When are we, as a society, going to finally solve the collective issues of witches? I’m not ready to be fucked by a witch, but I guess that doesn’t matter to the rest of you.
Yes. I know a few. Some are less nice than others, but it's a different kind of evil to 'late stage capitalism' so I feel letting them have a go isn't the worst idea.
My friend had them going down to the basement. They were super weird. My brain took a wrong step and I went down wrong for a couple steps. Would not recommend.
Edit: to clarify, when I say “wrong”, I mean I stepped with my right foot first, and it was a much bigger step than I expected.
I'm an Industrial pipefitter. We work at heights on a regular basis (40 to 300 feet usually), but if we have to do a lot of work to a flange or make a fit for a welder, the scaffolding company will come in and build us a temporary scaffold with a plywood floor.
If there are two different pieces of wood covering the floor, and one is a 1/2" or so smaller than the other, your brain can tell.
There's nothing scarier than taking a small step backwards onto a floor thats slightly lower. For just a split second your brain screams "YOU ARE FALLING. YOU NEED TO GRAB SOMETHING BEFORE YOU HIT THE GROUND AND FUCKING DIE!"
Then your brain catches itself and goes "Ah, it was only a 1/2" difference, my bad about the dying part back there bro. And we both know you're secured up here with a climbing harness, I shouldn't have said anything."
It's a bit different but I found myself running from the police once when I was about 13 y/o. I ran across a parking lot and came to a low concrete wall with a metal railing along the top of it. I saw what appeared to be bushes on the other side, so I hurdled the railing with the intention of maybe losing them in the brush. It turns out the "bushes" were the tops of trees and I had just jumped over a 25' ledge into a drainage ditch. When I didn't hit the ground on the other side immediately it was one of the most terrifying feelings I've ever felt. Had I not jumped through the trees I may have died. As it was I just injured myself pretty badly and fucked up both of my knees.
Horribly enough, once in our area some kids who didn’t know how to race tried racing at night on a highway here. One lost control, hitting the other. Going over the overpass into oncoming traffic of a lone elderly couple (who survived the crash). It was horrible. But one of the drivers, seeing the wreckage and bodies tried to run, jumping over the barrier— didn’t realize it was the tops of trees, broke both legs and they passed shortly after being rescued.
So yeah. Moral of the story to everyone else is don’t jump over walls unless you know it’s grass there. 😭
I learned from a decade of working retail in a mall that this is why escalators get closed when they're broken, even though as Mitch points out "they turn into stairs".
Ya they do, but they turn into stairs whose height are different than you're used to and the corners are jagged metal. Escalator falls, even when it's just forward into your shin can be pretty gnarly
My dumb ass saw the first photo and thought it was one of those cat staircases people put up so they can have a way to be up high in their homes because it’s so narrow. I’m not awake yet.
I never understood why witches couldn't figure out weird stairs, doors that lead to nothing, or irregularly shaped windows. Does dabbling in the occult make you an uncoordinated, architecturally-challenged idiot?
For reals it is for steep locations where regular stairs would be more like a ladder. The “witch” thing is just a colloquial name borne of superstition and legend.
Yea, if you look closely at the picture, you can see that it lets you take a normal size step up with your left foot, then you lift yourself up and your right foot only has to extend a normal step's distance up, then repeat.
You take the same number of steps of the same height as a staircase that's nearly twice as long. The down side is that you REALLY Have to get used to it, or you're just going to faceplant.
Your brain actually does kinda just figure this out. Witches' Stairs are shockingly comfortable to use once you've gotten used to them, though they're mostly a thing in like old rural European homes
But you won't be able to install a normal stairs after you scrap it.
It takes roughly half the horizontal distance compared to normal stairs - that's the whole reason ppl install this.
The top of the stairs leads straight out onto the rooftop terrace, so after having a few drinks up there and making your way back down inside is a nightmare
I'll never ever get over stairs in the Netherlands. As a German, there are like a thousand laws that would make those illegal here and call them out as the deathtraps they are.
Worth noting that these are bad witch stairs. The left and right steps are not off set. So you'd have to step forward and up on your left foot, then side step up with your right foot.
Good witch stairs will always have you move forward with every step.
Normal stairs feature a large flat surface for the witches magic to repel gravity.
By breaking the stairs in half like this creates an uneven surface, and the witches' broomstick will automatically roll sideways, banging the witches' head on the walls as she tries to fly up.
My best guess, idk.
But if I was a flying witch wanting to reach upstairs and couldn't use the staircase, I'd simply go outside and break in through the window, making these stairs unnecessary and useless.
The fact that these existed, is a testimony to undiagnosed mental health problems in human history.
Not really, they let you put in steep stairs that are usable in a much smaller footprint; the witch stair nonsense came later on what was a sensible and practical solution.
My understanding is that this design of stairs is used when the horizontal footprint is too small for the vertical need and you would end up with steps higher than the legally allowed maximum. It's an interesting question whether these are actually safer than taller steps.
These are called "witches' stairs," and they were popular once upon a time because it was thought witches couldn't go up them. Usually all the bedrooms were upstairs, too, so they couldn't come for your family while everyone slept. They make for a great conversation piece these days, but they're also a hazard in the event of a fire and most other emergencies as well.
Also in today’s commercial architecture, these are referred to as alternating tread stairs. The International Building Code (IBC) only allows these for none emergency egress areas, think roof hatch access. They are still installed today however they are more expensive than a ladder so they don’t get used often.
Yes, sometimes they are called "ship stairs". I work in a factory with a lot of them and don't hate them as much as I used to. Here's an example of them "done right" and are actually safe Home Page | Motion Savers®.
It's just a way for stairs to take up less of a footprint to achieve the same elevation change.
OP's post actually looks like a pretty creative solution to convert those ridiculously tall steps into better steps. I've been in lots of old houses with those tall steps, it's usually stairs leading to a 3rd floor attic.
OF COURSE they are not "code compliant". But the original steps without the boxes aren't up to code either. That's an old house. It'd be impossible to fit"normal stairs" in this space, look at that load-bearing header at the bottom. They weren't made like that through ignorance, incompetence, or maliciousness. They were made that way because that's the best of the bad options of making that top floor accessible.
The alternative to these "bad stairs" is no stairs at all, and to seal off the attic.
Everyone’s fun comments aside. I think those are called witch stairs. They were in older times cause supposedly “witches can’t climb these stairs” or something like that
I think that’s what it is. I might be mistaken. But that’s what I’m thinking they are.
My dad used to cop half racks of Blitz Weinhard beer at the local distributor dock sales for half a dozen bucks, provided he filled the back of the 85 Cherokee, which he most assuredly did. Then, back at the crib, it was 7 year old me, chop chop, unload them beers, most ricky-tick.
The house had an amazing 70s wooden spiral staircase down the middle, safe on the O.D. but as you decreased in radius, the steeper it got, as any idiot understands. Or .. at least understood later.
No time to waste.
Fuckin GI Joe is on at 4, there's no goddamn DVR, there's no YouTube, watch that shit on your UHF Magnavox or miss it forever. That means double time, triple stack the 12 packs of bottles and haul ass down to the basement to pile 'em up.
Haste makes waste, I guess, because ain't nobody getting GI Joe after I slipped and ate shit with 36 bottles of Blitz on stair 6, soaking the carpet with suds and to this day the 95838th generation of wolf spiders probably have innate fetal alcohol syndrome, walking all weird, 34 eyes too close together, rumbling around like a genetic rubik cube.
OP, does this staircase actually meet building codes, locally?
Nationally?
2nd Q:
Why no 2nd handrail, on the right?
The pipe handrail on the left is extremely narrow; adding a duplicate on the right, would not greatly narrow the walking area, but WOULD improve safety.
A right hand grip as U start down, would be helpful.
Legally speaking, this is classified as a ladder in the USA. Fun fact!
I don't believe it can be an egress route for fire code in most places. If you have concerns about it and want to piss off your landlord, ask the fire Marshal about it
This looks like those funhouse stairs where each side moves up and down alternately.
I’d give myself 3 months before catastrophic injury. What exactly are they trying to accomplish here that normal steps don’t? They don’t even look aesthetically or architecturally nice.
My friend lived in an ancient house with stairs like these. I helped her move out. Never again, fuck that, oh my god. Lots of stuff happened during that move but carrying a cat tree down those stairs was the worst goddamn thing.
These are called witches stairs or something like that. A lot of very old (like pre-19th century) homes in New England have them. Or had them. I think they were used where it was too narrow and steep for regular stairs and you couldn't turn sideways or something like that.
That’s a Santos-Dumont staircase. (The same guy who invented the airplane). It was designed so you could build a stair at a much steeper angle and still go up it without much effort
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u/jdehjdeh 22d ago
So I googled witches stairs because I wanted to learn more.
The website I found assured me that their use to "ward off witches" has been debunked.
So I guess witches can just come and fuck us up no matter what floor we're on.