Our stairs are falling apart

[Enlindbergare]

Hi! Our staircase is starting to come apart, and yesterday one of the steps came loose, and it's a wonder my partner didn't get hurt! I think I've identified the problem as us having a baby gate set up at the bottom, which apparently exerted enough force to push the staircase apart. How on earth do we fix it again? I pressed it back together just by pushing on the loose side, and now I can jump on the loose step without it coming off, but I can now see the old carpet at one edge, which we hadn't seen before, so I'm terrified every time I go up the stairs. My partner's solution was angle brackets. But besides the fact that it won't look so nice with angle brackets under the steps, it doesn't seem like a completely safe idea!

 

[Düsseldorff]

The tough answer is that you should glue the damn thing again.

An easier option is your guy's angle brackets or simply driving screws from the side.

Edit: Or take the opportunity to buy a new staircase... But of course, that's a financial issue.

 

[snuttjulle]

Is it a step in the middle of the stairs or at an end?
It should be possible to fasten the 2 stringers together with something discreet just under a few of the steps if they have managed to be pushed apart.

 

[Enlindbergare]

The difficult answer is that you should re-glue the damn thing.

An easier option is your guy's angle iron or simply driving screws from the side.

Edit: Or take the opportunity to buy a new staircase... But of course, that's an economic question.

I assume that re-gluing means the whole staircase has to be taken apart, which is beyond my handyman skills, hehe. So in that case, we'll probably replace the staircase, but we have a few other things at home we want to do first, so we'd prefer to delay that expense!

 

[Enlindbergare]

Is it a step in the middle of the stairs or at one end?
It should be possible to tighten the 2 stringers with something discreetly just below a few of the steps if they have managed to be pushed apart.

it's about 5-6 steps up, there were two steps that could be loosened when we started checking. Do you have any idea what could be used to pull it together?

 

[Kontoristen7]

Maybe not the prettiest, but buy a "pocket hole jig" so you can screw the steps into the stringer at an angle.

 

[Düsseldorff]

Maybe not the prettiest, but buy a "pocket hole jig" so you can screw the steps into the stringer at an angle.

[image]

No jig needed for that. Just do it with some feeling.

 

[pjkw]

No jig needed for that. Just go at it with a little intuition.

The jig is used for drilling the holes, which I would say is almost impossible to do by "intuition".
If you drill holes, you can then plug the holes.

 

[Enlindbergare]

Maybe not the prettiest, but buy a "pocket hole jig" so you can pocket screw the steps into the stringer.

[image]

feels like an appealing solution, should look better with holes in like that than screwing by hand!

 

[snuttjulle]

it's like 5-6 steps up, there were two steps that could be loosened when we started to feel around. Do you have any idea what one could use to pull it together?

My first idea is a dowel screw with a wood screw on one end and threaded on the other and then a rod or pipe with internal threading across and a nut with a washer on the outside that can be countersunk or made into a thing. Should be possible to hide under some of the steps on the way up.

 

[Düsseldorff]

The jig is used to drill the holes, which I would say is almost impossible to do by "feeling." If you drill holes, you can then plug the holes.

Absolutely, I know what a jig is and what it's used for. Now I was specifically thinking about TS's situation.