Dear Gary,

My husband and I recently bought our first home here in Wellsboro. It’s a beautiful home, built in 1901, with all original oak woodwork and staircase.

That staircase is the problem. Those stairs creak so badly that even our four-year-old daughter sounds like an elephant herd coming upstairs.

We would like to preserve the original woodwork, including those darn stairs. How can we fix the creaking without replacing them?

Thanks,

Stairway to Hearing Loss

Dear Hearing Loss,

Sometimes old stairs creak because the wood has dried out and the fasteners loosen. Then the wood rubs against itself when someone walks upstairs, and the boards squeak.

Try to refasten the treads by driving a 10d finish nail through the top of the tread into the stair stringers.

If you can get under the stairs from the basement and see the bottoms of the treads and risers, you can shoot some wood glue in the joints and possibly drive some small shims between the treads and risers to tighten them up, before nailing.

When the glue dries it should help the squeaking. Use a good grade of carpenter’s wood glue. I hope this does the trick

Dear Gary,

I came across this article from the Vinegar Institute, and thought you might like to use a few of the antidotes in your column.

Thanks,

Institutionalized

Dear Institutionalized,

Thanks for the helpful information. I have already tried a few of their suggestions. Use distilled white vinegar for all these tips:

• Mix one cup vinegar and one teaspoon table salt. Add flour, stir until the solution forms a paste. Rub on copper and brass to clean it. It takes elbow grease on really tarnished objects but does work.
• Mix equal parts of olive oil and vinegar, rub with the wood grain to remove water marks left on furniture.
• Mix equal parts of warm water and vinegar to clean windows without leaving streaks. Dry and buff with a soft cloth.
• Add full cup of vinegar to your coffeemaker to clean it. “Brew” it on a regular cycle. Rinse and run again with clean, cold water.
• Mix ¼ cup of vinegar and a cup of water, put in microwave and boil for a few minutes. The steam will loosen spattered-on food particles, to help make cleaning easier.
• Wipe countertops with vinegar. It will help to deter ants.
• Add a cup of vinegar to clean your kitchen drain once a week. Let it stand thirty minutes and flush.

The Vinegar Institute’s Web site has many more uses for vinegar: www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html

Carpenter Gary Ranck is a sales representative for Brookside Homes. You can contact him or submit a question at askgary@mountainhomemag.com.