I live in a modern (30yo) house. I want to fit a loft ladder. Does anyone who has done this have any general or specific advise on the various type available and what NOT to do etc. Thanks in advance.
- posted
14 years ago
Loft ladder - general and specific advice please...
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- posted
14 years ago
Nothing much to it, other than to mount the flap in its own frame and then fit the whole thing between the joists. Hanging a flap from an existing opening is usually a PITA. I made mine from blockboard, which is fairly light, and takes hinge screws well on the edges (unlike chip or mdf). I might use one of these if I was doing it again
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- posted
14 years ago
- make sure there is sufficient clearance for the ladder to fold up properly without fouling other joists or the hatch opening.
- secure the ladder top piece to a joist and not just a cross piece between joists for the hatch opening. The folding and unfolding the ladder could place to much strain on it.
- an outwards opening hatch door makes life easier.
I was in a top floor flat up until about 18 month ago and a cheap loft ladder from B&Q was just the job. The hatch was an outward opening plastic affair but served the purpose (also from B&Q by the look of it). My new house is 40ish years old and has an inward opening piece of thick plywood. The layout of the stairwell, landing bannister and roof beams & joists makes it difficult to place a loft latter. I haven't done much about it yet as I now have a Garage to keep all my crap in :)
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- posted
14 years ago
get a Youngman Ladder .. they are built for the job, and firm will be there in years to come if you need spares.
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- posted
14 years ago
Assuming you have a reasonable sized hatch and headroom then the wooden loft ladders from B&Q are good. I like mine much better than the piece of aluminium crap it replaced. Then again, that was possibly the cheapest and nastiest loft ladder I have ever come across.
I have also fitted an alloy one in my previous house (previous owners took the ladder with them!) . This was a 3 part one and reasonably O.K. but I like the wooden one better.
There was more effort fitting it - I had to fix a plywood platform in the loft for the ladder to fix to - but the effort was worth it.
HTH
Dave R