Are my stairs going to collapse ?
 

Hi, my house is a five-year old newbuild, and has a 'cloakroom'
underneath the stairs. Recently I have noticed that gaps have been
appearing between the skirting on the stairs and the rest of the wall -
a few mm at the moment, but enough to worry me.

From the cloakroom, you can see what seems to be a large chunk of the
stairs skirting is plastered into the wall - this has started to crack,
and in fact when someone is walking up the stairs you can actually see
this move slightly.

Occasionally I've also heard a cracking noise whilst I have been in the
sitting room which might be caused by this (it could also be the metal
door exterior cooling down, but I am getting paranoid at times - my
missus is pregnant, etc)

Is this all normal? Is there danger of this getting worse ? Should I
get someone in under NHBC (which I note doesn't cover us for work under
=A3500)

I can't find info on this anywhere - all help appreciated.

--
DD

you can see what seems to be a large chunk of
thestairs skirting is plastered into the wall - this has
started to crack

I should point out that it's the plaster around the edges of this which
is cracking, not, to my knowledge the item itself

- ta

wrote:

Hi, my house is a five-year old newbuild, and has a 'cloakroom'
underneath the stairs. Recently I have noticed that gaps have been
appearing between the skirting on the stairs and the rest of the wall -
a few mm at the moment, but enough to worry me.

When you say skirting, do you actually mean the "string" of the stairs
(i.e. the wooden side piece of the staircase each of the treads and
risers are rebated into)?

Occasionally I've also heard a cracking noise whilst I have been in the
sitting room which might be caused by this (it could also be the metal
door exterior cooling down, but I am getting paranoid at times - my
missus is pregnant, etc)

Is this all normal? Is there danger of this getting worse ? Should I
get someone in under NHBC (which I note doesn't cover us for work under
£500)

A certain amount of movement with stairs is inevitable to an extent. You
may also experiance a small amount of shrinkage of the wood over time.
How much will depend on the wood used to make them. Quite often stairs
these days will have softwood strings, with ply or MDF treads and risers.

One would hope the string is well fixed to the wall. It used to be
common to rebate the string into the plaster a little to hide any
movement of the string - but this is not so common now. Any curl in the
string could also show as the edges pulling away from the wall.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

wrote in message
oups.com...

Hi, my house is a five-year old newbuild, and has a 'cloakroom'
underneath the stairs. Recently I have noticed that gaps have been
appearing between the skirting on the stairs and the rest of the wall -
a few mm at the moment, but enough to worry me.

From the cloakroom, you can see what seems to be a large chunk of the
stairs skirting is plastered into the wall - this has started to crack,
and in fact when someone is walking up the stairs you can actually see
this move slightly.

Occasionally I've also heard a cracking noise whilst I have been in the
sitting room which might be caused by this (it could also be the metal
door exterior cooling down, but I am getting paranoid at times - my
missus is pregnant, etc)

Is this all normal? Is there danger of this getting worse ? Should I
get someone in under NHBC (which I note doesn't cover us for work under
£500)

I can't find info on this anywhere - all help appreciated.

DD

This sounds normal to me. Buildings move all the time, and even slight
changes in temperature can cause the house to make some incredible sounds as
it expands and contracts. If you notice that these gaps are increasing at a
very fast rate, then you should in a surveyor to have a good look. If the
gap is only minor, say a couple two or three millimetres, then this is
normal for a building.

Stairs, especially timber ones, aren't actually connected to the walls at
the side of them. They are made in one continuous runner on either side
that hold the treads in place. The stair case is then, quite literally,
leaned against the landing structure and is held in place rather lightly so
it doesn't slide away. Like putting a ladder against a wall and tying it
off really. So you could check that the treads and risers are still being
held tightly in position by their respective wedges if access to them is
good.

But it does sound quite normal to me.

John Rumm wrote:
wrote:

Hi, my house is a five-year old newbuild, and has a 'cloakroom'
underneath the stairs. Recently I have noticed that gaps have been
appearing between the skirting on the stairs and the rest of the wall -
a few mm at the moment, but enough to worry me.

When you say skirting, do you actually mean the "string" of the stairs
(i.e. the wooden side piece of the staircase each of the treads and
risers are rebated into)?

That sounds about right to my layman ears !

A certain amount of movement with stairs is inevitable to an extent. You
may also experiance a small amount of shrinkage of the wood over time.
How much will depend on the wood used to make them. Quite often stairs
these days will have softwood strings, with ply or MDF treads and risers.

One would hope the string is well fixed to the wall. It used to be
common to rebate the string into the plaster a little to hide any
movement of the string - but this is not so common now. Any curl in the
string could also show as the edges pulling away from the wall.

So I should probably fill the gaps with something flexible and durable,
look at adding some additional plaster covering over the rest of the
'string' and then hopefully stop worrying ? (Please say yes)

Cheers

--
DD

BigWallop wrote:

Stairs, especially timber ones, aren't actually connected to the walls at
the side of them. They are made in one continuous runner on either side
that hold the treads in place. The stair case is then, quite literally,
leaned against the landing structure and is held in place rather lightly so
it doesn't slide away. Like putting a ladder against a wall and tying it

The exception to this will be a staircase with a quarter winder at the
top and bottom since this will leave one side effectively unsupported.
This will either need to be held up on legs or some sort or fixed to the
wall.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Assuming (looking at one sise of the staircase):

|
|--- wall
|
|a
|#
|# ---- string of staircase
|#
|#
|#
|#
|b
|
|
|

We are talking about gaps visible between the wall and the string that
you can see at "a" and "b", then I would expect that the string is
painted / varnished / finished etc as the other woodwork in the
locality. In which case just fill the gap and finish to math the wood
rather than plastering anything.



Yes that sounds about right - but also in the room beneath the stairs
you have (side view of the wall)

|- - ---x
| |
| |
|- - --y
|
|
|
|
|
|_ _ floor__

It's at x and y that the plaster has cracked - so I can fill it, fine,
but I was thinking that if I perhaps add more plasterboard and plaster
over that, it will conceal the movement (and any sub sequent cracks)
better.

I may be being naive there...