Squeak in my Stair!!

[michaelgarner]

Hello friends,
In the never ending saga of trying to get my house sold, the potential buyers had the appraisal done on the house and everything is a go. The only glitch so far is that they said they want the squeak in the stairs to be fixed up to the second floor! Soooo from everyones experience here how detailed of a fix is this? (I am in Germany still so my wife will have to contract someone to get it done) Under the stairs it is finished Sheetrock and you cant get to the stairs that way. Is this a swiss-cheese solution (shoot the stairs with a lot of nails/screws to make the noise stop, hence the swiss cheese pun,,I know I know I have dry humor!) Thanks friends and have a blessed day.

 

[Gotcha6]

A stair squeak can't be fixed effectively with nails. Have someone get some drywall trim screws. They will have a small head to them that can be countersunk right into the wood and the threads will hold the stringer and tread together. These screws usually come with a #2 square head and are readily available at the BORGs. If they can countersink an appropriate sized hole into the tread first and inject some PVA glue it helps. They can then putty over the screw holes if the treads require it.

 

[kbcrafter]

Hi Michael,
Try this before you go to the nail method. Sprinkle talcum powder on the stair , rub it in and then clean the stairs really well so that its not slippery and see if that might not help. If you can get the talcun down into trhe cracks it might eliminate the stress points that are squeaking
Kevin

 

[michaelgarner]

Thanks friends! I will be passing the info on to the better half of my life. As always thanks friends, you guys are awesome.

 

[Glennbear]

Hi Michael,
Try this before you go to the nail method. Sprinkle talcum powder on the stair , rub it in and then clean the stairs really well so that its not slippery and see if that might not help. If you can get the talcun down into trhe cracks it might eliminate the stress points that are squeaking
Kevin

This is what I would suggest also, my last house was a half century old and it worked on some squeaky hardwood floor boards :wsmile:

 

[Tar Heel]

Michael, it sounds as if the day is getting much closer when Sarah (I hope my memory is correct) and the kids will join you. That will truly be a blessed day for all of you. Here's hoping that all goes well on the sale and nothing unexpected comes up to kill the deal.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

There are special screws for squeeky stair treads and flooring. You put them in from the top. The shank of the screw is designed to snap off below the surface of the stair tread so just leaves a little hole which you can fill with matching putty. I saw Nahm or Tommy do it on NTW a few years ago.

One brand, "Squeek No More" is available from McFeely's. They come in carpeted or hardwood floor versions.

 

[russellellis]

i used to pry up the treads and shoot some construction adhesive in there and then counter sink some cabinet screw with square drive heads in. worked perfectly but was involved. last time i had to fix some i picked up some snap off screws from lowes. much like the ones Alan linked to. those were the best thing since sliced bread. absolutely no other way for me anymore.

 

[michaelgarner]

You guys are just awesome, thank you all so very much for the information.

 

[ashley_phil]

i'd offer the guy $ 200 cash at closing to get over it.:rotflm:

anyone have stairs that never squeak?

 

[michaelgarner]

Yup thats out plan as well, hopefully they will take the offer on some cash and just finish closing the deal. Ya when they said that they wanted us to fix the stairs I was thinking,,ohh boy dont you have something to learn about houses.