Squeaky stair treads 101

It's not very difficult to fix, and there are two different ways that you can take care of your squeaky stair in order to get the best result.  Your options are either to repair the stair from the top or from the bottom.  While it might be easier to get to the top of the stair, you'll probably find that the repairs from below will be less noticeable, and will last longer.

If you are going to repair from the top, you will find that squeaks at the front of the tread are the easiest to repair.  You can do this just by nailing the tread a little more effectively into place.  If you want to make sure that you keep the stair in place as well as you can, you should use two nails that are angled in different ways.

If you have a squeak in the back of a stair and need to fix it from the top, you can do this relatively easily as well.  The squeaking happens because the lower tread is moving when you step on it. If you just fill in the crack where the two stairs join into each other with powder, then the stair won't be able to move anymore, and you'll have eliminated the squeak in that tread.

The best way to fix stairs is from the bottom, however, and you can do this without too much trouble as well.  You just need to get access to the stairs first, and then your method will depend on whether or not the squeak was from the front or the back of the stair.

To fix the squeak in the back of the tread, all you really have to do is screw the stairs back together.  Just make sure that you're careful driving any screws or nails into the underside of stairs so that they will not stick through at the top - you don't want to step on the nail next time you come down the stairs!

You can fix a squeaky front tread using a small piece of wood that has been cut to fit in the corner between the two stairs.  Then, just glue it into place with woodglue, and that should keep your stair from squeaking!