Stairs have been part of architecture forever and while styles and trends have come and gone, their basic stair-ness has remained constant.
We’ve found new materials to make them stylish and strong, but ultimately, we’ve settled on the right size, shape, and height of individual stairs that makes them efficient and safe.
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The people who made the monstrosities below threw all of that out the window.
Hello, vertigo.
Besides making the edges of each stair difficult to see, this choice of carpet is actually causing my stomach to churn a little bit.
If a pic does that, I can’t imagine trying to walk down them.
Less nausea-inducing, but still so wrong.
Sure, I don’t go cross-eyed looking at this image, but that pattern makes it look like there’s a trick to walking down those stairs.
This seems okay at first.
And then you realize that the stairs lead to the rest of the ramp and the ramp leads to a step up.
Form over… well, not even form, really.
Sometimes I get the aesthetic a questionable staircase is going for, but this doesn’t even look nice. It’s too all over the place design-wise.
Watch out for that not-a-step in the middle.
Watch your head.
I’m only 5’1 and I doubt I could get to the opening before banging my head on that ceiling.
Floating stairs can be scary, but these take the cake.
Angling every other stair is just evil and every time someone comes around the corner, they’re going to trip over that bottom step.
No, wait, I found a worse example.
I see your wonky metal floating stairs and raise you transparent, glowing ones that match the decor even less.
Wheelchairs only.
It’s super nice of them to put the accessible stairs right beside the reserved parking spaces, isn’t it? They totally thought of everything.
Oh look, someone made a slide for squirrels.
I think the wheelchair ramp came after the rest of the curves stairs, but there had to be a nicer way to retrofit it.
“Hey boss, we added that new ground floor you asked for.”
However, they didn’t bother to update the blueprints to remove the stairs or doors that lead out to them.
Yes, there are stairs in this picture.
I promise I’m not lying about that and that I’m entirely serious when I say I’d consider butt-sliding down them for my own safety.
We have come to trust that non-slip strips mark the edge of each step.
Which is why everyone that comes down these stairs must make that awkward not-a-step movement at the bottom before they realize they’re done.
This staircase makes you think you’re done a step too soon.
I’m not sure which is worse, actually, but this one may have the edge simply because hardwood is slippery too.
Why does this staircase have a raised lip?
I really don’t want to think this, but how likely do you think it is that those missing tiles were knocked loose from people constantly tripping?
This reeks of bad DIY.
So we have shiny, slippery tile on stairs that aren’t all the same height.
My favorite part is on the right, where the stair had to be chiselled down to fit under the protruding section of the wall, even though it seems to actually angle upward.
At least these ones have guards against slipping…?
I’m trying to find the silver lining here, since the Redditor that shared these said their sister has to carry a baby up and down these things.
Apparently, this is the only ‘accessible’ way to reach the cafeteria.
Narrow ramp, no guardrails, and according to the student who shared the pic, the turns on either end required his friend in a chair to pop a wheelie to turn.
These people have clearly forgotten what stairs look like.
Besides the angles guaranteeing you’ll miss a step (or seven), they’re so steep that they are basically a bad ladder.
Hopefully, this is just a concept and not meant for real use.
“Hi, does your location have a bathroom that’s wheelchair accessible?”
“Of course! It’s just up those stairs!”
Not enough facepalms.
This pic has been making the rounds recently, and for good reason.
It’s more likely that this is a bathroom renovation gone wrong rather than failure designing the stairs, but it is so awful that it deserves to be called out again.
Handrails are often decorative, but they also have a very specific safety use.
Which is why these are a failure. Nothing like slipping on the stairs only to impale your hand on the railing that’s supposed to steady you.
What is it about accessibility that completely baffles people?
My favorite part of this one is the caution edging on the ramp. Like, be careful not to trip on the side of the ramp, but we’re not going to warn you that there are stairs on the other side.
Believe it or not, I had to limit how many bad carpet choices I allowed into this list.
It’s incredible how often people make poor choices in this area. I feel drunk jut looking down those stairs.
Wheeeeeee!
I’m including a lot of ramps in here because while many of the bad stairs can be attributed to laziness or lack of common sense, accessibility is a serious issue and businesses, etc. really need to treat it that way.
The potted plant just adds insult here.
Where do I even start?
No handrails where they’re obviously needed and it kind of looks like someone just chiseled the risers off the top to turn it into a slide.
But is that skinny pole underneath load-bearing? Please tell me it’s not load-bearing!
What could possibly go wrong?
Presumably this is the result of renovations, but also presumably the person doing the reno skipped the classes on building safety and regulations.
Here’s another example of the same bit of stupidity.
But this gets extra points docked for having the door open outward to block the stairs. I suppose it could slow or stop your fall…painfully?
A beautiful basement staircase with one small problem.
That’s not some cheap, plywood staircase and yet somehow they managed to make the basement door completely inaccessible. Judging by the wainscotting, the wall with the door came after the stairs, so why didn’t they just push the wall back when planning?
In narrow homes, these staggered steps are considered a good alternative.
I just see myself leading with the wrong foot and tumbling all the way down.
That should hold.
Faced with a wobbly top step, a handyman faced a dilemma: fix the staris properly, or just use a piece of whatever to wedge the top step in place. Let’s just hope it stays.
Stairs are stairs.
You know, a staircase can be simple or fancy, but so long as it consists of steps that help you get up, or down, it’s still a staircase.
All I’m trying to say is that, yes, this is technically a staircase.
I thought this was about stairs?
Yes, stairs aficionado, you’re still in the right article. And yes, this is a picture of a staircase, or at least something that used to be a staircase, that’s apparently (somehow) still used as a staircase.
Catch a wave.
I understand that people want to get creative with boring, straight stairs. Thing is, there’s a reason why the lip of each step is typically straight: because if it wasn’t, everyone would bail on it.
What does inefficiency look like?
If I’m understanding things correctly, going downstairs from this room consists of going upstairs, pulling a 180, then going downstairs. Was this all done so there’d be a little landing for that window?
Good lord.
So yeah, by definition, this is, in fact, a staircase. That doesn’t mean I’d ever trust this monstrosity, which appears to be made entirely of driftwood and chipped bricks.
Huh.
I don’t know the proper term for these stairs that have a right angle and open up to two areas. I guess they have their place, but that place shouldn’t include a wall that people will walk into.
For that rustic, dangerous look.
Back to another example of why stair lips should be straight. Like, the best-case scenario here is falling down and badly scraping your shins. The worst case? Death, probably.
Somebody call OSHA.
Yeah, these rotted-out stairs are super dangerous. Yeah, these rotted-out stairs are pretty crucial, leading from one rooftop to another. I can imagine many, many ways in which things could go wrong here.
We’re getting very abstract.
As an art piece, this staircase is, I dunno, fine. I’m not really an artistic type, so who knows. But as a writer of articles about stairs, I can say definitively that these do not work as stairs.
Stairception.
This looks like a pretty nice house, so there’s no excuse for weird stairs. I wonder if an architect let their toddler draw up the blueprints for this one.
Seems legit.
I’ll give them marks for clearly marking the wheelchair ramp. Those are the only marks I’ll give, however, for this absolute death trap of a ramp.
Designed for stubbed toes.
Whoever designed these stairs meant well. They even included lighting to help people find their way. But in practice, that lighting effectively blinds everyone, making it impossible to see where each step is.
Twist ending: this store has no second floor.
So you’re in the zone, finding an awesome new wardrobe. You see stairs and the promise of a second floor of even more great clothes. You bonk your head and wake up in hospital.
That seems necessary.
Daredevils might brave the four-inch drop from pavement to grass, but safety is also important. That’s why this tiny staircase, complete with heavy duty railings, probably exists.
Kill it with fire.
A clear DIY job, this staircase doesn’t look that bad at first glance. Then you look at it a little longer, and eventually it’s hard to tell what’s right anymore.
I have many questions.
Putting aside the obvious questions of making a staircase out of old jeans, let’s think about how this would actually play out. It would be like walking down a staircase covered in wrinkly tripping hazards.
Stay off most of these stairs.
Ahh, a nice, wide urban staircase designed to accommodate a large number of people. It used to be that way, at least. Nowadays, stair climbers are only allowed to use a small part of the staircase.
Some escalators don’t measure up.
Did someone just order the wrong size of escalator here or what? Otherwise I can’t think of a plausible reason to have an escalator that makes it most of the way to the ground.
This railing is for sadists.
How on earth did anyone sign off on this railing? If you fell down and reached out for the railing, you’d probably gouge out most of your palm on one of the little ouchy devices.
