blinked out on me like a double-striped peppermint stick

[solarbird]

Had a very surprising moment as I was going down the front stairs today to go out biking and two of the stairs disappeared out from underneath me, blinking out of existence like a double-striped peppermint stick

Of course they had not actually disappeared, it just turned out the fuckers who installed them used framing nails in an outdoor application and guess what they’ve been rotting out from the inside allllll along

(To be clear, the nails have been rotting out, the wood seems to be fine.)

Fortunately it was me and not any of the delivery people, my reflexes are pretty good and I just ended up sitting on the next surviving stair going “wha happen?!”

Pics at Mastodon if you’re into it

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[armiphlage]

wow!

[solarbird]

yep

much surprise

many yike

[melchar]

SO glad that you did not suffer any lasting harm! But that sounds terrifying to have happen. Hope the repairs are swift - AND that the other stairs are checked when repairs are done.

[solarbird]

Oh! I forgot the part where I fixed it lol. Took about three hours.

I'm reasonably competent at this sort of thing? And yes, I reinforced every other tread support. Several of which needed it. There's an appropriate number of outdoor-grade screws on every tread now, and the wood again was fine, so it should be good.

[melchar]

Yes!!

Glad to hear [read] that the other steps can now safely be traversed!

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Oh shit! I'm glad you're ok!

[solarbird]

Yep, totally fine. Stairs seem fine too, and I'm kinda like sure hoping they stay that way.

Kinda wondering at the moment if I should run 2x2 or even 2x4 braces along the lengths on the underside to press against the support blocks on the sides. Kind of keep them locked against the stringers by bracing them against each other. I suppose I could also do that with shorter pieces, bracing them into place using the stair treads to hold them into place.

Huh.

That would totally work. I mean, it's not the same kind of failure that happened, that was flat-out sheering off. But it could reduce any chances of rotational failure, which I always thought was more likely anyway.

Hm. Hm hm hm hm hm.

[gwydion]

That's always terrifying.