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There is a wooden staircase going from the kitchen to the basement in our house. A small gap has opened up between one of the steppers (the part of the stair case you step on) and the stringer. In addition, there is a small amount of squeaking when you use it.
From a cosmetic point of view, I think it is fine. I looked at the bottom (e.g. underneath it) and it all looks fine. However, I am worried about a safety issue. Should I be?
Here is another picture:
The modern way to install stairs is to do a rough stair case first with stringer and treads / risers. The next thing is to put your skirt board against the wall. The stair stringers are not visible from the top. The finished treads/risers are then install on top of the structural treads/risers and horizontally against the skirt board.
It is hard to see in your picture but possibly these are rough stairs with green carpeting installed ( though the tread bullnose makes me think otherwise )
As far as safety, assuming the stairs were built with proper fasteners, even a 1/4" gap is not going to constitute a safety issue. I can't tell from the image how wide the gap between the tread and the skirt board is.
Around Oct 5, I noticed that the problem was getting worse. One of the risers had a gap in it. Therefore, I decided it was not safe. We brought in a carpenter and he agreed that it needed work. We hired the carpenter and he fixed the problem.
