Monday 25 September 2017

Stairs Repairs Continue

I've continued to work away in the house for the last month since the stairs repairs began, but disappointingly McLyn Joinery left the job 5 weeks ago as they had to wait on new balusters and the monkey tail handrail end to be made up before continuing. Here we are nearly 6 weeks later and still no sign of their return.

Nonetheless, the repairs look promising. This is the upper section of the staircase reassembled:


The original skirting is now back in place and the structural integrity of the treads as you walk up or down is strikingly different; it's rock solid.



The handrail glued and fixed back together where it was separating:



This is how bad the turn on the  stairs was beforehand:


Now secured in place:


New moldings made to match the original damaged sections which essentially crumbled away:


Progressing downwards, new risers where required:


The upper stairs from the underside:


This was how the middle and lower flights looked before hand:



And now since work began:


The Victorian newel has been removed and the original scroll will be reinstated on the plinth below, which extends outwards from the bottom tread:





All original balusters are now securely in place, accompanied by some identical replacements:



A lot of filling has been performed to flatted out the risers and treads:



I tried to keep ahead of them, stripping paint at night time so filling could be done the following day:


Where treads are in good shape, they are retained whilst new noses are spliced in place. It's then necessary to sand down the center of the new nose to match the wear on the original tread, finished with filler to flatten the surface out:


The first floor landing required a lot of replacement material due to poor condition and sizable holes in the timber:



All new risers and treads:


All gaps in the skirting are being filled with splices of timber:





MDF moldings to match the originals:



Still much work left to do:






Hopefully, more to come soon.