Noisy stairs-which Glue and Screws

[xyz123]

Hi, we have some noisy stairs in the house and am looking to fix it while the carpets are being replaced next week.


Saw couple of videos on YT which recommends to use watered down glue and screws.

This maybe silly but will any screw and wood glue work (one video mentioned e, landing polyurethane glue) or should I get some specific screws /glue?

Thanks

[JoshSm]

Depends on the construction? Modern machine made or vintage with wedges & stuff.

An expanding PU glue (like flooring glue) will take care of any gaps and movement *if* you can get it to where it needs to go.

[xyz123]

Thanks. Staircase is abt 50 years old so definitely not fully Machine made.

[Mazinbrum]

Can you get underneath them? Mine’s like Blackpool pier (sans water) under mine. Lots of props made them solid.

[paulrockliffe]

JoshSm said:

Depends on the construction? Modern machine made or vintage with wedges & stuff.

An expanding PU glue (like flooring glue) will take care of any gaps and movement *if* you can get it to where it needs to go.

Definitely want this, maybe fill a syringe so it can be injected into the gaps. If you can't get to the gaps you could drill in from the tread, inject the glue, then screw through the hole to pull it tight and squeeze the glue into the spaces, where it'll expand and tighten everything up nicely.

[awd2000]

We’ve just finished dealing with a whole lot of noisy flooring using these Optimaxx flooring screws - self-drilling with a T20 head, easy to use and no squeaks so far…can definitely recommend.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/optimaxx-tx-countersunk-flooring-screws-4mm-x-50mm-500-pack/226ty

[skilly1]

How do you know you’re not going through a water pipe or electric cable?

[Little Lofty]

This is very good.
https://www.stairbox.com/products/164/fast-bond-pu...

[JoshSm]

The gel stuff is a bit too thick and fast setting to be easy to get in where it needs to. I've used it but wouldn't try it on stair treads as it'd be a pain to get in anywhere. Also at least some of these gels dry flexible not rigid & are a pain to tidy the excess.

Egger D4 floor adhesive is great stuff though, thin enough to flow or inject with a large bore needle, fast setting but not too fast, sets rigid, decent expansion ratio, easy to tidy. I've used it for a few things.

Unless the boards were flapping about instead of just creaking I'd have thought glue should be plenty. You could make a hole for glue in the tread if you want just don't screw it.

Adding some moisture first aids bonding & expansion.

[dhutch]

awd2000 said:

We’ve just finished dealing with a whole lot of noisy flooring using these Optimaxx flooring screws

Pros and cons to all, but for floorboards and a host of other things, my go to following a recommendation is 'spectra' from Toolstation.

For a screw that pulls things down, rather than buries its head while leaving a gap under the board as so many do.

[Cow Corner]

skilly1 said:

How do you know you’re not going through a water pipe or electric cable?

When I redid my creaky upstairs landing at our old place, none of the services where marked but due to the location of the heating and hot water tank, I knew they were there somewhere, so I painstakingly removed the existing nails and put the screws in the same holes, which was a ballache, but avoided an unwanted water feature in the room below.

[JoshSm]

Cow Corner said:

I painstakingly removed the existing nails and put the screws in the same holes

In my bitter experience that doesn't necessarily mean either missing the services or even hitting the joists when you put something back in the same hole.

The location of the nails usually seems to be 'best guess' not necessarily where they should be.

Plus flooring screws can be longer than the nails which causes its own issues.