Talk:Thirteenth floor

Misc
There was said to have been a building in the Chicago Fire that burned down on October 13th 1871(the Warwick Hotel). I believe this also happened to be a friday. None survived. Could this be an origin of the superstition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.248.75.176 (talk) 21:47, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

This article has a link to "Floor 13", however, Floor 13 is a re-direct page. Can we fix this?? 66.245.17.129 14:55, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * User_talk:Alerante
 * Fixed. [ alerante | &#x201c;&#x201d; 20:38, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC) ]
 * Fixed. [ alerante | &#x201c;&#x201d; 20:38, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC) ]

There is always a Thirteenth Floor
The floor is always there if the building is tall enough. The 13th floor might be named by a number such as 12, 13, 14, 15, or even 16 depending on the country:

1st 2nd  3rd  4th  5th ... 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th

1   2    3    4    5   ... 10   11   12   13   14

1   2    3    4    5   ... 10   11   12   14   15

1   2    3    5    6   ... 11   12   13   15   16

1   2    3    5    6   ... 11   12   15   16   17

0   1    2    3    4   ...  9   10   11   12   13

0   1    2    3    4   ...  9   10   11   12   14

0   1    2    3    5   ... 10   11   12   13   15

0   1    2    3    5   ... 10   11   12   15   16

etc
 * No, the 13th floor is often incorrectly numbered 14 or 12A as mentioned in the article, due to superstitious bullshit being taken so seriously. Idiocyncracy? Sure is!! What a joke! This is superstition taken way too far, and way too seriously! Are people that irrational that they won't have a 13th floor in a building?!! 202.161.13.218 08:51, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes. 72.200.151.13 (talk) 23:01, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Of course there's a 13th floor; that's where the Channel 37 newsroom is located! They try to cover and keep this secret so that their cross-town rivals at Channel 1 can't infiltrate the place. I read all about it on example.org and they're pretty reliable about this sort of thing. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 15:59, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

The Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa Bay Convention Center has a 13th Floor and it's clearly marked as such. R.G. (talk) 00:54, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

What if...
the building that was added recently had a 15th floor?? Would they number it 13 or 14?? 66.245.102.55 22:47, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

Well I never knew this thing about missing the 13th floor in the US. Amazing. And you call us Brits crazy. Mintguy (T) 00:55, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

You are crazy. You would have a hard time finding a building in the U.S. without a thirteenth floor.

Here in Australia there are buildings without a 13th floor. THAT is what I call crazy. I really can't understand why they take superstitious garbage so seriously!! 202.161.13.218 12:11, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Thirteenth row
... ever been on a plane with a thirteenth row? :)
 * Yes, many times! ;-) Double sharp (talk) 23:14, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Almost identical paragraphs
From the article:
 * In Hong Kong some buildings would omit 4th, 14th, 24th, etc floor as the number 4 sounds like death in Cantonese, but the rule is varied.

(...)
 * Similarly, new buildings in some parts of China omit the fourth (as well as the 14th, 24th, etc.) floors, as the figure "four" sounds like "death" in Mandarin, the predominant dialect for the country, and most other Chinese dialects.

Pretty much the same info, but which of these two paragraphs should be gone? Does this just occur in Hong Kong or in China? Does it sound like death in Cantonese or in Mandarin? --Conti|&#9993; 19:12, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

The pronunciation of "four" and "death" are very similar in both Cantonese and in Mandarin. Near Homonyms are used in informal conversation quite frequently in Cantonese. Often near homonyms are regarded as omens.

I doubt that buildings in Hong Kong would skip any floor with 4, given the little amount of area allowed to build the high-rises needed to house that many people in such a small piece of land. Government housing often goes up to 40 stories now, and a decade ago they had not skipped any floors, despite the fact that the older generations are more superstitious. Although I left 10 years ago I have not recall anyone telling me that it is indeed the case. However, not all variation with "four" makes a coherent "curse", if you will. "Four" sounds like death. "Fourteen" ("ten" "four" if you want to be phonetic about it) sounds like must die, and "Twenty four" sounds like prone to die. Instead of skipping floors, it would be harder to find people with high risk jobs (such as emergency service, construction) living in such floors. In a culural clash against "thirteenth floor", said people with high risk jobs prefer "three", "thirteen" and "twenty three". "three" sounds like live, or reproduce, depending on context; "thirteen" sounds like must live, and "twenty three" sounds like likely to live. It should be now clear that the 34th cloor does not contain the same meaning as the thirteenth floor, and I supposed not regarded as some sort of bad omen.

Yeah, I agree that needs some sourcing. Many identical sounds in Chinese dialects represent completely different words. While the word for "four" may sound superficially similar to the word for death, so does the Chinese word for government department, and I don't see any government departments changing their name. Additionally, while the sounds are the same, the Hanzi are completely different. 59.38.32.5 (talk) 00:46, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I live in Hong Kong and I can tell you that it is indeed the case that the buildings skip the floors with 4. (Even with block number actually. In the estate that I'm living in, for example, we don't have 4/F or Block 4, 14, 24, etc.) It should not noted that it has nothing to do with the limited area of land allowed to build houses here because the regulation only limits the height. You can skip all the floors with 4 but still build the number of floors that you plan as long as it is within the height limit. [26 June 2013] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.78.148.221 (talk) 07:36, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Anaheim Hilton relevant?
The only hotel I've been to that does have a 13th floor but not a 10th floor.This is because the room numbers are used in telephone numbers and dialing "1" and "0" has unwanted effects.--Louis E./le@put.com/12.144.5.2 21:59, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * The Intercontinental in New York City has a 13th floor; I am there right now. -Baphomet V (talk) 23:52, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Base Jumping
Why “particularly in reference to BASE jumping”? What's so special about base jumping that it gets a mention? --dahamsta 15:57, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * BASE jumpers may miscalculate the height of a building, thinking that it's higher than it actually is... however, I don't think that a BASE jumper wouldn't research a jump, and that one extra floor would make much of a difference to when he decides to pull the chord (unless the 13th floor has a height of something like 80 metres). I've never been BASE jumping so I can't make any qualified claims. Any experienced BASE jumpers know whether one floor would make much of a difference? 02:37, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
 * It might make some difference, particularly in a shorter building - if you were to jump off a "15 story" building that only really had 14 (or even 13 floors, depending on the numbering system) you'd have a pretty high chance of injuring yourself, but jumping from a 50 story building that floor won't make any difference at all. Far more dangerous is the habit of skipping 4s, as that building with "16" floors really only has 13, which makes a large difference. However, jumping off a building that short is very dangerous anyway. Most likely though, you'd not kill yourself by being off by 10 feet. It'd probably be more dangerous to a bungee jumper, who might make the wrong assumption about cord length. Titanium Dragon 11:51, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

French translation
I went to the French interwiki and copy-pasted the text into a section of http://dictionary.reference.com that allows you to translate languages into English. It appeared to talk mostly about a "13th stage". Why?? Georgia guy 00:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

'Etage' in French means both stage and floor. In English 'stage' used to mean 'floor' too, but this usage is now obsolete. --HappyDog 00:32, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

113th floor
What is about the 113th floor? --84.61.34.248 11:55, 28 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't think there are any American buildings that go that high. (Anyone who can prove me wrong feel free to let me know.) Georgia guy 23:14, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Sears Tower at 108 stories claims to be the tallest building in the US. Burj Dubai with 160 floors would now qualify, though. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 02:22, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Which countries?
Should this article have some information on which countries have a tradition of "skipping" the thirteenth floor? In Russian superstitions, the number 13 has no significance one way or the other, for instance. A lot of buildings in Toronto, Canada (where I now live) skip the 13th floor and I assume in America this is the case as well. What about other countries? Esn 06:42, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
 * In France, We usually have a 13th floor (I never see a missing floor). 152.81.12.56 15:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Examples of buildings with uninhabited Thirteenth floors?
One Candada Square is given as a linked example, but no information is provided in that wikipeida entry. Source? Can other examples be provided? (Surely there is a list of such things on a conspiracy theory site somewhere!)
 * Have added request for reference tag. 216.9.243.104 13:16, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi. When I was walking along Totenham court road in London, I notticed that Euston tower seemed to have a floor solely dedicated to pipes and airducts which are clearly visable through the row of windows. I then notticed that this was actually the 13th floor. Rather strange.81.156.34.204 16:30, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Machinery

 * Most buildings in the US that skip the 13th floor actually do have a thirteenth floor; the floor consists of the ventilation systems, heating and air conditioning, elevator controls, etc. It is logical to put the machinery somewhere around the 13th floor and because of the superstition, skiping floor 13 was reinforced; a floor is not skipped because of the number 13, it was merely decided to place the machinery floor on the thirteenth floor. I have no evidence for this, but if anyone else does, then put it in. Bredd13 23:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Pyongyang's Yanggakdo International Hotel supposedly has a secretive fifth floor which houses surveillance equipment used to spy on its Western clients. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.102.87.40 (talk) 14:10, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Truth of article
The article claims that there are lots of buildings in the U.S. without a thirteenth floor, even giving the impression that almost all buildings skip it. Yet I have lived in the U.S. for 23 years and have never once noticed a missing thirteenth floor. Perhaps I've just gone to the wrong buildings, but the article provides no evidence or references to convince me otherwise. It would be nice if somebody could either compile such references, or rewrite the article to say that it is a superstition without lots of evidence. Just because everybody knows buildings don't have thirteenth floors doesn't actually mean it's true. 140.77.241.11 17:54, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It is actually pretty rare; I've been in a few, but most buildings do have a 13th floor. Titanium Dragon 11:51, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Government Buildings
Every government building (of sufficient height) that I have seen HAS a thirteenth (so numbered) floor. LorenzoB 00:13, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Here's something interesting
In the Twilight Zone ride at disne, The ride starts with a "G" (Strange to have that in US) and goes to 12. You'd think a horror ride would have floor 13 -- PXK    T   /C  05:49, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

The ride does have 13 floors, the dial shows that it only goes to 12, but if you watch it closely the dial goes beyond 12. Also when on the ride, the numbers on the back of the doors go to 13.(71.165.156.108 (talk) 03:54, 30 September 2008 (UTC))

What is this sentence supposed to mean: "When on the elevator the doors have the numbers 13 on it, showing that the floor should not exist." (Jeffreyjoh (talk) 03:44, 29 December 2008 (UTC))

The above makes sense to me, but the two sentences in the article relating to the disney ride do not... is it just me?? 121.44.14.75 (talk) 08:19, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Specifics
"Based on an internal review of records, Dilip Rangnekar of Otis Elevators estimates that 85% of the buildings with elevators did not have a floor named the 13th floor.[2]"

The opening paragraph has this sentence, perhaps it should be specified for what countries this dominates in? Because I've yet to see a building without a 13th floor. 124.190.113.128 (talk) 10:52, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Ignorance is bliss
I think most superstitious people are just stupid or ignorant. I know a building with 14th floors and there is a 13th floor. So what? It's 21st century, not the Middle Ages. 78.130.136.199 (talk) 15:55, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Defying superstition
Should examples of buildings that have 13th floors be added to the article? For example, but I can't remember where I read this, the Empire State Building does have a 13th floor as it's builders were so confident that they would not give into the superstition. 98.179.184.37 (talk) 02:07, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

"Split-level apartments" section
I am condensing this section to a fraction of what it was. It was already flagged by someone else a month ago as giving excessive detail about a single example (in a small town in Ontario, Canada). Clearly this detail is neither helpful nor warranted. I have left the photo of the building in the article, but I don't object to someone else deleting it. It does not provide any visual help to understand the issue of split-level apartments, so it's presence in the article is questionable.Nojamus (talk) 17:36, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * There is an article on the building itself, Elrond College (Princess Towers), and you probably should have moved some of the info there (and left the link from the "split-level apartments" back to the building's articles linked) instead of simply deleting almost everything and unlinking the building name. As it stands, it really isn't clear why the space nominally 13 levels up would be accessed through the 12th floor the way this is written and there is no way to click directly to the building's page on-wiki for an explanation of what is a weird and non-standard design. Certainly the design does have drawbacks (one must take both an elevator and stairs to get to most apartments, this isn't an effective use of building space and aesthetically... uh... no, won't go there... 66.102.83.61 (talk) 13:49, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * If you think the information belongs on another page, then put it there. What's on this page seems clear enough to me. -- Pemilligan (talk) 03:37, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Possible coatrack
I removed the coatracked section but the entire clip is below if you feel that the whole thing belongs in the article. To me it looks like a coatrack.

/* begin clip */ Special designations[edit] Other buildings will often use names for certain floors to avoid giving a floor on the building the number 13 designation. One such example is the Radisson Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where the 13th floor is called the Pool floor. Another example is the Sheraton on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where the 13th floor consists solely of a restaurant. A third example is the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, where the 13th floor is the Mezzanine floor. The most famous example is The Hotel Pennsylvania, located at 401 7th Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Manhattan, where a CIA Operative U.S. Army bacteriologist Frank Olson fell to his death from the 13th floor on November 28, 1953, falling over 150 feet (46 m) to the sidewalk below. The NYPD investigation ruled his death to be suicide, though some conspiracy theorists hint that the CIA murdered him.[citation needed][relevant? – discuss] /* end clip */

Proposed merge of Triskaidekaphobia with Thirteenth floor
Not sure if thirteenth floor on its own meets WP:GNG, but the information can be merged and the title redirected. Aasim (talk) 21:55, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
 * , just because it can be merged doesn't mean it should be. What exactly is the argument you're presenting? --Xurizuri (talk) 06:41, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

Highways
Ontario, Canada originally created its highway system with highways 2-17, skipping 1, skipping 13. There is still no Ontario Highway 13, although a 413 was proposed (and controversial, for other reasons).

The US numbered highway system once had a U.S. Route 666. (See List of highways numbered 666.) It has been renumbered to 491.

There was also a pattern of developers deliberately skipping multiple floors in their numbering, as a deceptive tactic to make a building appear taller than it actually is. Trump was infamous for this sort of thing, and it may have been a factor in Vancouver's ban on non-standard numbering schemes that skip various floor numbers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.102.87.40 (talk) 13:40, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Change title to “Omission of thirteenth floor” or similar
I noticed that there are headers on this page such as “Origin” and “Methods”, which are misleading when the title is “Thirteenth floor”. Methods of a thirteenth floor? At the very least, the headers should be changed to something like “Origin of omission” and “Methods of replacement”. 209.237.126.136 (talk) 05:27, 2 April 2024 (UTC)