My friend and I had a run in with some stairs in an explore last weekend and I just wanted to share this with you all over here as a reminder. My friend, Doug, went through a landing on stairs and was pretty much stuck there after I had already gotten up the stairs. He got caught on the middle post on the floor that kept him from falling all the way through and becoming stuck in a stairwell with no exit. He was following my lead on the stairs which was step alongside the edges where it's most secured and came up after I cleared them. The combination of cutting corners and cheap labor led to the stairs not having any support on them what so ever. The Reddit post is over here http://www.reddit....en_exploring_they/, along with some friendly comments that some of the newer explorers may be interested in reading.

1.

I've fallen through floors twice and I can totally sympathize with your buddy's plight.
Be careful out there, folks. This hobby is more dangerous than most.

Had a few close calls as well. Cheap lumber and decades of water make bad caca...

Bring a boogie board next time, when that shit collapses slide back to the bottom safely like a fucking B0$$. Derp.

Stairs like that have killed people. I think Radical Ed can verify that somebody died on a set of stairs like that at ByBerry years ago.

Yeah, the stairs there were steel too, but they were located in stair-towers built with modern methods decades after the original two buildings were built and the roof leaked really bad and rusted the stairs out. There was so much dirt, crud and debris on them, they looked sturdy as anything but they collapsed under him and he broke his back, killing him. He was a construction/demolition estimator too and knew his shit. You can never be too confident in old construction. Another friend of mine had a stairway at the Trenton Kirk collapse under him and he took a beating from that. It blew all the breath from his lungs and he hurt for a month.

I've put a few legs through floors, and fallen through to my upper thigh before. Those caused some nasty cuts and bruises, but I also know how lucky I was, and how bad it could have been.

Never assume a floor/stair/ladder is entirely safe. Like Radical Ed said, just because it looks safe doesn't mean it is safe.

I just send my gimp along ahead of me to test these things out.

The hell? Are those stairs GLUED TO THE WALLS or something?!?

I've only ever had this problem with exterior stairs, but this is quite the wake-up call. Thanks for the announcement.

F*** man that is scary as hell. Is your friend okay?

The other story in the comments is even more terrifying (http://np.reddit.c...a_calculated_risk/)




It always scares the hell out of me how really old houses have nothing but a thin sheet of wood as the front/back porch that separates you from free falling onto the basement floor.

Geez, that's crazy scary. Luckily that hasn't happened to me yet, and hopefully it wont. Caution is a must in my book.

Thats my biggest fear, only time I encountered something like this was an old school with the fire escape stairs completely rusted and hanging off.

Man, what a wake up call. Will be sure to exercise extra caution.

Tread lightly and always always ALWAYS hold the handrail! This has saved me a few times before.

1.


I had a similar experience with this location. All the floors were like this, You could see down to the next level. Luckily none of us fell or busted through, but it was still sketchy.

Towanda from msp fell 20+ feet through some stairs onto concrete and broke a few vertebrae. He's expected to make a full recovery, but I hear it's been very slow.

Any advice to the less experienced? We've spent most of our time in old houses, and largely stayed away from the interior of structures with obvious holes wearing through the floors, but I still worry, and I know that my lack of an incident so far is at least partially the responsibility of luck. My partner and I are both fairly small, which also helps, but every structure has its threshold and it's only a matter of time until I meet one that is below my weight.

Are there subtler signs than obvious massive rot eating through the floors, or good methods of feeling a room out from the safety of an edge or window frame that any of y'all can recommend? I usually go with slight pressure into tentative steps with my weight on them, and if nothing is wobbling/bending/buckling proceed. I also try to make sure we're not too close together in the room or standing on the same pieces of flooring, if possible. Probably that doesn't do much but it makes me feel better.

1.

MY buddy fell through these stairs a few weeks ago. Messed up his back and received a bunch of cuts and bruises. Three people went up before him and he got lucky it was not a far fall. Moral of the story, you never know.