ᐅ Sealing the joints of the wooden staircase with silicone

HausiKlausi schrieb:

Since I only own existing properties myself, new-builders would have to comment on how to proceed here. It is always said that construction must comply with the generally accepted standards of technology that a client can expect. Aesthetics and design are usually not included or rarely considered (which in this case should actually be penalized after three years of practicing the joint). However, if the intention is to conceal that the steps are considerably too short, this could indeed be classified as a significant defect (structural integrity, safety).

Thank you very much. That helps me a lot! I also thought that a step being too short is ultimately a defect. And that the silicone will never completely come out of the wood pores.

What is going to happen with the wall? Wallpaper and paint? In that case, I would completely remove the silicone joints and have them replaced with acrylic, which can be painted over cleanly. A reasonably skilled painter will then do a much neater job than the attempts shown here.

K1300S schrieb:

What is going to happen with the wall? Wallpaper and paint? In that case, I would completely remove the silicone seals and have them replaced with acrylic, which can then be painted cleanly. Any reasonably skilled painter will do a much neater job than the attempts shown here.

The wall will be painted by the painter in the end. However, the core problem remains: the silicone is embedded in the wood, meaning the grease is in the pores.

That looks quite bad 😱.
How large are the gaps under the silicone sealant?
In my opinion, this is unacceptable. The silicone needs to be removed.
I wouldn’t apply silicone or acrylic between the wall and the stair treads. Both will look poor after a few years, even if you repaint over them repeatedly.
If the gaps are not too large, I would just leave them as they are.
Alternatively, use wipe-on or small triangular moldings.
Unfortunately, we also faced the same decision. Our steps are also partially not perfectly straight.
We actually considered silicone, acrylic, or fine triangular moldings.
We ended up leaving it as is and are glad we did. If the gaps aren’t too big, you won’t notice them after a few months.

AMNE3IA schrieb:

That looks terrible 😱.
How wide are the gaps below the silicone sealant?
In my opinion, that’s unacceptable. The silicone needs to be removed.
I wouldn’t recommend filling the gap between the wall and stair treads with silicone or acrylic. Both will look bad after a few years, even if you keep repainting over them.
If the gaps aren’t too large, I would just leave them as they are.
Alternatively, use wipe-on or small triangular moldings.
We faced the same issue. Our steps are also somewhat uneven.
We actually considered silicone, acrylic, or fine triangular moldings.
In the end, we left them as they were and are glad we did. If the gaps aren’t too big, you won’t even notice after a few months.

Oh yes, it’s tough. :-(
In the end, many of the treads were simply cut too short, and now there is an attempt to “fix” this with excessive silicone. We are definitely not fans of wipe-on moldings. The real question is what can still be done. This is absolutely unacceptable as it is.

So, we had several steps that were too short replaced in our house. The tradesperson was not happy about it but agreed that it couldn't work that way.