How to Rotate Stairs (and more)

Building multistory builds requires you to place either stairs or ladders into your build. Placing stairs and moving them around can be confusing because there are multiple ways to move, rotate, and manipulate staircases. You can rotate stairs around to get them into your desired placement.

To rotate your stairs you can click either "<" or ">" while placing them to rotate them 90 degrees to either the left or right. You can also rotate the stairs after you place them using the same keys. If you want to learn how to place stairs, rotate them, change the shape, and more keep reading below.

How to place stairs

To place stairs you will need to go to the build menu and select the stairs leading up to the porch on the small house in the build menu. You will see multiple stair options to choose from, pick the style of stairs you wish to place. When you first move the stairs to the lot the default height will be one floor high.

You will notice when you are trying to place stairs inside your house that they will be highlighted either green or red. If they are red then that means they are intersecting with something that prevents you from placing them in that specific location. If they are highlighted green you can place the stairs in that specific spot by left clicking the stairs.

How to move stairs

Once you place stairs down you cannot move them like other objects. If you click on the stairs you will see multiple icons and arrows pop up. There will be a small menu at the top with four different options, arrows on either side of the stairs, and arrows in front of the stairs pointing inward.

To move the stairs after you have first placed them you will first click on the stairs. Then in the menu at the top of the stairs you will need to click on the icon with four arrows point in each direction. Once you click on that you will see a translucent version of the stairs that you can move around. This helps you picture where the new location would be and once you select the spot the translucent stairs you have been moving will turn solid and the old stairs will disappear.

How to rotate stairs

Once you place your stairs you also have the ability to rotate them in a 90 degree angle either to the left or right. To rotate stairs you first need to click on the stairs to make the menu above the stairs appear. Then you will click on either the curved arrow on the right or left of the menu that appears above the stairs. You can also select your stairs and then use either "<" or ">" on your keyboard to rotate them left or right 90 degrees.

One of two things will happen depending on the location of the stairs placement. If there is room on either side of the stairs to rotate them 90 degrees where they won't be interesting any walls or rooflines then the stairs will automatically rotate into place.

If however, rotating the stairs will cause them to intersect with a wall or other in a placement that would make your stairs turn red you will have to move the rotated stairs in an appropriate spot. In this instance it will be similar to moving the stairs, you will have a translucent set of stairs rotated 90 degrees appear and you can place them in a new spot.

How to change the stair shape

In addition to rotating stairs 90 degrees you can also rotate portions of the stairs to create unique shapes. The best way to do this is to place the stairs outside of the house and then shape them to your desired design and then place them inside the house.

To shape your stairs you use the block with two arrows pointing straight to the stairs to rotate the bottom portion of the stairs either right or left 90 degrees. Click on those arrows and then move your mouse either right or left to move the bottom portion 90 degrees either right or left and create a small landing where the stairs bend.

Once you make your first rotation you will notice a few more moving arrows appear. One pointing straight up and down at a 45 degree angle at the landing, another block with two arrows now pointing towards the lower portion of the stairs, and lastly a circular arrow at the very bottom of the stairs.

The 45 degree arrows pointing up and down at the landing will change the height of that particular landing. You can move this either higher up to the top of the stair case or lower to the ground.

The new block with two 90 degree arrows will add another landing similar to the first movement mentioned above.

The new arrows at the bottom of the stairs will rotate the lower portion of the stair case. You can use this to move the stairs back to their original shape, or move the lower portion so it is flush with the stairs and makes a wrap around staircase.

Once you shape the stairs to the desired shape, you will move the stair case the same way as mentioned above. The stairs will highlight both red and green depending on whether it is an appropriate place to put the stairs.

How to place stairs on porches

While stairs come in a default height of one floor high, you can use them to lead up to a small porch area. To place stairs leading up to a porch you will purchase a normal flight of stairs from the build menu. Then rotate them using the "<" or ">" keys so that the stairs are facing towards your porch.

If you want to learn how to build a porch first, you can learn how porch tools work and how to add some depth to your builds by utilizing porches in my guide here.

Then you will need to move the front of the stairs to the porch and it will automatically shorten the length of the stairs so it lead up to the porch. To move them you want to hover your curser over the first tile of the porch. Then you will see the stairs appear and they will be even with the height of your porch and flush with the ground level.

Make sure if you are using a fence that you either have a gate or an opening to line the stairs up with. If you put stairs on a tile with a fence the fence will disappear and leave you with an opening in the middle of your fence.

There are two styles you can choose from when placing stairs on your porch. You can have a one tile landing piece or you can have the stairs flush with the porch. If you want a landing piece move the stairs slightly away from the porch to create it, or if you want to get rid of the landing piece move the stairs closer to the porch.

How to place rails on stairs

Placing rails of stairs is pretty easy and most rails have a matching fence to help you style your landing to match. To find the rails in build mode you will click on the small railing next to the stairs on the picture of the house in the build menu.

Then choose the railing that you wish to place. You will see your cursor turn into a small triangle with a miniature railing. Move your cursor to the stairs you wish to place the railing on, and the railing will generate onto the stairs. You do not have to manually place any railings.

How to place ladders

Ladders were first introduced in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle and after that pack was released the creators also included ladders into the base game. Giving us a total of two ladder styles to choose from. You can find ladders by looking under the stairs menu in build mode, you will see in the left column a small staircase with three steps and a small ladder underneath it. Choose the small ladder and you will see two options if you have Eco Lifestyle.

Choose your desired ladder and then you can move them just like stairs where the appropriate placement will be highlighted in green and inappropriate placements will be highlighted in red not allowing you to place them.

When placing ladders you will need to consider how you want you want your sim to exit the ladder. You will notice that there are three green arrows at the top of the ladder indicated directions your sim may exit the ladder when they get to the top.

The can either exit forward (over the rungs of the ladder) or to the left or right, they cannot exit the back part of the ladder. This does allow you to place the ladder in a corner next to two walls, so long as one exit is available for your sims to use.

 

Another thing to keep in mind when placing ladders is the railing style you'd like to have. All ladders have long railings that stick up from the floor. If you place a ladder in the middle of a room you will have two long post sticking out and wrapping back down to the floor. You can also place a ladder next a wall and have the ladder look like it is anchored onto the wall rather than two post coming out of the floor.

How to move ladders

If you want to move a ladder you can do so similar to how you move stairs. You will first click on the ladder and you will see a menu pop up at the top. Click the same four arrow button in the top center of the menu. A translucent ladder will appear for you to place, once you decide where you want it and move the ladder into your new desired place the ladder will become solid and the old placement will disappear.