Stair Repair in Vancouver
Stairs are the one part of a house you use with your whole body weight, in the dark, without looking. A squeak is a nuisance; a tread that has come loose is not. Both come from the same place — movement in a structure built to have none.
Diagnosing a squeak
A squeak is two surfaces rubbing. The usual suspects are the tread moving against the riser, a loose wedge in the housing under the tread, or a nail that has worked loose and is now sliding in its hole rather than gripping.
Finding which one takes someone walking the stairs slowly while someone else listens from below. It is worth the ten minutes: the fix for a loose wedge and the fix for a tread-to-riser rub are different, and treating the wrong one is why squeaks so often come back a month later.
Loose treads and wedges
A traditional staircase holds its treads in housings cut into the strings, tightened by glued wooden wedges driven in from behind. When those wedges dry, shrink and drop out, the tread is free to flex — that is what you feel underfoot.
With access from below the repair is proper and permanent: old wedges out, surfaces cleaned, new wedges glued and driven, glue blocks added at the tread-riser junction. From above it is screws into the string and filler over the heads, which works and is visible. Which one you get depends on whether the underside is open.
Worn nosings and refacing
The nosing takes every footfall and wears into a rounded, sometimes splintered edge. It is also the part most likely to catch a toe. Where the wear is only in the front 30mm, the nosing can be cut back and a new hardwood strip glued and pinned on.
Refacing is the other route: overlay treads and riser faces fitted over the existing structure. It transforms how the stairs look without rebuilding them, but it adds to the height of each tread — so it has to be done to every step, or you create a step that is a different height from its neighbours, which is exactly the hazard stairs are regulated to prevent.
Code limits on rise and run
The BC Building Code sets limits on the height of each rise and the depth of each run, and — the part people miss — on how much they may vary between steps within one flight. Consistency matters more than the absolute figures, because people climb stairs on autopilot and a single odd step is what trips them.
We do not publish the numbers here. They differ by application and they change between code editions, and a wrong figure quoted confidently on a website is worse than none. For repairs it rarely arises; for a rebuild we confirm the current requirement for your specific staircase before anything is cut.
What this costs
$1,400–$14,000 for built-ins, trim and stair work
Quoted after a site visit, materials separate. Trim and baseboard runs start around $1,400; a full alcove built-in in a heritage home, scribed to out-of-square walls, runs toward the top of the range. Decks are quoted separately and typically start at $22,000.
Materials are always separate from labour and passed on at cost. Quotes are free and written, and the full rate card is published rather than given out on request.
Common questions
Can stairs be fixed from above without tearing out drywall?
Yes. Screwing treads down into the string and filling over the heads works well and is the normal approach in a finished stairwell. It is visible on close inspection, where a repair from below is not — so if your underside is open, that is the better route and we will say so.
Why do stairs squeak more in winter?
Heating dries the air indoors, timber gives up moisture and shrinks slightly, and joints that were tight in humid weather develop just enough clearance to move. It is why squeaks appear in November and often ease off in spring — the wood is telling you the joint is no longer tight.
Do stair repairs need a permit?
Ordinary repairs — re-wedging, screwing down treads, replacing a nosing — generally do not. Rebuilding a staircase or changing its geometry is a different matter, because rise and run are regulated and consistency between steps is the point. We confirm the current BC requirement for your specific case rather than quoting a figure from memory.