Loft ladder/hatch door advice.

[Mottie]

I recently swapped loft ladders from the MiL's house when it was being sold. Exactly the same ladder as I already had but newer, more solid and with a handrail. The handrail has made it even harder to get in and out of the loft plus when putting large items up there, I have to go up and first remove the ladder to get spare dining room chairs and large boxes through the hole. The current size of the hatch is just 60x56. I was looking at something like THIS. which is 70x120 with foldable wooden stairs. The stairs fold up on the loft hatch and it is counterbalanced with a spring. The problem I have is that obviously I’ll need a wider/longer hole cut to accommodate the assembly. I can't make the hole bigger towards the side that the existing ladder is fixed to as there will be very little headroom in the loft at that point so it will have to go in the other direction. Trouble with that is there is a 10ft, 6”x2” wooden beam that is mounted at 90° on top of the ceiling joists and on the other side of that are the feed and return pipes to the boiler plus the boiler wiring which will require re-routing. I have no problem with the plumbing and wiring but I’m wondering what the 6”x2” joist is doing and whether it can be removed. Is this doable? Any suggestions?

 

[Deleted member 323070]

The 6"X2" on top of the ceiling joists is called a ceiling binder. It's designed to give additional rigidity to the ceiling joists.

Could you raise the height of the loft ladder, on top of the hatch, to give it clearance of the ceiling binder?

Or consider rotating the hinged side of the loft hatch by 90°.

 

[Mottie]

The 6"X2" on top of the ceiling joists is called a ceiling binder. It's designed to give additional rigidity to the ceiling joists.

Could you raise the height of the loft ladder, on top of the hatch, to give it clearance of the ceiling binder?

Or consider rotating the hinged side of the loft hatch by 90°.

Thanks. I was talking to my builder mate who was plastering my ceiling yesterday and he reckons to get a 700x1000 kit, cut the hole back to the binder and take my 1000 from the binder, hinging the hatch 180° from where it is and put it on the binder side to give me the head clearance when I go up. I'd like to do it myself so I'll probably give that a go as I know I can call on him to get me out of the shìt if I get in trouble!

 

[Deleted member 323070]

So you lower the loft hatch, which does not have the ladder attached, then lower the ladder which is attached to the binder?

The landing area appears to accommodate either side of the hatch for the ladder?

 

[Mottie]

So you lower the loft hatch, which does not have the ladder attached, then lower the ladder which is attached to the binder?

No. Lower the loft hatch then lower the ladder but from the side opposite to the binder. The hatch is only 60x56 so if I hinged a longer (1000-1200) hatch in the same orientation, I’d have very little headroom (probably come up behind where the light switch is fitted in picture 2) when I got to the top which is why the hatch will need to be hinged 180° to how it is now.

The landing area appears to accommodate either side of the hatch for the ladder?

Haven’t got room on the landing if I hinged at 90° to how they are now because of a chimney breast one side and the banisters the other.

 

[Deleted member 323070]

No. Lower the loft hatch then lower the ladder

That's what I said, I think.

but from the side opposite to the binder.

Isn't that where it is now? And causing you headroom problems?

The hatch is only 60x56 so if I hinged a longer (1000-1200) hatch in the same orientation, I’d have very little headroom (probably come up behind where the light switch is fitted in picture 2) when I got to the top which is why the hatch will need to be hinged 180° to how it is now.

Yes, and fixed to the binder? The loft opening will need to be extended, to the binder, or you 'fill-in' the other side to re-use the same opening.
I.e. the loft opening is 'slid' along to meet the binder.

 

[Mottie]

A bit more making good on the loft hatch aperture and boxing in of the chimney breast in the loft. It’s all ready to just drop into place, square up, screw and fix and then just fit some architrave round it. That’s a two man job though so just waiting for a mate to come round and give me a hand. 20 minutes max and it'll be in and working.

Well, my mate came round today and as I said, it was all in and bolted up in less than 20 minutes. A perfect fit into the hole in the ceiling I had made. I was beside myself with joy.

However…..when the ladder was unfolded, it just caught the architrave on the bathroom door and wouldn’t come down any further. There was no way I could cut anything off the ladder to get around it.

Had to take the whole lot out and reverse it. Slightly low on headroom but there were no other solutions.

Had to cut some off of the ladder to get a perfect length when unfolded so I did it 5mm at a time. Got there in the end.

All done now, just got to paint the architrave around the new hatch.

Next job will be to fit an electric hoist. Watch this space!

 

[Mottie]

Next job will be to fit an electric hoist. Watch this space!

Well, I picked this up for £50.

A bit of tinkering and it's up and working.

Works a treat.

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[stevie888]

How much weight are you aiming to hang off that single rafter?

 

[Mottie]

How much weight are you aiming to hang off that single rafter?

Heaviest thing would be the fold-up bike in the clip. Maybe 20kg. I could strengthen that rafter by fixing a length of 4”X2” to that and the rafters either side but I don’t think it’s necessary. I've hung on it myself and I’m @ 100kg