I finally had a staircase tread split right down the middle on a job in Nashville

It was 2 years ago on a high end custom home in the Hillsboro area. I was fitting a 12 foot white oak tread and it popped right open at the glue joint when I tapped it into place. Felt my stomach drop because that wood was $140 a piece and already cut to length. Ended up having to drive 45 minutes to the specialty lumber yard to grab another one on a Saturday. The homeowner was standing right there watching too, I just told him straight up that wood does what it wants sometimes. Finished the staircase by Sunday evening but that extra trip put me behind a day on my other projects. Has anyone else had a nice piece of hardwood just decide to give up on them mid install?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciacarr1mo ago

Well now hold on. I gotta push back a little on the idea that wood "decides" to do anything. That tread splitting was almost certainly your glue joint failing, not the wood being temperamental. If you're using PVA glue and not keeping your shop around 70 degrees with decent humidity, those joints can be real weak. I've seen guys blame the wood a hundred times when it's really their glue up process or the moisture content being wrong. White oak is pretty stable if you let it acclimate in the house for a week before cutting. That popping sound you heard was probably the joint letting go because the wood was still moving from temperature changes. Not saying it can't happen with good prep, but most of the time it's on us.

andrew_miller901mo ago

Yeah, I read somewhere that white oak can actually crack from thermal shock if you bring it from a cold garage into a warm house too fast. Sounds like that pop might've been the wood adjusting.