At the crossroads of architecture and home design lie stairs. They serve an important and practical function and they can serve as important design elements, but as this aptly named Facebook group loves to point out, they can also be downright deadly without the appropriate safety considerations.

Honestly, it takes some talent and creativity to make stairs that are as unsafe as some of the masterpieces on this list. Some seem downright uncomfortable while others present clear tripping hazards or even fool the eyes into hiding individual steps. Let us know which ones you think you’d trip on in the comments.

#1 I Just Fell Down These In My Mind And It Sounded Like Someone Hitting A Gong In A Very Uncoordinated Way

Image credits: Victor Merriam

#2 Do They Know That Wheelchair Users Don’t Normally Bunny Hop?

Image credits: David Harvey

#3 When The House Lights Go Down, Good Luck

Image credits: Arlo Dykstra

Stairs may seem deceptively simple at first. How hard is it to design a set of stairs? Just make a bunch of steps and you’ve got it, right? Not quite. In addition to whatever architectural regulations there may be, there are some basic geometric rules that ought to be followed.

#4 Left, Picture Of Stairs From Top-The Wood Planks Run Parallel To Stair Edges Seemingly Forming A Flat Surface. Right, Steps Viewed From Bottom After Fall

Image credits: Stanna Sims Edwards

#5 The Staircase You Take An Enemy Down

Image credits: Greta Peterson

#6 I Wanna See Someone Try This In Heels

Image credits: Maria Lewandowska

The ideal rise and run for a single normal step is 7” rise and 11” run (~18cm x ~25cm). However, other ratios are possible for other types of steps. There are tons of sites online that break down the rules of stair design, and that’s all before you get into the fancy ideas highlighted in this post.

#7 “Stairs” Designed By Francesco Librizzi. It’s Really More Of A Treacherous Ladder. I’d Consider Going Up These. Would Not Be Interested In Going Down Them

Image credits: Eve Bensky

#8 A Set Of Steep Stairs Each Step Alternates So That You Can Only Really Put One Foot On A Step At A Time. It’s Also Nearly A Straight Down Angle

Image credits: Martin Ellis Everett

#9 An Unusual Cuboidal Stairway In The Little Village San Augustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico (Vernacular Architecture) They Are Made Out Of Red Stone And In Six Alternating Columns. The Ankle Twister

Image credits: Nanners Foster

Fortunately, most jurisdictions do have some sort of requirements for stairs, and we suspect that they haven’t been followed in many of these examples. In addition to rise over run requirements, step and stair regulations may determine banister shape and height, step edge shapes, step layout, rotation characteristics for steps that turn, and other factors – all of which can determine how likely it is for a set of steps to cause accidents.

#10 My Shins Hurt Looking At This

Image credits: Ria Josephine

#11 Yeah, That Is A One-Story Home For Me

Image credits: Brad Blackwell

#12 The ‘Stairs Of Death’ Are A Section Of Stone Steps Built By The Incas, Which Lead To The Top Of Huayna Picchu, In Peru, Which Is One Of The Steep Mountains That Overlooks Machu Picchu

The peak of the mountain is 2,693 metres above sea level and has Inca ruins on top.
You couldn’t pay me a billion dollars to walk up that

Image credits: SuperSoul Ever

#13 Nope. I Can’t Believe They’re Wearing Socks

Image credits: Kahli-Ann Douglas

#14 If You Fall, You’ll Have A Lot Of Time To Think About Who Designed This Trap!

Image credits: Bia Cambraia

#15 Oh No, I’ll Jump, Thanks

Image credits: Bec Collier

#16 Ventilation Grill At The Bottom Of The Enclosure Suggests That Installing Air Conditioning Was More Desired Than A Usable Stairway. Or These Are Cat Stairs

Image credits: Catherine Tait

#17 This Made My Stomach Swoop

Image credits: Adrianne Robbennolt

#18 The Chair There So People Can Sit And Watch The Injuries

Image credits: Brad Blackwell

#19 It’s Beautiful

Image credits: Maurice Clopton

#20 Do These Count? They Are In My Son’s Room Btw, And I Quite Like Them

Image credits: Marek Wói

#21 Honey What’s Wrong, You Haven’t Gone Down The Stairerslide Today

Image credits: Victor Merriam

#22 Free Floating Apparition, Stairs Designed By A Sadist Or Art Installation? Maybe All Of The Above

Image credits: Alison Malcolm

#23 Don’t Roll An Ankle Or Anything

Image credits: Joanna Nicole

#24 The ‘V’ In The Design Is For Very Dangerous

Image credits: Melinda Owen Ramsey

#25 Everyday You Can Rearrange The Shelves!

Image credits: Kuan-Tsung Sammy Wu

#26 I Can Already Feel The Concussion

Image credits: Greta Peterson

#27 Imy Online Civil Engineer Major Is Starting To Pay Off, Another Satisfied Customer

Image credits: Dario Ferrari Fuenzalida

#28 This Stairwell In Rajasthan, India Inside A Well Is The Deepest In The World. It’s Called Chand Baori And Was Made By Slaves In The City Of Jaipur

Image credits: Alison Malcolm

#29 Expert Difficulty Level Stairs

Image credits: Chris Hayes

#30 Love My New Apartment But These Are The Stairs Leading Up To The Loft. They Feel More Like A Ladder Because Of How Steep They Are. Don’t Get Me Started On How We’re Going To Move Furniture Up There

Image credits: Beth Carmen

#31 Sthairs

Image credits: Madison Elaine Kruse

#32 Don’t Ask Me How, But I Haven’t Busted My Butt On These Yet

Image credits: Dianne C. Westfall

#33 It Looks Like A Human Spine To Me

Image credits: Móni Barajas

#34 Stairs For People Who Aren’t Afraid To Die And Who Enjoy The Nauseating Feeling Of Vertigo

Image credits: Devin McLachlan

#35 I Work In Lighthouses. These Aren’t The Worst I’ve Come Across. They Lull You Into A False Sense Of Safety Thinking They Are Stairs But They Need To Be Used Like A Ladder. Can Barely Fit Your Heels On The Step If Facing Downwards

Image credits: anon

#36 It’s Certainly One Of The Stairs Of All Time

Image credits: Halil Burak Memiş

#37 Taking Your Life Into Your Hands

Image credits: Melissa Morgan

#38 Imagine Having To Run Through These During A Fire

Image credits: Amanda Webster

#39 Imagine Being Half Asleep And Just Needing To Pee

Image credits: Leah Pearson

#40 Wider Set Of Stairs With No Actual Handrailings And Thinner Set Of Stairs With A Handrail That Nobody Could Fit Through

Image credits: Tristan Lewis

#41 Stone Stairs With Glass Handrail Leading To A Steep Drop

Image credits: Stefan Eckel

#42 Only A Stair In The Loosest Sense, A Clean White Tiled Ordinary-Looking Men’s Bathroom Has An Unusual Vertical Access Method

The first two urials are placed at normal height for your average male genitalia. However, the third pee depositary looms above 2 inches from the ceiling. It’s bowl is, almost defiant, orientated towards the ceiling. Truly only a giant whose legs are 90% of his height would be able to take advantage of such a piece of plumbing unaided. What vertical assistance is available to our average man? A staircase perhaps? a ladder? Leading up to the bowl are five red rock climbing hand holds. The lowest is placed at heights that maybe a toddler could access and the tallest one at perhaps at head height. At the urinal no such had holds exist besides the gas heater pipes. What type of mutlilegged creature can access such a waste disposal method boggles the mind. Perhaps the building developers had spiderman as their target market. 

Image credits: Samuel Cooper

#43 Two Levels Of Stairs In What Looks To Be A Highly Trafficked Area, Where The Center Railing Connects To The Left Side Of The Second Set Of Stairs. Thus Completely Blocking Off Entry From The Left Side Of The Stairs

Image credits: Annekah Marx McClinton

#44 Specially Engineered To Promote Faceplants

Image credits: Joe Fyfe Hardy

#45 Me Designing My Sims House

Image credits: Catmin's Anticapitalist Treehouse of Solidarity

#46 One Way Ticket To A Stubbed Toe

Image credits: Amanda Rall

#47 Go Off Tim Burton

Image credits: Kimberly Marie

#48 Found These Stairs In A ”luxury” House Listing In Croatia. The Price For This House Is 1.2m €!

Image credits: anon

#49 Sudden Case Of Wall

Image credits: Kalle Tahkolahti

#50 A Staircase Passing Through A Counter… And Using The Top Of The Counter As A Step

Image credits: Matheus Martins de Moura

#51 A Set Of Stairs That Leads Up Into The Second Floor But Also Partially Leads Up To Nothingness As The Houses Walls Were Built Into It. Perfect For A Fairy Shelf

Image credits: Olivia Hill

#52 The Backrooms

Image credits: ᴀ ᴍ ᴍ ᴏ ɴ ɪ ᴀ . ᴄ ʟ ᴏ ᴜ ᴅ ᴤ

#53 A Staircase Into A Loft Conversion We Saw In A House We Viewed Recently. I Went Up And Down This While I Was Super Hungover ??

Image credits: Charis Chapman

#54 I Live In A House Built Sometime Before 1855. These Are The Only Stairs From The First Floor To The Second Floor

Image credits: Dani Elizabeth

#55 On A Real Estate Listing In My Area

Image credits: Ezra Dogwood

#56 This Hurts My Brain

Image credits: Enrico Ruggeri

#57 Oh Well

Image credits: Genious Gabu

#58 Stair Designed By People With Two Feet. I Really Hate These Things At My Gym

Image credits: Roberto Ruiz

#59 Stairs With Similarly Colored Tiles, No Hand Rail, And A Glass Wall… In A Beach Town Where Our Feet Were Regularly Wet. Almost Died A Few Times

Image credits: Morgan Lindsay Hannigan

#60 How?

Image credits: Stephanie Rimer

#61 Granny’s Teeth On The Cobb, Lyme Regis UK

Image credits: Jenner Fer Elizabeth

#62 Okay So I Know That Technically These Stairs Are Designed Precisely To Keep You Alive But Still

Image credits: Maggie DeMeulmeester

#63 A Stair Where Each Steap Is A Slab Of Glass Rigidly Bolted To The Wall. No Handrail, No Non-Slip Insert, Just Glass

Image credits: Alessandro Vacca

#64 My Wife Took This Picture From The Loft Of Her Airbnb

Image credits: Eva-Lise Carlstrom

#65 The Only Surviving Sunken Bath House Designed By Sir John Soane

Image credits: Regency History

#66 That’s The Gateway To Hell

Image credits: Laurie Lingel

#67 A Castle We Visited In Brittany Last Week

Image credits: Sarah Jane

#68 A Witch Lives There. I Feel It

Image credits: Rodrigo Franco

#69 Water Closets Designed By People Who Aren’t Afraid To Die

Image credits: Amy Currin

#70 Yikes! This Is A Finished Office Space For Rent

Image credits: Kimberly Dahlquist

#71 When Aesthetics Lead To Bad Design Hazards

Image credits: AstroNorm Marigza

#72 Painted Outdoor Staircase In Bucharest, Romania, Made To Look Like A Waterfall, With Mossy Rocks Included

Image credits: Phattay Terrell

#73 Look At It This Lovely Structure. Maybe A Little Bit Dirty But Hé Looks So Innocent

Image credits: Iris Wijngaarden

#74 Any Thoughts Anyone?

Image credits: Rònan Stewart

#75 Stairs. But The One Third From Top Is Going To Kill You

Image credits: Morgan Lindsay Hannigan

#76 I Just Want To Send A Slinky Down It

Image credits: Richard Vautrin-Hickam

#77 Osha Who?

Image credits: Jeanette Marie Coppinger

#78 9/10 Aesthetic. 10/10 Death By Stairs

Image credits: Emma Beaumont

#79 They Desperately Tried To Make This All Work!

Image credits: Becky Robbins

#80 N Steep Outdoor Staircase Leading Down An Equally Deep Hill, Into The Dark Abyss

Image credits: Autumn Owens

#81 Love A Good Repair Job

Image credits: Chase Howell

#82 And If You Miss The Trash Bins, You Possibly Get Impaled By Those Parking Pole Things

Image credits: Sasky Magiary

#83 That’s Pretty Freaking Cool. Albeit, I Would Fall Down And Die

Image credits: Victoria Dovey Spicer

#84 Platform 9 3/4’s

Image credits: Nick Mitchell