Need to pull stairs together

[flashharry]

Hello everyone,

I've been investigating the creaking stairs in my Edwardian house and I think I've discovered the primary cause, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about fixing it.

Over the years the string on the banister side (the one not attached to the wall) has moved, no doubt caused by years of kids sliding down the banisters and swinging round the post at the bottom - as its right opposite the living room door the natural thing to do when you leave the living room to go up stairs is to put your hand on the post and pull yourself round.

On checking underneath the stairs i discovered that 4 of the treads were only just being held in place by their wedges and that they weren't actually 'inside' the string at all. I've screwed some battens into the string underneath these treads as a stop gap measure but what I really need to do is to somehow 'pull' the string back into position and keep it there. I was thinking of some sort of metal torsion bar that i could attach to the string and opposite wall and then tighten, but I don't even know if such a thing exists.

Does anyone have any bright ideas? Or even understand what I'm talking about?

Thanks

Harry

 

[ladylola]

It's going to be akward to push or pull back as there will probably be blobs of dried glue , dirt and dust build up in the grooves or housings for the threads, but with preperation not impossible.
You'll need to remove the wedges to allow you to clean out the housings, screw angle brackets onto the string to prevent the thread falling out completely , don't fix to the thread yet.
It should be possible to force the string back by using the opposite wall i.e. the one with the living room door in it. You could use acrows ( hire able) spread across the hall horizontally and a large pice of ply to spead the load on the wall. It's also possible to do the job with timber and folding wedges but you will need more hands.If you have to use force it may damage the wall hence the string should move with very little effort.
Try a "dry run" first to see if it will move, it should move quite easily if you have to force the acrow to move the string then there is probably something else that will need clearing out.
Once the operation runs smoothly it can be repeated using glue and once back in place rewedge and screw the angle brackets into the threads as well.

 

[dickjeffrey]

I'd follow the previous post but rather than use acro's which are primarily for holding things in place, I'd use a trolley jack or bottle jack to do the pushing (using wooden packers between the jack and the wall to reduce the distance the jack needs to move and if the string refuses to budge, the wood will absorb some of the pressure rather than punching a hole through the wall) - if a 4 ton trolley jack won't move it, it ain't gonna move!

 

[flashharry]

Thanks for the replies. The pushing idea makes more sense. When I actually have time to do it, I'll let you know how i get on

Harry

 

[ajstoneservices]

I've done this before by removing the wedges at, above and below the worst area. Then using a heavy duty ratchet strap over the strings pulled them back together. Finally replacing the wedges.