The stairs to my basement are dangerous. Several people who have come to visit have stumbled on the stairs. What might be wrong?

As smart as we think we are there is one thing that can fool us all. A poorly constructed set of stairs will trip up the best of us. The problem with stairs is the brain quickly sets a pattern of the rise and run and moves our legs up and down to match the stairs. When the pattern changes our brain doesn’t always get the message and the end result is a trip and fall. It is for this reason that the building code stipulates strict rules about how different the rise and run of the stairs is allowed to be. A small difference of less than an inch is often enough to create a disaster. If your stairs are not properly built I suggest you replace them if possible before someone gets hurt again.