Unable to build stairs upwards

[yellowface7]

So I placed some floors and my stairs leading to the surface seems to have disappeared. Whenever I try to make some stairs upwards anywhere on the z level, it doesn't queue. No cancellation notification comes up. Am I doing something wrong here?

[Tinasbuddy]

thats because you dont have rock to make (chip away at in this case) the stairs out of.
you cant make stairs out of nothing

you need to select a place with stone (or whatever) already in its place

[Xcorps]

Originally posted by yellowface7:

So I placed some floors and my stairs leading to the surface seems to have disappeared. Whenever I try to make some stairs upwards anywhere on the z level, it doesn't queue. No cancellation notification comes up. Am I doing something wrong here?

If you are using the mining designation, you aren't building stairs. You are removing the material and leaving enough in the shape of stairs, so your stair brush needs to flag existing ground.

If you are trying to place stairs from the Constructions menu you should get a warning if you don't building mats.

[Envy]

I'm having the same problem. I initially only dug my stairs downwards. Now I want to make stairs going up. Of course I can't dig up, but I also cannot construct stairs going up because apparently constructed stairs need to go over at least two levels, and I can't go to the next level because I can't dig there, it's a catch 22 situation

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by Envy:

I'm having the same problem. I initially only dug my stairs downwards. Now I want to make stairs going up.

stupid question from me but I always dig my stairs in 2x2 squares so maybe that's why it differs... but I always dig down and yet they go both ways.

Am I missing something ?

[Colbzzzz]

Can anyone explain why i only dug stairs down and my dwarfs have gone up and down for about a year now and all of a sudden they need to build upward stairs to get out? I changed nothing, they all just randomly got stuck for a month while i kept testing things to get them out. My brain is mush.

[Kupie]

With the stairs change this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ comes up all the damn time when trying to mine/construct upwards.

[-]c0c0nut[-]

spend half an hour before i found this ...

[Stryfe]

If anyone has issues even with the other answers: my problem was having a stockpile above the mined stairs while trying to construct stairs in the lower level. It was telling me it already had a building, but removing the stockpile from the stairs solved my issue.