What Causes A Wood Stairway To Deteriorate And Fall Apart?
There are three things that can cause a
wood stairway to fall apart.
Poor design, moisture and neglect.
Let's start with poor design, if the stairway wasn't built correctly,
you could end up with a variety of different problems that realistically
would be too numerous, to even think about contemplating.
I've seen stairways located next to area drain runoff, gutter downspouts
and of course sprinklers. What about stairways that didn't quite make it
underneath a roof overhang, where moisture from the roof soaked the
entire wood stairway regularly with water.
Stairways that weren't built with the right materials or were repaired
with the wrong ones.
Poor maintenance will also cause wood stairways to deteriorate and fall
apart. The wood needs to be protected somehow and for the most part,
it's usually protected by paint and if it isn't painted regularly, guess
what, you can plan on replacing it sooner than later.
In the picture above, I'm pressing my fingers into the
end of a 4 x 12 wood beam that was painted and somewhat maintained, it
just wasn't painted on the very top. Where moisture accumulated
regularly, soaking into this board until it was damaged and rotted.
The worst culprit for a wood stairway is moisture and if your stairway
is located in an area where it's getting a regular dose of water and you
don't do anything about it, it's days will be numbered.
I honestly think the biggest problem a wood stairway will ever face,
will be sprinklers and irrigation systems that continue to soak the
stairway, day after day. Most of the wood stairs I've replaced in the
past, were damaged by sprinklers.
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