Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

"Can't place stairs inside of foundation."

Hi. :-)

I'm building a replica of the Landgraab Chateau for my legacy family, and, since it is taking me generations to complete, I've only done sections at a time. I've already placed the ground floor, which is where I've run into trouble with staircases to the basement.

Since the house is on a foundation, I put the little 2-3 step staircase down to the ground level, and then I put in the basement. But now it won't let me place a staircase, because the stairs are "inside a foundation." So, I DESTROYED all the foundation that was nearby. I mean, I DESTROYED it. It's now just bare ground. And the game STILL won't let me put the staircase to the basement in, because, I guess, there once was a foundation there, even though IT'S NOW TOTALLY GONE.

Arg!

Are there any cheats to place staircases? I'm tearing my hair out!

Comments

  • SketchElderSketchElder Posts: 3,517 New Member
    edited December 2010
    Try moveObjects. Don't know whether it will work.
    moveObjects on
  • CrescentMoonPyeCrescentMoonPye Posts: 2,080 Member
    edited January 2011
    ~Halle_M, I'm having the EXACT same problem. Plus it keeps complaining about some wall that isn't even there.
    'moveobjects on' doesn't affect stairs [or other Build Mode structures] so that doesn't work.

    We need help. Does anyone have links to tutorials or have any practical experience getting these stairs in? There has to be a way...

    Halle, if I find anything out myself, I'll be back to tell you how I did it.

    Complaint: Why would EA allow foundations, create a thing for making basements, and then not create something that allows basements in houses with foundations? It's stupid really.

    edit: blunote00 has some links in this thread
  • romagi1romagi1 Posts: 1,227
    edited January 2011
    I do not know why but on some lots if there ever was a foundation I could never place the stair.

    On other lots you have to keep deleting foundation until it will finally let you place the stairs. I usually head for an exterior wall.
  • KarinLKarinL Posts: 3,989 Member
    edited January 2011
    This is what usually works for me - I hope I can explain it right, it's a bit convoluted... :mrgreen:

    I start by determining exactly where I want my stairs to be. Then I place a basement big enough to fit the stairs. Remember that you will need to place a short staircase from your foundation to ground level later!

    Next thing I do is delete all the foundation where the stairs should be, and then one block more on all sides - so that's 5 blocks for the stairs and the landing, and when you go all around, it's a total gap of 3x7.

    Then I place an ordinary wall all around where I want my stairs to go. Usually a 'room' of 5x1 is enough. You can place stairs from that foundation-less room into the basement.

    Sometimes I have to delete one more row of blocks behind the landing and pull out the wall, so the 'room' is actually 6x1 (for some reason I sometimes get the 'blocked by wall' error, but not every time...)

    Remove the wall, replace the foundation where you can, and place a short staircase from the foundation down to the landing of your basement stairs - otherwise Sims can't get to them.

    I wish I could take pictures, but I can't get at my game disks right now...
  • CrescentMoonPyeCrescentMoonPye Posts: 2,080 Member
    edited January 2011
    ~KarinL, that was helpful. I wish I would have seen your post before I went experimenting to make mine work. :| :P
    I think I went about mine backwards.
    I removed foundation area where I wanted the stairs to go, determined the depth needed for the basement and leveled the floor over to stairs area,
    screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
    ...then used CFE cheat to drop the foundation to the basement level.

    The stairs automatically dropped all the way to the foundation bottom when I replaced them on the house-level floor.I used the 'moveobjects on' cheat to place a door in the foundation wall at top&bottom...
    screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
    screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
    ...and to put stuff in the basement since it still complains that it's not a basement. But my sims can use the stairs/basement stuff with no problem, so I don't care if I have to use the cheat occasionally to move things.


    Edits:added pics
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • lostintwilightlostintwilight Posts: 109 New Member
    edited March 2011
    The "stairs within the walls" trick worked for me. Many thanks!
  • Lennora19Lennora19 Posts: 1
    edited September 2011
    Such a simple fix...Thank you so much for posting! My house now has a basement!! :D
  • deucidedeucide Posts: 6
    edited October 2011
    im having this problem, my lot does not , nor has it ever had a foundation on it. keeps telling me cant place in a foundation. doesnt matter what i do, wont let me place the stairs
  • simplesimssimplesims Posts: 366 New Member
    edited November 2011
    Is ther a video for this that explains this cause the written intrustions are confusing.

  • SerghSergh Posts: 4
    edited May 2012
    Hello there I had the same problem intill I saw a house that had a basement with a foundation and after playing with it for a while I found a solution.

    The house is at 12 Bogaard Lane in Bridgeprot (The Old and New Glam)

    what you do is with any foundatoin first build the basement then add the stair case that goes to the "first floor"next made the foundation arround the stairs after that you have to add a smaller stair case to be usuable and that should work.

    Enjoy
  • Carolineff99Carolineff99 Posts: 1 New Member
    It took me a couple minutes but! I was having the trouble of placing stairs from the basement to ground level, the message "can not be placed inside foundation kept coming up which made no sense to me. There did use to be foundation but I took it all out. I went looking up about it and found NOTHING helpful. Just people talking about how to get stairs threw foundation which wasn't helping me. But it seems some of you also had the problem of just getting it to ground level in places foundation used to be. After a LOT of experimenting I discovered if you go to terrain tools, then flatten lot, it will forget pretty much about the old foundation and you are than able to place stairs. Hope this is helpful to anyone else who comes across this problem.
  • WikkedhunyWikkedhuny Posts: 1 New Member
    I rarely build a typical basement. I just go down one level and using the normal tools to make a normal room, I make the entire level a huge room. Then I figure out where I need to add my stairs and it works fairly easy. After that I split it up and design it any way I want. I've done it this way since I started playing Sims because I couldn't figure out how to make a proper basement in the beginning. I obviously know now but I still prefer my old way.

    I hope this helps someone 😊
  • NushnushganayNushnushganay Posts: 9,418 Member
    simplesims wrote: »
    Is ther a video for this that explains this cause the written intrustions are confusing.

    Same. If there were a youtube tutorial someone could do on this it would really help. The foundations and no basement ever problem really stinks. I end up having to have homes with no front steps, just a door opening flat to the ground which is crazy unrealistic where I live and makes a New England house impossible to build.
    Racism is EVERYONE's fight #BLM #StopAsianHate
    Let's make Liberty and Justice For All a reality.

    xicwqMCm.jpg
  • AnisEB97AnisEB97 Posts: 21 Member
    If this help, try to outline with walls on the level floor where the stairs are going to be beneath. Seems to help a lot with placing the stairs without the foundation seemingly getting in the way for no reason.
  • EA_MakoEA_Mako Posts: 846 EA Community Manager
    Hey folks, I'll be locking this thread to avoid further necro-posting as it's quite old.

    Feel free to create a new thread if you'd like to start up the discussion again, thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Return to top