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Hi all

For ages we have had stairs that creaked and over time had gotten worse. So last week I decided enough was enough.

I removed the old plasterboard exposed the threads and risers. The old wedge blocks were very loose and had become ineffective in some cases. I was going to remove them completely but decided to leave them there and add additional wedges - lots of glue and pinned into place. The bottom of each riser were only fixed with oval nails providing little or no fixing, I screwed 4 x 40 screws and difference was incredible.

There is now no creeks or noise whatsoever, it's like a new stairs and to think I was consider installing a new stairs!

I have attached photos to give you an idea of the work. I'm now in the process of t&J the plasterboard - I'll post pics when this is finished (hopefully this weekend)

Thanks

Andy

a lot off the time carpet fitters weaken the stairs by hammering the carpet between the back off the tread and the riser
i dont know who the idiot was that decided damaging the stairs was an acceptable way off fitting

I was thinking the same thing. We are due to get a new carpet in the stairs soon so I'll be mindful of that when the new carpet is being fitted.

one of my mates from footy is a carpet fitter. he said its not carpet fitters faults for knackering stairs. its the manufacturers. bloody hell they put warning stickers on stairs. dunno why he cant buy a little cordless and screw the gripppers on. take all of 5 minutes longer.

They are not fixed until we see Becky walk up them...... :Lol :

Bg

its when they use a bolster and force the carpet between tread and riser i am talking about
i have never used mdf in stair construction as its crap for that use
its layers off cardboard glued together for gawd sake
yes i know its compressed wood but so is cardboard

fin wrote:one of my mates from footy is a carpet fitter. he said its not carpet fitters faults for knackering stairs. its the manufacturers. bloody hell they put warning stickers on stairs. dunno why he cant buy a little cordless and screw the gripppers on. take all of 5 minutes longer.

You are not meant to nail gripper on some staircases.

Big all,we have made several stairs with 25mm mdf stringers and treads and 12mm ply for the risers and never had 1 problem. As long as they are constructed correctly and installed correctly I think the mdf does a good job.

steviejoiner74 wrote:Big all,we have made several stairs with 25mm mdf stringers and treads and 12mm ply for the risers and never had 1 problem. As long as they are constructed correctly and installed correctly I think the mdf does a good job.

to me its like chipboard flooring yes its up to spec and will last for years but will never outlast the building
things should be specked for the life off the structure or as near as possible and mdf and chipboard are not the right materials

you wouldnt spec a car or tv like that or it would be replaced as not fit for purpose as a known defect at time off manufacture under the sale off goods act

steviejoiner74 wrote:Big all,we have made several stairs with 25mm mdf stringers and treads and 12mm ply for the risers and never had 1 problem. As long as they are constructed correctly and installed correctly I think the mdf does a good job.

On a couple of the earliest ones I fitted the mdf treads split when pinning the glue blocks on - I don't like to pin glue blocks but you can't always control whether other trades will use the stairs before the glue's gone off so in that situation I pin them - if I have to do it now I Paslode them (2nd fix) and that works, but using ovals or panel pins can cause the front of the tread to split.

royaloakcarpentry wrote:

fin wrote:one of my mates from footy is a carpet fitter. he said its not carpet fitters faults for knackering stairs. its the manufacturers. bloody hell they put warning stickers on stairs. dunno why he cant buy a little cordless and screw the gripppers on. take all of 5 minutes longer.

You are not meant to nail gripper on some staircases.

ive fitted a fair few from the likes of arnold laver and pretty sure they have a sticker advising the carpet fitter against nailing the gripper rods on. and the double winder staircases we get for loft conversions have mdf kite winders and ply risers. they get supplied with nails to fix together. obviously they arent suitable either.

hadnt actually considered the fitter using a bolster to tuck the carpet in could cause the damage too. guess i was more thinking the nails for the grippers.

Finally got round to getting photos of the finished toilet.