Do I need a survey to discover the cause of movement with a staircase?

[PlatinumConsultant]

After some advice about the movement of a staircase which is causing cracks and twisting. Also pressure seems to be pushing laminate flooring slightly apart. Crack also showing in blocks directly under the staircase in the garage.

Does anybody know what might be causing this and what needs doing to rectify? Or if I need a survey to determine that?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

A lot of those cracks seem fairly minor movement cracks caused by settlement and drying out. Whoever decorated should perhaps have used a flexible decorators caulk instead of a hard filler like Polyfilla, who knows? Or they may just be the result of a heavy move where stuff was bumped up and down the stairs. Bear in mind that wood is not inert and moves (swells and shrinks, especially with the changing seasons) all the time

Does the staircase creak when used? Can you feel the staircase actually moving when in use? How old is the building? (Looks maybe 1910s to 1940s to me) How old is the staircase? When was the blockwork put in? What is the work which has been done in the vicinity of the staircase?

The only photo which concerns me slightly is this one:

and I'd rather defer someone with far more masonry experience then myself, such as @^woody^ for an opinion about what is going on there

I suspect that the laminate may have nothing to do with the staircase and is just an installation issue (such as inadequate packing off of the laminate from the end wall/bottom step). In any case the real issue, if indeed there is one, would be beneath that laminate (but don't lose any sleep over any if these just yet)

 

[PlatinumConsultant]

Thanks for the reply. So the house was built around 2000.

The staircase has started to creak recently in the part which is over the crack in the blocks (these are blocks in the garage that the staircase is part located over. They're part of the garage from the ground floor).

I can't feel it moving. It's an end of terrace town house so the staircase stairs curve round over each other.

Everything was built and put in place in 2000.

 

[foxhole]

Laminate cannot be pushed apart, if it’s opening up it may be poor quality, poor fitting or both .

 

[Deleted member 174758]

At 22 years old the majority of those are just caused by the plaster drying out and require a small bit of work with some crack filler, e.g Toupret before you next decorate (photos 5, 6, 8 - vertical crack in corner and 9) or might need a but of flexible decorators caulk in the joints next time you decorate (photos 2, 4, 8 - horizontal crack at top of skirting and 10). These would automatically be fixed by any half decent decorator as the preparation part of his job (i.e before getting his brushes and rollers out)

On closer inspection the laminate (photos 3, 7 and 8 has clearly got some installation issues with pin holes visible in photo 8 showing that the last two trapped pieces of laminate were pinned in place - something you shouldn't do when installing do natural movement of a floating laminate floor will potentially pull the floor apart (as it has done). Photo 3 seems to be movement again, possibly because the clearance cut in one of the pieces by the door jamb wasn't big enough whilst in photo 7 you may have the same sort of clearance issue at work. All relatively simple to sort out (basically a cat's paw pry bar, hammer and saw job), if a little time consuming.

The creaking stair, is that the middle of the tread, or the side?

 

[PlatinumConsultant]

Thank you for the detailed answers. I was looking at getting the hallway, landings etc painted so wanted to make sure I didn't have more fundamental issues to worry about before going ahead.

The laminate opinion is reassuring but not something I'd be confident or comformatable to fix myself.

Maybe more to the side but still creaky in the middle as well.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Might just require the underdrawings removing, the wedges knocking out then glue coated and knocking back in, and the glue blocks for that step to be refixed before replacing the underdrawings - this is a messy procedure and will require redecoration afterwards.

Less intrusive, although possibly less likely to be successful, is to lift the stair carpet then inject something like hide glue or PU glue into the tread housings (at the sides) and into the groove beneath the squeaky tread. Possibly best done by a carpenter, but either way a job for someone with knowledge of how closed riser staircases are made

Squeaky stairs can be awkward to deal with and may take 2 or 3 "stabs" to get a permanent cure