stairs skirting?

[stevendudson]

Hi all

We have recently acquired a terraced cottage, probably around 1930s build date. Thing is the stairs are in quite a mess, it seems that the walls are plastered right down to the step itself and have been filled etc over the years but looks a mess! I look at my home and other homes and noticed they all have a wooden (skirting?) running from the top to bottom to protect this plaster in this way.

Is this normal for a home? Can I attach anything to these stairs or do I have to keep on re-plastering down to the step?

Any ideas welcome!

Thanks

[TMC]

The 'skirting' you refer to is the side of the stairs where the treads fit into without these there would be no stairs

Possibly the walls have been re-plastered and this has brought the walls level with the sides of the stairs

Other than making false sides from timber or MDF and fitting them to the walls I am not sure what you can do

Tony

[stevendudson]

Hi Tony

Simply, there is no "sides" to the stairs. As various chunk of plaster are missing, the brick wall is clearly visible next to the tread. I guess stairs were built differently then??

I was considering puting some kind of mdf frame together but worried about the complexity due to irregular steps, etc in an old house. One wrong cut and you've got to start again!

Someone I spoke to over the weekend mentioned crescent-shaped quadrants that were for this purpose but I cannot locate any information on this.

TMC wrote:

[Stuart Noble]

It's normal, but difficult to retro fit. I guess you'd have to do loads of cut-outs for the steps. Pretty much impossible to do a decent job I would think.

[Christian McArdle]

I would draw a very straight line on the wall, where you want the top of the skirting to be. I would probably use a very long level for this. Then fix a strip of paper with a long accurate straight edge accurately to the line using sticky tape. Then use scissors, rules and pencils to cut the bottom right up to the steps and risers.

Remove paper and use as a stencil onto a long straight piece of MDF. Then get out the jigsaw.

Doing it by measuring would look like a dog's dinner.

Christian.

[stevendudson]

Yep thought as much! I like the idea of drawing the line to work to beforehand. Maybe I can use stiff card to create my templates and then go from there. Thanks for ideas and maybe someone else has been there and done this before and shed some pointers.

Christian McArdle wrote:

[normanwisdom]

Sounds like a typical cottage stairs - instead of stringers the steps are carried on 2 or sometimes 3 bearers - often looks very crudely made from underneath but in fact an efficient and easy way to make a perfectly OK stair. If the plaster is loose around the steps it might mean that the treads or stairway itself is loose and needs some attention. If not then I'd just make good the plaster with something simple like Carlite bonding. Wouldn't bother with a skirting - you'd have to be pretty good at woodwork to make it look neat.

cheers Jacob

[Stuart Noble]

I think I'd fix a strip of 1/2" wood for the top, plaster up to it, and paint. At least it would look like skirting, even if you knocked chunks out of it with the vacuum cleaner.

[robgraham]

On the basis that it is quite likely that there is some movement in the steps, I would suggest that cut the 'skirting' as suggested to a template, but fit it to the wall and use some quarter round beading on the steps to 'mask' the join to the steps, that way you will cover the inaccuracies in your cutting and allow a small hidden gap for the movement.

Rob

[Stuart Noble]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of work

[stevendudson]

[Pete C]

Not done this exact thing, but to mark out a long line I sometimes use a 'keychain' laser, with the beam 2" away from the surface, then mark off onto the surface at intervals using a set square.

Also for templates thinner cardboard can be used to get the outline by sticking to the wall with small dots of hot melt glue. Then thick cardboard can be stuck to the other card for reinforcement, with plenty of hot melt. Lastly long bits of tiling batten could be stuck on for more support. This should give a fairly strong template.

I'd do this then mark the straight line on the template itself. The template could be removed and cut to the line. Then put on the surface to be cut out, and realigned using the straight line, possibly using a straight edge on the wood to be cut.

cheers, Pete.