Fixing stairs

[0Floz0]

Hey everyone

Maybe an easy one for a carpenter but a challenge for me. I’d posted on another thread about plasterboarding my stairs as they had been done terribly with mesh before. But this is more a question on the carpentry as I want to get that right before I plasterboard.

The stairs squeak and creak loads. So I’ll be doing the trick with the blocks on the back. It’s quite thin mdf on the risers so I may pad this out with some ply as well as the carpet grippers won’t stick to them otherwise.

What would you advise doing to the stairs to make them easier to plasterboard? Note I’m not doing wire mesh. I want to board it. So the challenge is getting the sides level so I can board over it.

Is there anything I can trim off the stairs to help that?

Thanks all

 

[blup]

Plasterboard is available that can be bent or curved. It’s then a question of adding battens to fix the boards to.

 

[0Floz0]

Plasterboard is available that can be bent or curved. It’s then a question of adding battens to fix the boards to.

Thanks. I haven’t heard of that before. Any tips on trimming the frame up? I’ll check out the plasterboard.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Traditionally this would have been done with mesh and then plastered but it could be done with bendy plasterboard but it probably still need to be skimmed, otherwise it would look like Kryten's head. Have a look on YouTube.

 

[blup]

Thanks. I haven’t heard of that before. Any tips on trimming the frame up? I’ll check out the plasterboard.

You can scribe it or pack it out, whichever best fits the time available and your skill sets

 

[0Floz0]

Traditionally this would have been done with mesh and then plastered but it could be done with bendy plasterboard but it probably still need to be skimmed, otherwise it would look like Kryten's head. Have a look on YouTube.

Yeah it was done with mesh before and it looked terrible. Krytens head would be an improvement. I’ve searched YouTube but they all seem to be pretty standard construction and this one seems a little unique.

 

[0Floz0]

Update on this. Finally got round to starting it this weekend. I’m struggling on the best way to board this in. I’m really trying to avoid using EML. The rest of the staircase is all but sorted. I’ve extended it outwards matching the angle of the side of the staircase (that’s what the mdf part is).

Any ideas on how to box this in? There’s lots of different angles and I can’t decide which is the best route.

Thanks!

 

[johnny2007]

Did you fix the creaking first?

 

[0Floz0]

Did you fix the creaking first?

Yeah. Loads of reinforcement between the risers and treads now. Plus rockwool to help with noise and fire safety. Much quieter. Not silent but a significant improvement and expect it’ll be quieter still once fully plasterboarded and carpeted.

 

[stevie888]

I like to think I can do most things but I do struggle with plastering.

I had this stair problem in one of our rentals and my solution was to rip some very thin strips of wood just a couple of mm thick on the table saw and tack them to the bottom of the stairs then another couple of layers at an angle with glue. I started with a bit of 3x2 cut in half so my strips were about 30mm wide which formed nice sweet curves. A bit of filler and a bit of sanding and it looks good.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, mesh + plaster is the best way:

 

[0Floz0]

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, mesh + plaster is the best way:

I know but it feels like plastering this would be harder. I’ve managed to do most of it now. I’m just put off by how bad it looked with mesh before. I might do this for the bottom part of the winder though that’s not in the photos.