Repair broken stairs

callmechar

The stairs in my house are all cracked. We live in 1960s ex council house. My husband has fixed some of the stairs. He fixed from the bottom the ones he could reach eg the top ones. A lot of the risers were cracked. All seemed Ok and we decorated and carpeted. Now a few stairs about 4 up from the bottom are causing more problems. When walking down the stairs one of the stairs moves and makes a horrible creaking noise. My husband says he thinks the riser is probably split. The few around it are moving too. The only way we can get to this is either to knock out the plaster board in the understairs cupboard or to take up the carpet and underlay on the stairs.

What's the best way?

Replacing the staircase isn't an option at the moment.

Also the caulk in the stringer on the edge of the stairs is coming away from the wall probably because of this movement. Is there anything I could do about about this?

tony6403

At present my staircase has similar creaks and snapping noises ; it does it each summer and then the noises go away by autumn.
It is caused by normal shrinkage and expansion of the timber arising from its seasonal moisture content.

cyclonebri1

The riser is the vertical board that supports the tread, you may not mean this but if you do;

Remove the stair carpet, cut ply sections, 6mm should be enough to do the job and not interfere with the toe of the tread.
Cut these the same size as the visible riser and bond and nail in place, pay attention to the riser tread and riser stringer interfaces as this is likely where the noise comes from.
Angle nail all the joints before you apply the plywood

callmechar

Thanks! Yes I do mean the risers. Hubbie says that these are split (not the treads). Perhaps the weather is playing a part too, never thought of that!