Home Improvement

Those stairs look like shit.

Is that tongue-and-groove shiplap boards for the treads? If so, those are interior boards; they're likely made of MDF and won't last long outdoors in the weather.

Why not just run the screws in from the top of the tread down into the stringer? The angle is what's causing the splitting; the screw is putting pressure perpendicular to the grain, pulling it apart.

Going into the side of the stringer like that, it's a good idea to drill out your screw holes but is looks like that wasn't done.

There's a big ass shim under the leftmost stringer. The rightmost stringer doesn't even look like it's touching the ground. Second from the left is only partially touching the ground and needs a shim. None of the stringers are attached to the ground. I would use joist hangers and tap cons going into the concrete.

The split stringers need to come out and be remade, which means the whole staircase needs to come apart. All of the stringers should touch the ground and be anchored to the ground.

Everything needs to be made of pressure treated, preferably ground contact rated, lumber. At minimum, the stringers should be rated for ground contact and the treads should be pressure treated.

Also, file your permits. If you get caught building unpermitted stairs, you'll be fined and have to tear them down. If they break and injure someone, your homeowners insurance won't cover it because you negligently built an unpermitted structure, which means you're personally on the hook for any judgements levied to grant their relief.

This is extremely jenky and not going to last. Fire them and take the project seriously.

That's not how you build stairs. People are going to get hurt

You can have it cheap or fast or good, pick two.

If that is the only place where it happened I’d remove the screws, glue in the broken bits, sister new wood to both sides of the runner (with long screws that will catch all 3 pieces), drill new pilot holes for those screws that will catch the sistered lumber and screw down into that.

Before that though I’d take a good look everywhere else and see if it’s worth it. You don’t want a shoddy job done on a staircase.

What did he say?

If he didn't notice that when he built it, he was fucked up. Either drunk or some sort of drugs.

If he noticed and didn't give a shit, that's just as bad.

But like, there's no way that acceptable. It's not safe now and will quickly get worse.

Are you getting permits and inspections? Is he licensed?

Like, I've done stuff without permits, I get it. But a lot of my extended family was in construction of some form and we knew what we were doing. These pics are exactly why permits are a thing. An inspector would/will make you tear it down anyways.

Mistakes happen, but just from the angle he's trying to screw in, he has no idea what he's doing.

Depending on how much work removing the old one was, maybe pay him something? But under no conditions let him build anything. You're lucky this was obvious.

Quick exit:

There's a lot more wrong just in the pic than the screw...

But that's what I mean, you can't trust anything he's done, it all needs to come out and start over.

Fire them. That’s not how you screw wood together.

@DietCanesSauce

The wood is split from the screws. Holes should have been pre-drilled that close to the edge. In the middle of a board it’s not so apt to split. The big chunk that’s broke off might be because of the screw split as well or maybe it was just a bad board.

I’d make them fix it. This isn’t normal. Since stairs only really need good compressive, as opposed to shear strength, that wood can probably be epoxied back together, clamped until cured, and reattached. 1/2

How much did you pay for that? Im not experienced in this but what exactly was the purpose of those screws going into the wood from an angle? Why not going from top down?

Looks like he should have done some pre bore here.

Trust your instinct on that one, that looks like very shoddy work.

looks like an accident waiting to happen

Has it been painted/cured?

I have similar steps self-built, in way worse shape. After couple of years I had to fix one step with some vinyl glue and a press (sorry wrong word, not native speaker....) and now is solid.