Problems & repairs
Creaking stairs: what the noise is actually telling you
A creak is timber moving against timber. Find which two pieces are moving and the repair becomes obvious.
Stairs creak because a joint that was once tight has loosened. In a traditional cut string staircase the treads and risers are held in housings and locked with glued wedges from behind. Over decades the glue fails, the wedges shrink, the timber dries out, and every footfall lets the tread flex a millimetre against the riser. That tiny movement is the noise. It is very rarely a structural worry, but it is a reliable sign that the staircase is drying out and working loose.
Where the creak is tells you the cause
Walk the flight slowly, standing on the front, middle and back of each tread in turn, and note where the noise appears.
- Noise at the front of the tread: the joint between the tread nosing and the riser below has opened.
- Noise at the back: the tread is flexing against the riser behind it, usually a failed wedge or block.
- Noise near one string only: a wedge has dropped out on that side.
- Noise across the whole flight: general drying and shrinkage, common in older properties after a run of heated winters.
- Movement in the handrail or spindles as well: a separate balustrade issue worth dealing with at the same time.
If you can get underneath, the fix is straightforward
Where the underside of the flight is open, perhaps in an understairs cupboard, the repair is done from behind and leaves the visible staircase untouched. Old wedges are cleaned out, new ones are glued and driven home, and blocks are refixed into the internal angle between tread and riser.
This is the best outcome available: it is quiet work, it does not disturb your carpet or stair runner, and it addresses the actual joint rather than masking it.
If the underside is plastered in
Many staircases have a plastered soffit, so there is no access from below. The repair then happens from above: lifting the covering, working the joint from the top, screwing and plugging where necessary, or fitting a small moulding into the tread and riser junction.
It is more disruptive and it needs more care, because everything done from the top is going to be visible unless it is done well.
What not to do
Squirting adhesive into an open joint from the front rarely holds, because the joint is still moving. Face fixing screws through the tread without plugging leaves marks that show through any finish. Talcum powder in the joint is an old trick that quietens things for a few weeks and does nothing at all for the loose wedge causing it.
When the staircase needs more than a repair
If treads are cracked, nosings are worn through, or the whole flight flexes rather than creaks, you are past patching. That is the point to talk about a staircase renovation, replacement treads and risers, or a new balustrade, rather than spending twice.
Questions we're asked about this
Book a look at your staircase
Tell us which steps creak and whether there is a cupboard under the stairs. That usually tells us the repair before we arrive.
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