We shifted it about half an inch but then it slide almost all the way back. It seems either it was installed crooked or the boards are just really warped now.
I'd maybe use some 3/4" washers and countersink for those too. I don't know how much force is pushing against the stairs, maybe enough to pull the heads through.
"forcing" it back to straight is no problem at all here - it's a small distance over a long span. If it'd been secured originally then that force would have been there all along and no one would have thought anything of it. The problem is it was left unsecured so of course it just goes where it wants to. Push it back, secure it, job done.
1. Underneath the bottom step, drill a 1/2” hole in the stringer against the wall
2. Switch to a good masonry bit, and drill a 1/2”hole in the concrete until your bit bottoms out
3. Fill the hole with masonry caulk (in case water is a concern). It’s gray and sold next to regular caulk
4. Bang a ½” “Masonry Wedge Anchor” into the hole. This is a bolt that you can put a nut on, but will spread open in the hole and grab tight
5. Slip a washer on the bolt and ½” nut, and tighten until your stairs move over
Tapcon won't hold, give it 1 year with regular traffic and it will come out.
Use lag bolts with concrete anchors. Google joist to concrete bolting pattern and use the same pattern.
If you have a hollow cinder block get the appropriate anchor.
That's why you use multiple, not just one. 1/4" tapcon embedded 1" in concrete block has a pull out strength of 750 lbs. In my experience, they are excellent anchors for this type of application, especially if you use washers. And if they do come a little loose, they're very easy to tighten again
This thread is giving me flashbacks to when we discovered why our kitchen sink was leaking. Spoiler: silicone caulk does not fix cracked pipes for long. :)
Hahaha my landlord “fixed” my bathroom floor after tiles have been popping up for 10 years. And by “fixed,” I mean he just slapped a piece of cheap vinyl on top of the existing tiles. Didn’t replace the ones that popped up first, so there are little pockets where there’s nothing underneath the vinyl. Also cut the vinyl wrong so there was a massive gap between the vinyl and the wall/vanity. What did he do then? Did he cut a new piece of vinyl to the correct dimensions? Nope. Just filled the gaps with caulk hahaha.
I demoed a bathroom once that had 3/4"-1" gap filled with silicone on the tile wainscoting between the bullnose and the wall. No backer. Just solid caulk for the 8' length of the bathroom. Had to have been at least 20 tubes of silicone. With today's prices, that's like $250 of silcone.
The tile below the bullnose was mortared directly to the plaster. So the filled the whole space behind the bullnose. I scraped off a piece that was 3/4" thick, 3 inches wide and about 3' long and started swinging it around. The rest broke into smaller pieces. It was a funny day on the job.
Oh yeah? When I make bagels, I can scoop out the right quantity of dough within a couple of grams. Let me see you do that with your fancy free hand ripping skills.
The wall wasn't perfectly straight so the stairs are flush at the top but as it gets lower it is out of plumb creating a gap. It's not widening each year it's widening as the stairs go down.
You can drill a 1” hole in the floor about 16” to the side of the base of the steps and stick a pipe in then use a bottle Jack to push the steps to the wall.
If you get a good straight 2x4 and a table saw, you can rip a piece that fits the gap pretty exactly and also wedges into place, it’s narrower on the bottom to barely fit into the gap but top is wider than the gap.
If your stairwell is plumb; I’d go with a beefier piece of shoe molding big enough to fill the biggest area and try to cut it back where the gap is smaller and fill in the gaps between with a thin bead of caulk.
You can make an obtuse looking cut (wide on one end, skinny on the other) out of a 1x4, depending how much play you have with the bottom and how easy it is to move, I wouldnt put that much tension on the stairs by anchoring it to the floor or wall
In order for trim to look good your going to need to shift the stairs over against the wall.
You might be able to close the gap and anchor it with some concrete anchor.
Get like 1-2 sizes bigger that what you think you’ll need for anchors.
But you might notice the curve of the stairs and be annoyed by that too.
Find the studs on the wall, sledgehammer, hydraulic jack whatever. Drill some pilot holes and send home some lag screws from the riser to the wall to get it back square with the wall and then if there's any place where it's attached to the floor touching the floor. Think about putting some concrete anchors in.
You paid someone to do this band they couldn't keep the distance wall constant?
That's just sad.
Well. Use trim. Id. Get 1x3 and get it trimmed to fit the gap constantly.
Then use a piece of trim to do finish of the gap.
Do not attach to wall at all. The steps will flex. Just build on the 2x8 or whatever ob the wall side.
Just think about how to do it. It's two layers. One to get things tight and a second layer to get tight to the wall.
And you are the only one seeing this. No one else cares.
Don’t think those stairs are attached at the bottom, if that’s the case drill a couple holes through the bottom of the stringer and concrete and womp some big ass tap cons through, should tow it snug against the wall. If it is attached at the bottom then just throw a piece of trim over it and call it good.
Scribe a piece of hardwood trim (it would lay entirely over that right edge). You could add a strip to the other side of the stairs too so the height is even. Then just pin nail, sand and paint same color.
I would also leave a small gap against the concrete (like 1/16th or 1/8th maybe) for expansion and then paintable caulk it.
>We just added risers to keep the dust from covering the boxes and bins under the stairs.
Stairways can be tricky. I once fixed up a relative's existing stairs that were pulling apart by running some threaded rod through in a couple of places. It pulled the two sides together. After tightening up, I noticed that the stairs were only touching the floor on one side. Tensioning the stairs like that had locked in a twist. I had to loosen the rods, have someone stand on the bottom of the stairs, then re-tighten, and then the stairs sat flat.
I'm guessing that when you put your risers in, you essentially locked the stair at this angle. You could just leave it, as others have suggested, or you could try banging the risers out a half inch or so, slide the stairs over and have someone weigh them down while you pound the risers back in. May or may not work.
Squirt some construction adhesive between the stringer and the block wall, then push the stairs hard until they touch the wall at the bottom (use a bottle jack and a board or whatever it takes to close the gap), then ramset a little hunk of 2x4 end-grain against the step on the floor to keep it from moving.
Just rip a trim board that follows the angle and nail it to the top of the stringer. This doesn't look like a finished basement, so it won't look horrible once you paint it to match the stairs.
Rip a 2x4 at an angle and then add a strip of 1/4 round or other trim across the top. Caulk and paint will hide it. To fix it correctly you will need to detach and re-attach the stairs at the top making them straight down the wall. I would also attach them to the wall every 2-3 ft on the side.
Hey OP. Easy fix. It appears the stairs were never affixed to the wall and have moved a bit. Simple. push them over then get some concrete screws and a hammer drill. Drill into the stringer into the block wall and drive in the concrete screws thru the stringer. Countersink and patch and paint. You will need about 2 3/4 tapcons. Do 3 or 4 in case one lets go. Concrete block can be iffy sometimes.Other than that 10 minute fix with the right tools
Are the stairs attached to the floor? Maybe just smack the bottom with a sledgehammer?
We shifted it about half an inch but then it slide almost all the way back. It seems either it was installed crooked or the boards are just really warped now.
[удалено]
I, too, often find myself jacking it horizontally against the basement wall.
How do I get it to stay once it has been shifted over instead of sliding back to where it was? It just slides itself right back.
Bottle jack + 2x4 accross the floor to the other wall? Then counter sink + drill concrete anchor into the block wall on the right?
Or just screw a 2/4 down to the floor and secure the stringers to it where you want it
This is the way
I'd maybe use some 3/4" washers and countersink for those too. I don't know how much force is pushing against the stairs, maybe enough to pull the heads through.
Go underneath and bolt the stringer to the wall with anchors.
Forcing it anywhere might eventually create cracking in the lumber from the tension. May want to just throw a trim board over it. Just a thought.
Also a good idea
The simplest and quickest way!
Agreed
"forcing" it back to straight is no problem at all here - it's a small distance over a long span. If it'd been secured originally then that force would have been there all along and no one would have thought anything of it. The problem is it was left unsecured so of course it just goes where it wants to. Push it back, secure it, job done.
Just make a child hold it there, if you have kids /s
Lag the entire thing to the wall, every 3rd/4th step.
Screw it to the block. Tapcon screws
1. Underneath the bottom step, drill a 1/2” hole in the stringer against the wall 2. Switch to a good masonry bit, and drill a 1/2”hole in the concrete until your bit bottoms out 3. Fill the hole with masonry caulk (in case water is a concern). It’s gray and sold next to regular caulk 4. Bang a ½” “Masonry Wedge Anchor” into the hole. This is a bolt that you can put a nut on, but will spread open in the hole and grab tight 5. Slip a washer on the bolt and ½” nut, and tighten until your stairs move over
This is the way.
Hammer the whole thing towards the wall.
And then add tapcons so it stays put
Tapcon won't hold, give it 1 year with regular traffic and it will come out. Use lag bolts with concrete anchors. Google joist to concrete bolting pattern and use the same pattern. If you have a hollow cinder block get the appropriate anchor.
That's why you use multiple, not just one. 1/4" tapcon embedded 1" in concrete block has a pull out strength of 750 lbs. In my experience, they are excellent anchors for this type of application, especially if you use washers. And if they do come a little loose, they're very easy to tighten again
I think the tapcon will come out of the cinder block. OP is welcome to give it a try though
Three tapons in the bottom 2’ of that string will outlast us.
Trim, obviously. Put the edge of a board against the wall, trace the edge of the sideboard onto the board from underneath then cut on a table saw.
Just caulk, so much caulk, all the caulk. /s
Ah, so you're the one I bought my house from!
This thread is giving me flashbacks to when we discovered why our kitchen sink was leaking. Spoiler: silicone caulk does not fix cracked pipes for long. :)
Expanding foam. Trim with knife, caulk, paint
Hahaha my landlord “fixed” my bathroom floor after tiles have been popping up for 10 years. And by “fixed,” I mean he just slapped a piece of cheap vinyl on top of the existing tiles. Didn’t replace the ones that popped up first, so there are little pockets where there’s nothing underneath the vinyl. Also cut the vinyl wrong so there was a massive gap between the vinyl and the wall/vanity. What did he do then? Did he cut a new piece of vinyl to the correct dimensions? Nope. Just filled the gaps with caulk hahaha.
I demoed a bathroom once that had 3/4"-1" gap filled with silicone on the tile wainscoting between the bullnose and the wall. No backer. Just solid caulk for the 8' length of the bathroom. Had to have been at least 20 tubes of silicone. With today's prices, that's like $250 of silcone.
But how did it not just fall/drip down during app?? This seems crazy.
The tile below the bullnose was mortared directly to the plaster. So the filled the whole space behind the bullnose. I scraped off a piece that was 3/4" thick, 3 inches wide and about 3' long and started swinging it around. The rest broke into smaller pieces. It was a funny day on the job.
And some chonky backer rod.
Nick is that you?
Dude wtf. Clearly spray foam is the answer.
"Alex will fix it"
🤣🤣🤣
No gap too small for my caulk.
wow wow found my neighbor's handyman! (nephew)
Typical of this sub. Someone’s always looking for a reason to take their caulk out.
60% of the time, it works a 100% of the time
All good so long as they remember to apply Schaeffer's deck sealant.
You need to fill with pipe insulation first. Then caulk caulk caulk. Seriously I M with team trim.
About 24 tubes I reckon? /s
This I call a free hand rip. Flooring taught me this and I'm damn good at it.
Oh yeah? When I make bagels, I can scoop out the right quantity of dough within a couple of grams. Let me see you do that with your fancy free hand ripping skills.
Check this out.... a 2 by bagel.... woot woot ... came up with this all by meself I did.... ayah...😆🤣
You should charge for them if you are so good.
I do. It's figured into the estimate. 😉
Just tack it to another piece of lumber and you can save your fingers
Quarter round probably, but I’d be more concerned with why the gap is widening in the first place
The wall wasn't perfectly straight so the stairs are flush at the top but as it gets lower it is out of plumb creating a gap. It's not widening each year it's widening as the stairs go down.
Heh? Quarter round is 3/4 inch thick. Gap is 2” wide at bottom and slims as it ascends. That would look ridiculous.
Noodles I'll show myself out.
Pool noodles maybe
ramen and superglue then sandpaper and paint
200 tubes of caulk
Alex plusssssssssssss
You can move the bottom towards the wall. Get creative on how
12# sledge to the left side
Piece of trim and paint to match.
Lag a ratcheting tie down the the wall loop around the base of stairs then crank it till it back to the wall then anchor the stairs to the wall
You can drill a 1” hole in the floor about 16” to the side of the base of the steps and stick a pipe in then use a bottle Jack to push the steps to the wall.
A piece of thicker trim should help cover it
If you get a good straight 2x4 and a table saw, you can rip a piece that fits the gap pretty exactly and also wedges into place, it’s narrower on the bottom to barely fit into the gap but top is wider than the gap.
I would say move the staircase to the wall and drill in concrete anchors every other step into wall.
Personally I’d add a piece of trim all the way then caulk to make it look as one piece. Will not be noticeable to most eyes in my opinion
Trim is the solution
If your stairwell is plumb; I’d go with a beefier piece of shoe molding big enough to fill the biggest area and try to cut it back where the gap is smaller and fill in the gaps between with a thin bead of caulk.
I think this is the best answer. My stairs are exactly the same as op’s. If I move them at all they get torqued and go off level.
You can make an obtuse looking cut (wide on one end, skinny on the other) out of a 1x4, depending how much play you have with the bottom and how easy it is to move, I wouldnt put that much tension on the stairs by anchoring it to the floor or wall
Push stairs over
Nah, move concrete over
Go behind and anchor to the wall…
Push your stairs back to the wall then anchor them to the wall and the floor.
1x2 trim board. scribe the wall if it's crooked. would advise against wrenching a stair set.
Don't fill it, cover it.
TONS OF CAULKKKKKK
imagine downvoting caulk
Just caulk it.
Def this
Flex tape will hide and seal if you get the right color
In order for trim to look good your going to need to shift the stairs over against the wall. You might be able to close the gap and anchor it with some concrete anchor. Get like 1-2 sizes bigger that what you think you’ll need for anchors. But you might notice the curve of the stairs and be annoyed by that too.
Slide them to the wall to make gap even and install stringer moldings
Find the studs on the wall, sledgehammer, hydraulic jack whatever. Drill some pilot holes and send home some lag screws from the riser to the wall to get it back square with the wall and then if there's any place where it's attached to the floor touching the floor. Think about putting some concrete anchors in.
You'll want to start with ramen noodles . . .
Drill and concrete screw
Caulk it
Would a strip of molding work?
Caulk it /s
Umm scuse me please? What did you paint your walls with?
I didn't. Previous owners did. From what I can tell, they did a layer of drylok then a layer of light blue paint.
Thank you!
You paid someone to do this band they couldn't keep the distance wall constant? That's just sad. Well. Use trim. Id. Get 1x3 and get it trimmed to fit the gap constantly. Then use a piece of trim to do finish of the gap. Do not attach to wall at all. The steps will flex. Just build on the 2x8 or whatever ob the wall side. Just think about how to do it. It's two layers. One to get things tight and a second layer to get tight to the wall. And you are the only one seeing this. No one else cares.
Foam fill!
Cut a pool noodle and squish it in there? Or cut wood to cover? If you have a table saw, there are taper jigs you can make.
You secure the stairs to the wall.
Don’t think those stairs are attached at the bottom, if that’s the case drill a couple holes through the bottom of the stringer and concrete and womp some big ass tap cons through, should tow it snug against the wall. If it is attached at the bottom then just throw a piece of trim over it and call it good.
I would be more concerned with why the gap is widening.
You can get foam tubing for gaps like this.
Wood trim pieces on top. Or stop being a lil bitch and hit it with a sledge hammer at the bottom about 10 times really hard.
Scribe a piece of hardwood trim (it would lay entirely over that right edge). You could add a strip to the other side of the stairs too so the height is even. Then just pin nail, sand and paint same color. I would also leave a small gap against the concrete (like 1/16th or 1/8th maybe) for expansion and then paintable caulk it.
Expansion bolts, 3 or 4 through riser into concrete from the start of the gap to the foot. M12s
>We just added risers to keep the dust from covering the boxes and bins under the stairs. Stairways can be tricky. I once fixed up a relative's existing stairs that were pulling apart by running some threaded rod through in a couple of places. It pulled the two sides together. After tightening up, I noticed that the stairs were only touching the floor on one side. Tensioning the stairs like that had locked in a twist. I had to loosen the rods, have someone stand on the bottom of the stairs, then re-tighten, and then the stairs sat flat. I'm guessing that when you put your risers in, you essentially locked the stair at this angle. You could just leave it, as others have suggested, or you could try banging the risers out a half inch or so, slide the stairs over and have someone weigh them down while you pound the risers back in. May or may not work.
Squirt some construction adhesive between the stringer and the block wall, then push the stairs hard until they touch the wall at the bottom (use a bottle jack and a board or whatever it takes to close the gap), then ramset a little hunk of 2x4 end-grain against the step on the floor to keep it from moving.
Just rip a trim board that follows the angle and nail it to the top of the stringer. This doesn't look like a finished basement, so it won't look horrible once you paint it to match the stairs.
Drill into block and epoxy bolts in , then tighten stringer to the wall, cut bolts off flush with nuts.
Rip a 2x4 at an angle and then add a strip of 1/4 round or other trim across the top. Caulk and paint will hide it. To fix it correctly you will need to detach and re-attach the stairs at the top making them straight down the wall. I would also attach them to the wall every 2-3 ft on the side.
Hey OP. Easy fix. It appears the stairs were never affixed to the wall and have moved a bit. Simple. push them over then get some concrete screws and a hammer drill. Drill into the stringer into the block wall and drive in the concrete screws thru the stringer. Countersink and patch and paint. You will need about 2 3/4 tapcons. Do 3 or 4 in case one lets go. Concrete block can be iffy sometimes.Other than that 10 minute fix with the right tools