Loft Ladder Solutions with very limited clearance

[Antix]

Hi, I have a loft hatch less than a metre Sq openning and I don't really want to hack around with the openning.

I have forward clearance into the hatch of 60cm only until it hits the chimney breast. rearwards there's a lot more.

Anyone know of any loft ladders that may work, or any other solutions ? all of the ladders I've seen require much larger loft hatches, and more forward clearance to push the ladder up onto (even the ones with adjustable pivot points). I can't reverse the approach to take advantage of the rear clearance because that would mean approaching the loft from the opposite direction which is prevented by the top of a door frame..hope this diagram helps....

chimney breast | | | |- ------ top of door frame - \ \Ladder \ floor -----------------------------------

thanks, Ant.

[Chris Bacon]

"Sideways job"?

[look]

Look at Zig-Zag by Light Alloy Ltd 01473 40445 Ipswich -( havent checked the tel number is still correct) They dont need any forward or backward room. Very substantial in construction AND price ! I've had one for several years.

Robert

royall at which net royall at which net

[Christian McArdle]

Is there height enough above the hatch for the ladder to retract vertically up against the chimney breast? I can't help you with suppliers, but I have seen a ladder which retracts thusly several years ago. It looked like a professional contraption, rather than a Heath Robinson affair. It basically slid vertically up and down and would pivot forwards and backwards on its lower bracket once it had gone down far enough.

Christian.

Here's some ASCII art of what I remember. I can't remember the details of how the two piece sliding ladder was handled by the brackets. I also can't remember how it was latched up in place. To withdraw it, you opened the hatch, pulled the ladder down until it clicked and then extended the lower section, whilst angling it forwards.

UP

** || **##|-< fixed sliding bracket to hold ladder still when retracted **##| ** || ** || ** || **##|

[look]

at which net

[Mike]

[Timothy Murphy]

If you mean 1 metre x 1 metre, this does not strike me as very small.

Couldn't you have the ladder the other way round? [I have an attic ladder with less space like that.]

[bigcat]

Youll need 3x 8' lengths of 1.5x2.4 CLS, 3" screws and 6x long tailed brackets.

I explained how to make loft ladders like this in a post months ago, google thornton loft ladder on google, groups. Takes an hour, costs under a tenner all in.

Basically in this case I'd hinge it in 3 sections so it simply folds up and sits on the hatch when closed. I'd also add a catch or counterweight to prevent it falling when the hatch is opened. Nylon rope, nice big fat hook in roof timber, any suitable weight.

NT

[Antix]

to follow up, there are actually doorways on two sides and a wall on one so there's only one approach that works. The hatch is 50cm by 50cm so the ZigZags are probably gonna be too big..

like the idea of them folding up against the chimney breast...should be enough clearance there...gonne do a google on thornton for some ideas....

many thanks !

Ant.

[bigcat]

I never managed to get a mental picture of your situation, I tend to need diagrams for that. So generally... You can make your zigzags any size, number and layout you want. If you want to put 6 folds in the thing you can, if you really had to.

I'd generally go with a counterweight since it makes it all user friendly.

NT

[Antix]

actually...the Titan TLS02 from screwfix looks like it may 'just' about fit..I don't quite have the minimum clearance all round in the loft but wondering whether it'll still fit.

Will take a trip to B&Q in the hope that there's one there I can take a look at as the spec sheets I've found on the web so far don't give enough detail on exactly how it works...any one got any more info on this ?

thanks, Ant.