Sometimes I see flights that have been damaged “as if by magic”. This flight in a mansion block was on the brink of collapse when I went to see it. It seemed that something long and heavy must have been dropped on it as there were fresh chips in the treads and only a very hard impact could have done the damage – no one ever admitted anything!
As well as the chips, a couple of the treads near the bottom of the flight had snapped just a few inches away from the wall. The fractures were on the diagonal – indicating that the treads broke in torsion, probably as a result of too much load on the flight.
As a result of these cracks the whole flight moved quite dramatically – it is very surprising to me that it managed to stay up!
Note how the metal band under the timber handrail is distorting – providing no help to keep the flight up.
It transpired much later that some builders may have carried some steel beams up the stairs to one of the upper flats at the time of the damage.
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