve carefully gone down the whole set screwing the treads down at the front, and also angled at the back into the risers.

They still creak like mad.

Anyone got any good tips to reduce it or get rid entirely? As I say, there is no access to the underside.

I’ve seen a bloke on YouTube washing thinned pva into floor joints, maybe that’d help on stairs? Most YouTube stuff goes on the premise that you can get underneath the stairs. I can’t unfortunately.

I suppose a kind of construction adhesive forced into the joints might help but it’s usually pretty thick stuff (hence the thinned pva)

I’ve also seen someone cut along the back of the tread where it meets the riser with a handsaw so that there is physically nothing there for one component to creak against it’s neighbour. Depends on if the tread is planted on or part of the body of the stairs I suppose.

Any other stair-related pearls of wisdom from the hive mind?

Some stairs pictured recently.

We had this issue with a recent renovation.

I hate anything that squeaks or creaks, so ended up pulling every stair top (the bit you walk on) off then relaying them with some thin strips of neoprene (wetsuit material) along the facing edges where the stair top sit on the edges of the other bits.

Its worked, but it took 3 days and a lot of bloody swearing and me being pissed off.

They’ve been laid for 3mths now, I think a combination of the wood expanding a little and the neoprene has cured it.

Only got the landing area to do in two places now, just outside the main bathroom where it gets a lot of in/out footfall… I will do the same, laying down neoprene strips then re-laying the wood on top..

Thats my 10p worth anyhoo.

Laminate a piece of 12mm ply to the riser, cut each one individually so it’s tight, shit load of polyurethane expanding glue then 8 or so screws in to hold it back. It does reduce the size of the nosing but does work.

Drill a discrete hole into the top tread and pump about 50kg of two-part expanding polyerathane into the void behind 🙂

Ours had some movement between the stringer and the wall, and the stringer had shrunk away from the treads as well. I ended up hacking away the lath and plaster,re-fixing the stringer to the wall and re-making a dozen or so wedges. Creaky stairs get exponentially and irrationally more irritating for me, so a good day’s work!

Steep Creaking sounds like it ought to be in the Cotswolds 🙂

I’ve got this issue too and considering how to tackle it. My brother had successfully done it to his steps. I don’t think you can tackle it by screwing in screws from the front/top, I think you need to tackle it from behind. If you just run screws in from the top, then all you’re doing is screwing one moving and creaking component to another. What’s missing is the basic structure behind the steps. My brother added additional pieces of wood from behind the runners and risers tying them to structure that doesn’t move. Also wedges used to make sure any gaps were held firm.

Obviously the challenge is getting behind the steps in the first place. it is in my case.

Think yourself lucky its only a few stairs! My hall and living room creak every step. The living room is a 150yr old original and unsanded floor so really there is nothing I can do with it bar ignore the creaks!

Nice stairs.

It’ll be the wedges for the treads and possibly risers too if they’re fitted, which means that you really do need to get behind the staircase, remove the wedges a step at a time, apply some adhesive and refit them so they’re good and tight.

Anything else is just a bodge really and you’re not of that ilk.

I presume the cupboard under the stairs has been lined? In which case, man of your calibre and expertise, you’ll be able to refit the cupboard linings and no one will know the difference.

When I tackled our creaking stairs, I asked a joiner mate how to do it. He advised Evo-Stik Sticks Like Sh*t glue around all the gaps, before screwing the treads to the risers.
I couldn’t/didn’t want to get behind them.
I drilled 4 countersunk pilot holes across each tread, then, a stair at a time, squeezed the glue in the gaps(I opened the tighter gaps up with a flat bladed screwdriver), then screwed the tread down.
Don’t know about yours op, but our stairs are carpeted, hiding the the glue.

Try pumping silicon sealant into any cracks/joints which open up when stepping on them.
All of life’s problems can be solved with silicon.

Cheers folks.

I really, really, uber-really don’t want to have to try to get behind the stairs.

It’s a tiny understairs cupboard, plastered with maybe lath and plaster, electrical boxes in there, all sorts. Nightmare.  I can’t see as how you’d access more than a third of it anyway.

Anything I do wants to be from the front or else I think I’ll just leave it, despite how annoying it is when I’m trying to sneak downstairs secretly at midnight for some R-Whites.

I know that sticks like shit stuff is a bit thinner so maybe it’s a case of investigating closer and seeing if I can wang a load of that in there. 🤔

They’ll be covered with carpet eventually. It’s up at the moment for decorating so everything is amplified.

If it’s movement in a closed string then you can screw that to the wall from above

I really really don’t know why I bother posting sometimes 🙄

^^^ Why so?

I took your comment on board but it’s nice to get a range of ideas if possible. I’m not sure the overhang is even 12mm,  though I guess even 6mm would do what you suggest well enough.

I really really don’t know why I bother posting sometimes

😂
Oh poppet, is there no one listening to you? Maybe try stamping your feet and waving your arms next time, there there. 😉

I’ll jump up and down on the stairs, they’ll hear me then 🤣.
It wasn’t directed at you op,

Oh 😂👊

they look remarkably similar to my Pear Stairs which also creak on a couple of treads.
https://www.pearstairs.co.uk/

I ought to deal with it, but its handy for listening for axe murders creeping around the house.

but its handy for listening for axe murders creeping around the house.

You make it sound like a common occurance!! 😳😳

they look remarkably similar to my Pear Stairs which also creak on a couple of treads.

Just to be clear, they’re not my stairs pictured. They’re generic stairs. You sound like you have posh stairs Stoner. Mine are not even really mine, and they’re old pine crappy.

Sorted mine with ‘expanding wood glue’. Whilst I spent over 6 weeks in hospital, the lad opposite was a joiner. So, whilst bored, amongst other things, I asked him how to fix the squeak.

There is a 5 minute and a 30 minute setting expanding wood glue. Run the glue along all the joints, including the back boards. 30 minutes later, squeaks gone. Everbuild is the make

Wrightyson plus fossy said

Laminate a piece of 12mm ply to the riser, cut each one individually so it’s tight, shit load of polyurethane expanding glue then 8 or so screws in to hold it back. It does reduce the size of the nosing but does work.

Top advice! I got some 9mm ply, some Everbuild 30 min polyeurethane adhesive from Toolstation, and got to it.

Cut a load of strips to be just too wide and just too long then planed each one to fit nice and tight.

Moistened the ply and inside the cracks where the treads meet the risers top and bottom, forced the adhesive into the cracks as much as I could with an off cut of ply, and over the face of the riser. Hammered the ply in snug against the riser, then killed it to death with my brad gun.

Oh…….my……..dog. It’s almost….almost silent! 😂

Untitled by kayak23[/url], on Flickr

👍👌👊😊

You’ll now be able to admire how quite they are as you miss the first step and fall down them in your prismatic glasses

You’ll now be able to admire how quite they are as you miss the first step and fall down them in your prismatic glasses

Lolz 😂

You can buy us both a pint if we ever meet up….

What ive done in the past is use 3 inch angle brackets fix to the treaDd abd riser using 1 1/4 inch screws, bracket 1 each side and one in middle, cover with underlay and carpet.

https://www.toolstation.com/corner-brace/p73961