Sagging stairs in 1900 row house

4 years ago

We are completely renovating a row house built between 1890 and 1900, starting with the ground floor (we have tenants on the second floor at the moment).

The staircase going from the ground floor to the second floor is a winder type stair and it is sagging by about 1 - 11/2 inches. We were thinking of straightening it by shimming the bottom up and tightening the stringers together (using turnbuckles), and then somehow reattaching the newel post that detached itself from the stringer and the angled steps.

Another option was to simply strengthen the stairs and leave them crooked by sistering the joist below and adding blocking to the threads and risers.

The stringers rest on an angled landing joist at the bottom that either sagged by 1 inch or was installed crooked. This joist is damaged and needs help. All the surrounding joists are straight. All of the risers are sitting on the mortise of the outer stringer by about 1/4 inch, except for one that completely fell out.

The inner stringer seems to be attached to the brick.

We are not completely sure how the staircase holds at the top, but we can see the newel post detached itself from the stringer and some of the angled steps.

Any thoughts or ideas on how we can tackle these problems?

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Comments (3)

ksc36
4 years ago
That might be a stair replacement depending on your building codes. I see a few potential code violations. Inspectors tend to be far stricter when inspecting rental property (a homeowner can't pull a permit on multi family housing in my state).
weedyacres
4 years ago
I'd say you need to start by making solid top and bottom supports for the stringers. If they are on solid footing, and plumb/level/square, then the rest can fall into place.

So you've just got 2 stringers, one on either side, and then some sort of wonky strips on the underside of the stairs that were tied into the post with the ? on it? That may have been a PO's bastardized attempt to fix the sag.

The circled beam needs to be shored up, supported in the basement, and leveled. That's the obvious step.

Then you need to support the top of the stringers, which either end at riser 1 or 2. I'd put a beam across, notched out as needed so the stringers can nest into them and are kept level. The beam needs to be supported by posts on either side, secured to the floor. I might even install a small landing-type structure extending out far enough to support the first winder.

There might be more shoring up needed with the winders...hard to tell from the photos.

If you've shoved up the bottom left with the newly leveled beam, and hefted up the top left with the new support structure, the newel post should fit back into place, the risers should be pushed back more fully onto the brick-side riser, and the stairs should then be a lot safer to tread on.
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weedyacres
4 years ago
OK, just had another thought. Perhaps a simpler method. You could install new 2x12s underneath the existing ones, again shoving them up to be level/square. Then make sure those are supported at the top and bottom by beams/posts.