13th floor... How come buildings do not have it?

Question

For buildings to have no 13th floor, the reasons for not having it must be pretty serious or even dead real. Please share what are these serious reasons on why buildings do not have a 13th floor.

Answer 1

It's the unlucky number.  It's purely superstition....but better safe than sorry, eh?

Answer 2

That is just superstitious. We have floor 13 in our building.

Answer 3

Supposedly the number 13 is bad luck.

Yet in Mayan culture 13 is holy...

Answer 4

They do have a 13th floor, they just don't call it the 13th floor. The number is just skipped. I think that it is the elevator companies that do that.

Answer 5

Hotels have a thirteenth floor that they typically have famous people stay at.  The elevator skips that floor making it seem there's no thirteenth floor.  Certain hotel staff have a key that fits one of the slots in the panel that will stop the elevator on that particular floor.

Answer 6

Many building don't have a 13th floor. Superstition perhaps.

Answer 7

I think this is a western thing. 13 is considered unlucky there are some theories about this.

In asia it is not the case. In South Korea many buildings do not have a 4th floor. Something about the number 4 looking similar to the Chinese symbol for death. Also superstition.

In some buildings the floors will read 1,2,3,F,5,6. Sometimes it would be 1,2,3,5,6 ...

Either way 13 or 4 or whatever it is kind of silly. Even if you don't call the floor 4 or 13 it is still the 13th or the 4th from the ground.

Answer 8

i dont really know, most people say its b/c its bad luck, and its a sign of evil, just like 666, thats y they dont have a room 666 in motels or n e thing

Answer 9

It's actually all behind the mystery of the number 13. Some people believe that it unlocks, or creates a path between two universes, and therefore is possed. The same thing is all over the world. In Korea for instance the number 4 is the big number that has to do with death and with evil. So in ALL of the buildings there isn't a 4th floor. I guess in both situations there are still 13th and 4th floors, but they are labeled as the 5th and 14th. Odd, but true! Another funny fact is that fear of the number 13 is termed triskaidekaphobia.

Answer 10

We've all heard of "Friday the 13th/Black Friday", its all superstition really. The number 13 has always been a number associated with Bad luck in the Western culture. (Other countries have other bad luck numbers).

This superstition is actually taken seriously in some places, some places actually don't have a "13th" floor in a building, in fear of some kind of bad luck happening. They either stop at the 12th Floor, OR SKIP the number 13 and go directly to 14. (The lift would have the buttons ... 11, 12, 14... ). Don't believe me? Have a look here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

The number 13, is quite a lot like the number "666" which has been known to have a lot of association with 'the devil', and 'bad luck'... some people claim "666" is the number of the devil. Of course, it's superstition... or is it?

In the U.S, there was once a Highway 666 (aka, Highway to h**l - found in Utah). For years people reported seeing/experiencing ghostly encounters there. But to top it all off, this highway is well known for its LONG history of deaths. The issue got so bad, the name of the Highway was changed to "Highway 491"!

Maybe it's good having NO 13th floor of a building? (I'll leave that to you to ponder over!)  ;-)

Answer 11

it is an unlucky number

Answer 12

It's just a tradition based on a superstition. See link.

Answer 13

That's simple.

Tryskadekiaphobia (SP)(fear of the number 13.).

Some phobias are so bad that people simply cannot seem to function. so they do not have the 13th floor to keep people from freaking out because they are on the 13th floor.

Answer 14

They consider the number 13 superstitious there fore they do not have a level floor with the  number 13.....they go from 12 to 14th instead.  It is just a superstition....I like the number 13.

Answer 15

Maybe, because of the superstition, nobody wanted to stay on the 13th floor so some time in the past they did away with them altogether.

Answer 16

Because the number 13 is supposed to be bad luck...eg. Friday the 13th.

But, I worked at a hotel once, and they didn't have a 13th floor listed, but there was really a 13th floor, the elevator used to skip it, and you needed a special key for the elevator to stop on 13th floor, alot of weird people used to go to that floor.  I can't tell you more.

Answer 17

They do if they have stairs.

It is the elevator companies who will not make the elevator be able to stop at a 13th floor

Answer 18

12+1 !!

That is how they number houses in some countries just because 13 is a bad luck. hmmm, interesting.

:-)

Answer 19

They do, the elevators just skip over the 13th floor. You have to find the secret 13th floor elevators to get there.

Who knows what exactly goes on there.

Answer 20

the number 13 is supposedly bad luck, therefore you wouldn't want a tourist attraction with like 10 thousand people in it having bad luck and falling down or something stupid like that.. safety first

Answer 21

Superstition, or the fear of the number 13.  You'll find that this usually only occurs in Western establishments though.  Depending on the culture and superstitions of the place the building is located, the number 13 may be avoided or flaunted (There's a building in Asia that has the number 13 on it)

Answer 22

Buildings in America don't have the 13th floor as the  number 13 is supposed to be unlucky. I know it's stupid but that's the reason

Answer 23

Here it is, short and sweet:

It was on a Friday the 13th that the French king ordered the arrested and subsequent torture of the Knights Templar.  It was sudden, without warning, and happened ALL across his territory.  A very nasty and messy piece of work.

As of today, the Masons, who claim to be the descendants of the Knights Templar, have carried on a revulsion for that date, and especially the number 13.  Since the Masons were, well... literally "masons", for so very long, they simply extended their superstition to the point of not including 13th floors in buildings.

That's it.  No great mystery - just a bunch of masonic superstition.

Answer 24

Of course buildings have a 13th floor, but some buildings just don't call it the 13th. I guess it has to deal with superstition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Thirte...

Answer 25

triskaidekaphobia!

Answer 26

How do they get to the 14th

Answer 27

13 is considered an unlucky number (hence why Friday The 13th is always thought of as dodgy.) they don't have floors like that because it is superstitious... like at schools if they label their class rooms 1,2,3 etc... they usually leave out 13... in most places not all. its all about superstition.

Answer 28

It's because of the ridiculous superstition that 13 is an unlucky number so they simply mislabel the 13th floor as the 14th.  Some buildings have floor 12a and 12b.   A lot of building owners realize that many people have this silly superstition and wouldn't want to rent an apt or office located on the 13th floor so again, they just mislabel it, it is still the 13th floor!