When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

"Rednadnerb" wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop
the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've
always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will
look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with
that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal movement, and
stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement, then the cracking
will be much reduced

Andrew

Rednadnerb Wrote in message:
When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?


Glue a cover bead *to the wall*
--
Jim K


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In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" writes:
"Rednadnerb" wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop
the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've
always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will
look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with
that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal movement, and
stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement, then the cracking
will be much reduced

and maybe loses some weight?

Have the stair case mountings failed? Sometimes, the stringers are
fixed to the walls.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 28/01/2019 19:49:58, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" writes:
"Rednadnerb" wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop
the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've
always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will
look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with
that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal movement, and
stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement, then the cracking
will be much reduced

and maybe loses some weight?

Have the stair case mountings failed? Sometimes, the stringers are
fixed to the walls.

On the staircases I have fitted I've rawlbolted the stringers to the
wall. I hadn't thought they might be floating in the OP's case.

Perhaps a number of frame fixing screws/bolts might be a more permanent
solution.

Fredxx wrote in :

On 28/01/2019 19:49:58, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" writes:
"Rednadnerb" wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do
to stop the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from
re-appearing. I've always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it
with caulk and it will look good when I walk out the door but it
will come back in time. But now I've got a customer and I can tell
that he's not really happy with that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal
movement, and stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement,
then the cracking will be much reduced

and maybe loses some weight?

Have the stair case mountings failed? Sometimes, the stringers are
fixed to the walls.

On the staircases I have fitted I've rawlbolted the stringers to the
wall. I hadn't thought they might be floating in the OP's case.

Perhaps a number of frame fixing screws/bolts might be a more
permanent solution.



Caulk is useless if there is any chance of movement. Would making an
deliberate shallow groove be better than trying to fill it?

On 28/01/2019 19:53, Fredxx wrote:
On 28/01/2019 19:49:58, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Â*Â*Â*Â*"Andrew Mawson" writes:
"Rednadnerb"Â* wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do
to stop
the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from
re-appearing. I've
always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will
look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really
happy with
that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal
movement, and
stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement, then the cracking
will be much reduced

and maybe loses some weight?

Have the stair case mountings failed? Sometimes, the stringers are
fixed to the walls.

On the staircases I have fitted I've rawlbolted the stringers to the
wall. I hadn't thought they might be floating in the OP's case.

Perhaps a number of frame fixing screws/bolts might be a more permanent
solution.


+1. IME stringers are normally fixed to the wall unless they are
deliberately spaced off by an inch or two.

This one is a 1930's house, the underside is not accessible, it has been covered over. But I do wonder why they don't always fix the stringer to the wall.

On Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:50:14 -0000, Andrew Mawson wrote:

Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Silicone won't take paint, ridgid fillers will fail. What do you mean
by "caulk" flexible decorators caulk or something else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal movement,

With timber humidty causes much greater movement than temperature.
Seems that this is a old staircase and may just be moving in use due
to it's age and wear.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Yes I mean flexible decorators caulk. You paint over it and it's the paint that cracks.
Often the caulk itself loses it's flexibility and curls at the edges.

I know that you can't paint over silicone. I am thinking of a bead that is applied after decorating much as you would around a kitchen worktop.
I have seen new beech skirting boards fitted in an office and the gap between the skirting board and the wall filled with silicone.

Rednadnerb wrote:
Yes I mean flexible decorators caulk. You paint over it and it's the paint that cracks.
Often the caulk itself loses it's flexibility and curls at the edges.

I know that you can't paint over silicone. I am thinking of a bead that is applied after decorating much as you would around a kitchen worktop.
I have seen new beech skirting boards fitted in an office and the gap between the skirting board and the wall filled with silicone.

What about a bit of quad or decorative wood beading?

The return on the wall at the bottom is rounded so a beading would have to start a few inches up from the bottom of the stringer but it is something that I would consider and will put it to the customer.

Chuckle.. There used to be some kind of sheet material for longer cracks
that was glued in place but often the edges showed after a while so in the
end I wonder if such movement is really able to be predicted and fixed. I
guess you could tell him to go on a crack filling course and run it
yourself!

Brian

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"Andrew Mawson" wrote in message
...
"Rednadnerb" wrote in message
...

When decorating I'm often asked if there is anything that I can do to stop
the crack between the stairs stringer and the wall from re-appearing. I've
always said not really, I'll rake it and fill it with caulk and it will
look good when I walk out the door but it will come back in time.
But now I've got a customer and I can tell that he's not really happy with
that answer.
Has anyone ever used a silicone bead for this? or anything else?

Tell him that if he turns his heating off to minimise thermal movement,
and stops using the stair to minimise mechanical movement, then the
cracking will be much reduced

Andrew

Rednadnerb wrote:

I know that you can't paint over silicone. I am thinking of a bead
that is applied after decorating much as you would around a kitchen
worktop.

I've never used it where it's on-show, so don't know if it looks grubby
over time, but it's lived up to other claims, I'd try CT1 as a sealing
bead, but not paint over it to avoid the issue of paint cracking.

http://www.ct1ltd.com/our-products/ct1

On 28/01/2019 21:38, Rednadnerb wrote:
This one is a 1930's house, the underside is not accessible, it has been covered over. But I do wonder why they don't always fix the stringer to the wall.


In the 1930's fixing stuff to the wall meant a whole lot more than
getting your electric drill out and making a few holes?

In the 1930's fixing stuff to the wall meant a whole lot more than
getting your electric drill out and making a few holes?

Even in the fifties it was a similar issue, our previous 1957 house had all the skirting and door cases nailed to wooden wedges inserted into chiselled out gaps in the mortar between bricks. As far as I know the staircase was only fixed to the joists. There was some evidence of an under stairs cupboard at one time removed by the previous owners which perhaps offered some additional support.

Richard

On 29/01/2019 10:07, Tricky Dicky wrote:

In the 1930's fixing stuff to the wall meant a whole lot more than
getting your electric drill out and making a few holes?

Even in the fifties it was a similar issue, our previous 1957 house had all the skirting and door cases nailed to wooden wedges inserted into chiselled out gaps in the mortar between bricks.

So, you'd have to put the staircase in place, mark up where the wedges
would go. Take the staircase down again .... Or some bloody careful
measurements. Anyway, you can see why they didn't bother.

GB explained :
In the 1930's fixing stuff to the wall meant a whole lot more than getting
your electric drill out and making a few holes?

Quite right - likely either a Rawlbit and hammer, or a star drill and
hammer for a larger fixing, plus a lot of time. That persisted through
to the 1960's..

On Mon, 28 Jan 2019 23:48:21 -0800 (PST), Rednadnerb
wrote:

The return on the wall at the bottom is rounded so a beading would have to start a few inches up from the bottom of the stringer but it is something that I would consider and will put it to the customer.
Fix the beading to the wall but leave a 2mm gap between the bottom of
it and the top of the stringer. Then explain to the customer that
shadow gaps really are the thing to have at the moment !!

On Monday, 28 January 2019 18:37:32 UTC, Rednadnerb wrote:

What to do about that crack at the side of the stairs.

flush it

On 29/01/2019 10:07, Tricky Dicky wrote:

In the 1930's fixing stuff to the wall meant a whole lot more than
getting your electric drill out and making a few holes?

Even in the fifties it was a similar issue, our previous 1957 house had all the skirting and door cases nailed to wooden wedges inserted into chiselled out gaps in the mortar between bricks.

+1
1905 house here and the skirting was nailed into wooden wedges inserted
into the mortar gaps.

As far as I know the staircase was only fixed to the joists. There
was some evidence of an under stairs cupboard at one time removed by
the previous owners which perhaps offered some additional support.

The structure in the boxed in section under my stairs definitely gives
much extra support. Over that past 100 years the wooden wedges holding
the stairs tightly together dried out and either started dropping out or
became lose. I had to get in and knock these wedges further in and
provide some extra support with some thick wooden bracing.


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