Flexible wall

[Jon c]

Hi all

One of the walls on the side of a staircase is plasterboard stud wall, which runs all the way from the ground floor to the upstairs ceiling. I noticed a significant crack in the caulk between the side of the staircase and this wall, and found the reason is that the plasterboard wall is quite flexible. If I push on it, it moves by about 5mm away from, the side of the staircase. It is definitely the whole wall moving and not just the plasterboard being loosely attached to the studs.

How could this problem be fixed so the wall doesn't move so much and cause the caulk to crack? One idea I had is to screw through the side board on the staircase into the studs, but any other ideas would be appreciated. I'll attach photos (in the photos I have removed the caulking)

Thanks for any replies

 

[Alastairreid]

Countersink and screw through the stair string into the studs.
Should do the job.

 

[KenGMac]

Jon c, good evening.

Could be that the studs have in some way become loose and are moving away from the stair case stringer? or indeed the studs have not been restrained back to the external wall or indeed to the timber stringer of the stair case?

Question? what is below the stair? is it a cupboard?? if so working in that area will create less obvious damage than doing things above the stair timber stringer?

There is a possibility of screwing through the timber stair stringer into the individual studs behind the plasterboard, trick is to accurately locate the studs? personally I use a strong torch and placing the torches length flat to the wall then using the beam to spot the vertical [the fill material at the joints] depressions on the surface that are where the studs are sited

I would work initially from the underside of the stair and try to screw through the timber stair stringer and fix the timber stair stringer to the timber studs in the wall, as for what sort of fixings to use? you could consider a thin "Coach Bolt" ? plus a washer ?

ken

 

[Jon c]

Thanks for the replies-There is a cupboard under the stairs but it’s plasterboarded all
around so no easy access to under the stairs unfortunately. Why the studs have so much movement- I would guess that they might go from the ground floor straight to the upstairs ceiling, instead of there being separate stud walls for downstairs and upstair. I doubt they are currently attached to the stair stringer as there is so much movement.

I won’t have a problem locating the studs because in a few places a bit of plaster has fallen off from around the plasterboard nails (this is unfortunately the case in other parts of the house as well)
So the easiest option would probably be to screw through the stair stringer from above, then fill over the screws/coach bolts and paint.

 

[big-all]

as an aside
the first screw will tend to push the wall away until the thread bites
so drill in the first screw till fully home if theres a gap undo the screw until the wall and string touch then rescrew in if it pushes away again then screw a block onto the wall a few inches up to hold onto and pull whilst screwing into the string

 

[^woody^]

Are you sure its a timber stud wall and not plasterboard on a masonry wall?

 

[Jon c]

I was going to put a support on the other side of the wall to prevent it pushing away when I screw into it. It is definitely a timber stud wall.