zzzzzz Staircase Cutaway
be possible to repair squeaky stairs with glue and
a few screws. But if squeaking is widespread,
stairs tilt to one side, and there’s a gap along a
stairwell wall, the diagonal supports beneath the
Skirtboard
staircase may be failing. In that case, you’ll prob-
ably need to expose those supports to find out
what’s going on.
Tread
SqueaKY STePS
Riser
If the underside of your staircase is covered and
you have only a few squeaks, try fixing them
Center carriage
Railing
without tearing out finish materials. Many peo-
Housed stringer
Baluster
ple mistakenly attempt to fix squeaks by nailing
down offending treads with finish nails, but nails
alone won’t work. The nails may split the nosing,
and they’ll almost certainly pull loose in time. It’s
far better to drill pilot holes and countersinks for
Newel post
wood screws through the tread into a riser or
center carriage beneath.
If stairs can be painted or carpeted, caulk the
squeaky joint with subflooring adhesive. This
doesn’t bind the pieces together as well as screws,
but the adhesive cushions them in effect. Keep
people off the stairs until the compound has
cured. If that doesn’t eliminate squeaking, expose
the underside of the staircase to examine its
mills can create new balusters to match old ones,
underpinnings.
but the process is labor intensive and costly. If
What you do next depends on the construc-
you have many damaged or missing balusters
tion of the stairs. If there are blocks glued along
and can’t find stock replacements, consider
the riser–tread joint, it’s likely the glue has failed. replacing all of them with another pattern.
First, eliminate tread movement by nailing
If balusters are intact but shaky, remove and
through the backs of risers into treads: Predrill,
reglue them; simply nailing them won’t do much
and use two or three trim-head screws per tread.
good. To get at balusters, pry free the return
Then reglue errant blocks with carpenter’s glue
molding at the end of the tread by inserting a
or, better yet, with construction adhesive.
putty knife or small chisel into the nosing seam.
Once you start prying, you’ll see small finish nails
rePlaCing baluSTerS
holding the nosing in place; remove these nails.
Then gently tap out the bottom of the baluster,
Broken balusters often can be doweled, glued,
which is usually joined to the tread by a dovetail
and filled. But if you’re disappointed with the
joint or a dowel. The top of the baluster is held in
repair, see if your lumberyard can order a
place by fillet strips that fit tightly between balus-
replacement in the same pattern. Stair parts have ter tops and are toenailed with tiny finish nails to
been mass-produced for a century or more, so
the plow (routed channel) in the underside of the
there are catalogs full of stock balusters. Custom
railing. Pry out fillets first.
Structural Carpentry
205
The rough cap atop this baluster section of a custom-built This three-piece railing assembly mockup has two skirt
The doweled end of this square-cut
staircase will be covered by a three-piece railing assembly. (side) pieces that cover the tops of the balusters and a baluster fits precisely into a hole
The short fillet strips between the baluster tops can be
cap. This unusual assembly will create a massive,
predrilled into a stair tread.
removed should balusters need replacing later.
magisterial look.
To fit the baluster back in place tightly, lightly
coat both ends with carpenter’s glue and replace
the tenoned or doweled end first. Replace fillets
zzzzzz anatomy of a Hollow newel Post
to space the tops of the balusters evenly. Replace
Cap
the return molding and wipe off the excess glue.
To prevent marring, use a rubber mallet or cush-
ion hammer blows with scrap wood.
TigHTening newel POSTS
If many of the balusters are loose, check the rail-
Star nut
ing and the newel post: They may not be firmly
Washered
attached. Or if the upper end of the railing dead
Railing
nut
ends into a wall on the floor above, the railing
may be anchored with a bracket beneath. Make
sure this bracket is tight.
If the newel post is shaky, try shimming
Threaded
underneath its base or screwing the post down
rod
with predrilled 3-in. Torx screws. How you do
that will depend on how exposed the base of the
post is. Ideally, drill down at an angle, through
Hollow
Plug
the bottom of the post, through the flooring, into
newel post
the framing below. If this doesn’t suffice, see if
the internal hardware needs tightening. Newel
Unlike modern newel posts, older ones are often
posts often are hollow, with a long, threaded rod
hollow and attach to railings in various ways.
inside, as shown in “Anatomy of a Hollow Newel
One common way is a star nut centered in the
Post” at left. You may be able to tighten the upper
end of a railing, which is accessed by removing
end of this rod, concealed by the post cap, by
a plug on the underside. The bottom of the post
turning a nut against a restraining plate. Because
may be screwed to a stringer or held fast by
you may have difficulty finding the cap joint
an adjustable rod-and-plate assembly running
under many years of polish and grime, loosen the
down the middle of the post.
206 Chapter 8
cap by rapping the side of it with a rubber mallet. cating the new tread and testing its fit, apply glue
The bottom end of the threaded rod often emerg-
to its edges and to the tops of the carriages on
es on the underside of the subflooring—if it’s
which it will sit. To each carriage, screw down
exposed, have a look.
the tread with two or three trim-head screws,
On occasion, newel posts also are connected
predrilled to prevent splitting and counterbored
to another plate-and-rod assembly on the inside
for a plug to hide the screw head. Reinsert and
of the nearest stair carriage. About the only way
glue balusters and nosing.
to get at that assembly (if it exists at all) is to pull
up the first tread. Where the railing meets the
Sagging STairS
newel, the railing is held tight by wood joinery or If the staircase has several of the ailments
by a double-ended hanger bolt accessible through described in preceding sections, it also may have
a plug on the underside of the railing.
structural troubles underneath. Investigate fur-
ther. If the stairs tilt to one side, the carriage on
rePlaCing STair TreadS
the low side is having difficulty; that is, nails or
Treads crack because they aren’t supported ade-
screws holding it to the wall may be pulling out,
quately or they weren’t made from good stock. To the wood may be rotting or splitting, or the car-
replace them, you’ll need to pry or cut them out.
riage may be pulling free from the stringer.
Prying is preferable but rarely possible, especially Sagging on the open side of a stairway is com-
because the treads are usually rabbeted to risers
mon, for there’s no wall to bolt the carriage to. If
or housed in stringers.
there are large cracks or gaps at the top and bot-
To cut a tread out, start by removing the bal-
tom of the stairs, you’re seeing symptoms of a
usters from the open end of the tread. If it is not
falling carriage.
possible to pry out the tread in one piece, drill
To learn more, remove the finish surfaces
holes across the middle of the tread, and, driving
from the underside of the staircase. But before
a chisel parallel to the wood grain, split out the
cutting into anything, rent a Dumpster for the
old tread. But try to remove intact the end of the
rubble and confine the mess by sealing off the
tread in which the balusters fit so you can reuse
stairwell with sheet plastic. When you cut, set
it as a template for the replacement tread. Clean
your circular saw just to the depth of the finish
up any old glue or wood fragments. After fabri-
materials so that you don’t cut into carriages.
Wear goggles and use a Carborundum® blade to
cut out the surface in 2-ft. squares.
You can probably save decorative plaster
molding along the staircase by cutting parallel to
it—about 1 in. from its edge, thus isolating the
section of lath nailed to the underside of the
outer carriage. Leaving a 1-in. strip will also
make it easier to disguise the seam when you
reattach the ornamental border after repairing
the stairs.
With the underside of the stairs exposed, you
should be able to see exactly what the problem is.
If the carriages have pulled loose from adjacent
walls, you’ll see a definite gap. Replace wood that
is rotted or badly cracked, especially wood
cracked across the grain. If the wood sags or is
otherwise distorted, bolster it with additional
lumber; it also may need to be reattached. All of
these repairs are big ones. To do them right,
you’ll need complete access to the substructure,
from one end of the carriages to the other.
Starting at the top, remove all nosing, balus-
ters, treads, and risers. You could theoretically
bolster under-size carriages without removing
all the treads, risers, and balusters, but it’s better
With skirt pieces glued and clamped to both sides of the
to remove them. Otherwise, misaligned or dis-
rough cap, the finish railing cap is test-fitted.
torted carriages will be held askew by all the
Structural Carpentry
207
Where a carriage has separated from its
stringer, clamp the pieces together, and then add
two 1⁄4-in. lag screws, staggering the pairs of
zzzzzz bolstering a Center Carriage
screws every 18 in. along the length of the
boards. If a carriage has pulled free from a stud
wall, reattach it with washered lag screws. Where
a carriage is attached to a masonry wall, drill
through the carriage into the masonry, using a
carbide-tipped masonry bit. Slip a lead sleeve
into the hole and expand the sleeve by tightening
5/8-in. plywood
a washered 3⁄8-in. lag screw into it. To forestall
tread supports screwed
on alternate sides
rot, slip a piece of 30-lb. building paper behind
the carriage before bolting it down.
Occasionally, stringers or carriages come
loose at the top and bottom. In a well-built stair-
case, the upper ends of carriages are nailed to the
inside of the header above; the lower ends of
2x6 or 2x8
those carriages sit on, and are nailed to, the dou-
center carriage
bled joists of the rough opening below.
However, sometimes the lower ends of center
carriages are mistakenly nailed to the inside of a
1/4-in.
RO header; in time the nails pull free and the car-
steel angle plate
riages slip down. Jack up the fallen carriages
3/8-in.
using a plumbed, adjustable column securely
carriage bolts
footed on the floor or atop a 4x8 beam on edge.
To create a flat jacking surface for the top of the
column, screw a triangular piece (with the same
slope as the stairs) to the underside of the car-
riage. Should old nails resist your effort, cut
3-in. x 3/8-in.
through them with a metal-cutting blade in a
lag screws
reciprocating saw.
Jack up the center carriage, and join its lower
end to the header with steel connectors or 1⁄4-in.
If the center carriage isn’t notched, it may not support treads well. In this case,
right-angle mending plates. Secure the plates to
screw plywood tread supports to alternate sides. Also, if the center carriage was
the header with 3⁄8-in. lag screws and through the
only nailed to the face of a header originally, it may have slipped down. If so,
bottom of the carriage with 1⁄4-in.-dia. carriage
jack it up and reattach with a 1/4-in. steel angle plate.
bolts. It’s not usually necessary to use mending
plates on the upper end of the carriage because
the lower end is bearing most of the weight.
pieces nailed to them. So remove the treads and
Inadequate support for the middle of a stair-
risers, and jack up the distorted carriages to
case can lead to split treads or major failures.
realign them. (You may want to stretch string
Where a center carriage is not sawtoothed to
lines as an alignment aid.) Number all parts as
receive treads (and in some older houses they
you remove them, grouping pieces according to
aren’t), add plywood supports beneath each step.
the step number.
Cut support blocks from scrap plywood 5⁄8 in.
thick. Then glue and screw them to alternate
realigning and
sides of the carriage—one per tread. If the stair
reinFOrCing CarriageS
sags in the middle and has no center carriage,
If a stringer or carriage has bowed outward, use
add one.
a 2x4 jammed against a near wall to push the car-
You can replace finish surfaces after the car-
riage back into place. Alternately, use an adjust-
riages are bolstered and reattached and the stairs
and balusters are reinstalled. Be sure that the
riage back, but nail the column’s top plates so it
nailing plane on the underside of the carriages is
can’t fall. To keep the bowed element in place
flat, shimming as needed. To reattach plaster lath
after the pressure is released, add blocking to a
or drywall, use type W drywall screws (hammer-
nearby solid framing element.
ing drywall nails can crack surrounding materials).
208 Chapter 8
Shoring
Shoring temporarily supports loads formerly
carried by bearing walls while you modify them—
say, to add a window or a door opening. Typically,
shoring is installed after removing finish surfaces
and rerouting pipes and wires but before cutting
into a bearing wall. if you’re not sure if the wall is
bearing or whether it can be safely modified, have
a structural engineer inspect the house and review
your remodeling plans. This is hard-hat work.
For first- and second-floor walls, two types of
shoring are common: screw jacks used with top and
bottom plates, and temporary stud walls built from
2x4s. in either case, position shoring back 2 ft. to
3 ft. from the wall you’re working on so you’ll have
room to move tools and materials. There are two
ways to approach it:
If you’re using screw jacks, doubled 2x6
top plates will distribute loads better. Here’s how
to laminate the top plates in place: use two or
three 16d common nails to nail the upper 2x6
directly to the ceiling joists, then face-nail the
second 2x6 to it. ideally, the top plates should
extend one joist beyond the new opening on both
sides. don’t overnail; you’re just holding up the
Screw jacks and a doubled 2x6 top plate pick up loads so a window
plates until you get jacks underneath. Plumb down
opening can be safely enlarged. The floor shown is concrete. If
to mark the location of the single 2x6 sole plate.
yours is wood, use a 2x6 plate under the jacks as well.
Place jacks every 4 ft., and plumb them. Tack-nail
the top of each jack so it can’t drift out of plumb.
Then raise one jack in tiny increments before
moving to the next. raise ceiling joists no more
In the foreground is
a 2x4 shoring with
than 1⁄8 in.—just enough to take pressure off the
a horizontal brace.
bearing wall.
Renovation 4th Edition Page 48