Stair Repair Recommendation: Marty Anderson archived

Our main staircase steps have always been squeaky and have shown signs of shifting, but after taking down the facade under them from the basement, it's worryingly clear that there is almost nothing holding these stairs up, and the vibration from pulling down the ceiling under them seems to have shifted them even more.

Any recs for someone who can come asap to reinforce our steps and give us a diagnosis? I don't know if this is a handyman job or if we should get a special stair guy. We knew a staircase replacement was on the list of things this house needed, but we hadn't wanted to do it quite now.

We had Ed and the Boys replace our interior basement staircase recently and I'm so pleased with their work!! http://www.edandtheboys.com/

It made a huge difference cosmestically but it's also much safer. When they ripped it out they discovered one of the steps were supported by a carjack! Oy.

We had several contractors in to bid on a few jobs, stairs included, and it didn't seem like a special stair guy was needed. We haven't moved forward with the work yet though.

Our contractor is coming by on Monday so I'll see if he can help--if he's not sure, I'll call Ed. Thanks! My husband just screwed some thick blocks underneath to support the stairs so I don't feel like they're going to collapse. Each step was being held up by what looks like shims (!!) but since the whole staircase has shifted, it was being held up by air on a few sides.

Ah, old houses.

has been awhile but: http:www.thestairrepairexperts.com

Oh, thank you! Marty looks perfect. We have it "bad" according to his website (destabilization from treads releasing from wall), so I'm happy to get a number for someone who is an expert. Will call him Monday first thing!

Sorry this happened, but happy to have the info since we also have some stair repair in our future. Afa, please report back on findings re: contractors. And good luck!

Had good results from Marty. http:www.thestairrepairexperts.com

Henry Calvo (Henry Home Improvement) does this kind of work, too. I have seen pictures of a basement staircase he has completely rebuilt. His work is great. 201-618-4071.

Afa, it sounds like you have completely rebuilt your house from the ground up since moving in. When are you going to take a break?

We used Marty before the sale of our house. They were quick, reasonable, and didn't do work that they didn't need to do.

Patently, we've done a LOT. And a lot of it (like this!) ended up being unexpected surprises. There was definitely a reason the house had been reduced by 100k by the time we bought it......

We're quite ready for a break! Once this summer comes, I think we're done for a looooong time. Fingers crossed.

We also had a great experience with Marty - really knew his stuff, saved as much as he could of the existing pieces, reasonably priced, and my stairs no longer feel like they could crumble at any time!

We ended up with new treads, but existing risers. Only thing is that he doesn't finish the wood (stain/poly, etc), so we did that after. It wasn't a problem to do, but in hindsight I would have asked him if I could finish them first, as it would have been a lot easier. he did reco exactly the right wood to match our original floors, so they don't look obviously new.

Just an update, Marty came by today and said, "Wow," the second he saw our stairs. He's gonna try to get a team in this week to fix everything. I'll update when the job is done. Here's a fun fact, though, Marty noticed that the main support beam in the basement has a rather large crack in it (it was previously covered by the drop ceiling we took down last week).

So, that's fun.

I feel your pain, afa. We found lots of hidden treasures like that after we moved in.

In the house I grew up in, my parents had to put a jackpost under the main support beam because the previous owners had cut into it in order to get a piano into the basement!

Well, Marty's guys just left and the only problem is that now our first six steps are FREAKING AWESOME and solid-feeling, and the rest are still squeaky and weird. They did a great job, were super nice and kept in touch with me when they were going to be a bit late (but they still finished the job in about 4 hours). Definitely recommended. Thanks, everyone!

For the archives, if anyone needs his number it's 201-798-0507.