My heavy attic door is held up by a slightly insecure spring catch, which can be opened from below by a hook on the end of a pole. I'm worried that the door might break free and swing down, possibly causing injury. Is there any standard way of securing an attic door like this? It's too high - 10ft - for an ordinary bolt to be feasible. Any suggestions gratefully received.
My attic hatch is secured with a pair of rotating catches which are mounted on the attic side of the hatch itself - on its long edge opposite the hinges, and have tongues which rotate into slots cut in the hatch frame.
There are holes through the hatch itself which allow me to use a "T"-key to turn the catches. At present I usually just stand on a small one- or two- step step-stool to reach the hatch, but one could presumably mount a suitable key on a pole.
The catches are something like these:
Are you expecting Peter Crouch to be walking past the 10 ft high loft hatch just as the spring catch fails?
I slightly exaggerated - the ceiling is actually 117in high. The door is 4ft x 2ft6in.
My son is 6ft3in (or maybe 6ft4in tall), and he did in fact hit the door, fortunately when it was already open. So you see it is quite easy to imagine an accident.
Thanks very much, I've taken a note of that. It's a good idea, but slightly unsatisfactory in my case, as the door exactly matches the pitch-pine wooden ceiling, and I'd prefer not to make holes in it if possible. But if I can't come up with anything better I may try it.
Something I've pondered doing with mine, because the hatch is heavy when both catches are released and thus needs lowered with care - and also because closing also needs care - one has to hold the hatch closed/up while turning the first catch - is to have some sort of strong elastic (luggage elastics, perhaps) mounted above the hatchway, hooked onto something on the inner/attic surface.
I'd envisage those as being strong enough to hold the hatch almost completely closed so that when the catches are undone the hatch couldn't then fall completely open, or at least not do so fast. And when trying to close the hatch they could be hooked on. BUT I was never able to think of a way of making hooking these on & releasing them simple. If they meant I had to fiddle around while standing on a ladder, they're not really any safer than the current arrangement.
Blimey, if that's real pitch pine, I doubt the hinges would hold it in the event of an accident. I might replace it with blockboard
I have one like that as well, I used Duct tape in the end, as its so filthy up there I only need to open it when there is some kind of fault in the plumbing!
Mine has one of those you push with a pole. Of course anyone standing underneath when youopen it, ie the person with the pole, gets a face full of grit and crap. Brian
That would work. My loft hatch has an integrated ladder, so weighs a lot - so much that I had to remove the ladder to get the hatch into position. The springs are f-strong (I had to close the hatch to re-attach them) and almost support the weight. I tried a test, as I was worried about the hatch dropping. Stand where I could catch the hatch, release the catch and let go. Hatch swung down fairly rapidly then stopped at about 70 deg. open. It's about the same size as yours, 7'6" ceiling and I'm 6'4"; by the time it gets to my height it's not going very fast, so any injury would be due to my reaction, e.g. banging in to something else. From the height of your ceiling, the hatch would be going slowly or stopped at 6'4" if the springs were the same as mine.
On the loft hatch at parents house with push push latch we fitted a door chain "just in case" I don't think it was ever needed in anger. Ought to be able to use a hook on pole to get chain into/out of its slide.
That is such a simple solution.
That's what teenagers do:-)
That would work. My loft hatch has an integrated ladder, so weighs a lot - so much that I had to remove the ladder to get the hatch into position. The springs are f-strong (I had to close the hatch to re-attach them) and almost support the weight. I tried a test, as I was worried about the hatch dropping. Stand where I could catch the hatch, release the catch and let go. Hatch swung down fairly rapidly then stopped at about 70 deg. open. It's about the same size as yours, 7'6" ceiling and I'm 6'4"; by the time it gets to my height it's not going very fast, so any injury would be due to my reaction, e.g. banging in to something else. From the height of your ceiling, the hatch would be going slowly or stopped at 6'4" if the springs were the same as mine.
I just fitted a hatch/ladder combination. The closing hinge has a cam actio n so that once it is nearly closed it snaps shut (rather fast - I might wan t to adjust the springs actually). If you release it below the snap-shut po sition, it stays put - neutrally balanced. I suppose this might change if I loosen the springs. There is quite a lot of tension in the springs and the y were a struggle to pull into place. However that was my fault - the instr uctions had the spring connected first and then the lever arms attached, bu t I did it the other way around ! Simon.
The ceiling and door are both pitch-pine. But the door is between two joists, has a frame on the attic side, and has strong hinges; so I don't think there is any danger of the door failing.
I have been vaguely thinking of some counterweight on the attic side, and also of a magnetic seal in addition to the catch.
I'm not clear how the springs are attached. Is this something one could add to an existing ladder, or is it an integral part of the ladder itself?
In this case they're part of the door/ladder, as the ladder is on the door. One end of the springs is attached to the hatch then the other end is to the carcass (frame). They go from the carcass at the hinge end to the hatch most of the way along, so they have to be very strong as the rate of extension when the hatch is nearly closed is very low.
I'm trying to envisage how this works. It sounds like a good system; but how long are the springs, (a) when the hatch is closed, and (b) when it is open?
18" closed overall, including the 4" of hooks; 25" open of which 21" are coils. I'm glad that this thread came up, as I'd checked the 'free-fall' behaviour about 5 years ago after fitting it - just tried it now and it starts slowly, gets past the 'over centre' point and drops rapidly! I suppose that the springs are now 'run in'; they still do their primary job. I could put a simple loop near the opening end and unhook it when the door's a few inches open. In my case, I don't use the releasing tool supplied as I can just reach up (the tool is in the loft!), so a loop would be OK.
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