Hi all, I am just about to attempt to destroy my home and could do with your advice on the best way to go about it.
I have just bought a wooden loft ladder, ,
The house is circa 1930 and the joist are 3"X2 " and about 12" apart, variable!, I will need to cut 3 of these. The ladder is going on the landing ceiling and this is about 3'6" wide with a brick supporting wall on one side and a stud wall on the other. I have planned to make a frame that would join the cut ends of the joists and form the box for the ladder to fit in.
Do you think this will work or will it end in disaster?
The "fun" bit will be the ceiling, plaster and lath. I have already had to replace the bathroom ceiling as a joist had split under the old water tank. Rather messy, but satisfying.
3x2 joists are incredibly thin for a 1930's house, even at 12 inch centres. I think I would want to sister-up the joists that would be on the sides of the ladder-box with 2x6 or 2x8, at least to the nearest supporting walls.
I fitted one of these recently without mishap, but my joists at 2x10, and I only had to cut out one joist - the bit cut out was almost (but damn it, not quite) the size make the cross pieces.
Thanks for the comment on 3X2 I was slightly concerned, but then again they are quite close together, I measured 4 of them in the are it is going and none of the centres were the same! Looked almost hand built by a guy without a tape measure.
Unfortunately I'm going to have to cut 3 of them as the length of the access hole runs across the joists. Slightly not happy about this. But the plus side is that the sides of the hole are both about 8" in from a brick wall on one side and a stud wall on the other. So not too worried about it dropping, Just worried that the joists may start to move outwards!
The ladder comes with a ready made softwood box that forms the sides of the access, so my idea is to make a frame for it to sit in from some spare 3x2, yes it is imperial and rather old but straight, and screw this onto the ends of the cut joist and attach it to the uncut ones at each end.
I'm happy with nails, when I was a kid we had a blacksmiths at the end of the drive and I used to buy nails from him by the pound, weight. Made all sorts of creations. But yes I do tend to get them in straight and quick. Thought of screws in the above as I hoped they wouldn't creep if there was tension on the joints.
Indeed, had to take the bathroom ceiling down a few years ago, fortunately the room was totally stripped at the time, is there a market for long dead flies? I have a very vicious pad saw that cuts on both strokes so I'm hoping to do a reasonable job on just the upward stroke. Failing that the landing isn't all that big and I quite enjoy fitting plasterboard.
very fortunately this ladder hinges into 3 sections and sits over the hole, so there is no overlap into the attic.
I don't intend flooring the whole of the attic, but again I was going to around the trapdoor. Some where to land when climbing in and also to tie everything together.
Last slight irritation, why do electricians always run their cables where I want to cut an access?? Ah it was me, should have planned ahead, there again it was 15 years ago.
Should have said at the start, this is a new access, hence the cables not routing around it already.
I'm sure there will be lots of fiddling going on :-) It WILL be square, maybe.
The ladder comes ready made with a softwood frame, with the ladder attached to it and to the door. I'm a lazy so and so, so bought this rather than constructing one.
Piece of cake.
Well it would have been if the joists ran the other way.
Couple of comments: First, that ladder looks really good, and the price seems pretty good, too. I may fit one myself in September. However, the website says "Now accepting Paypal" - does that mean that that is the ONLY online payment method? I tried doing a dummy order to get to the checkout, but, as usually happens with online ordering, they want you to enter all your details first, so I still don't know. I'd have to ring them or send them an email. The T & C state: "You may pay for your order by cheque, electronic bank transfers or cash...", which implies that they DON'T take bog-standard credit cards like Mastercard or Visa, which makes me wonder, what serious online trader nowadays expects to do business only with Paypal as a payment method? Electronic bank transfer? Ha ha.
Having just cleared away decades of detritus from the attic I have found that the joists are lap jointed above the brick wall, this has given me a bit more confidence that at least one side should not be a problem. Unless of course they all start moving away longitudinally! Plans are afoot to stop that though.
Why do electricians always run their cables /over/ the joists. I've been precariously crawling around my brother's loft drilling through joists and rethreading cables so we can put flooring down.
Thanks guys for all the comments. It is now fitted and so far the house is still standing.
Great fun, biggest problem was that non of the joists were parallel, but all was OK in the end. I am very fortunate to have a neighbour who had a couple of hours to spare this afternoon. He also has a Paslode. This made the fixing SO much easier and quicker.
All I need to do now is vacuum the ceiling out of the landing carpet. And put a bit of architrave around the hatch.
Thoroughly enjoyed doing it and it could have been a one man job but two, especially at the end, made it easier.
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