Installing Folding Attic Stairs

HomoDomi has been putting a floor in the attic, as I wrote about earlier. The plan is to use the new acreage, as he calls it, to store a lot of the junk that we have currently sitting around the house, collecting dust and cat dander, but can't bring ourselves to get rid of (or need at least once a year). However, the entrance to the attic proved a barrier -- a 20" x 24" (51 x 61 cm) hole in the ceiling of the second floor, reached at the top of a shaky ladder.

(For several months, it was worse than that: when we took out the old chimney, we were left with a gaping hole down two storeys to the concrete floor of the basement, immediately next to the entrance, making the clamber up, and the loong step down, a precarious head-spinning balancing act. That was closed in by the new cupboards installed by Mike The Contractor, visible behind the ladder in the photo.)

So, modernize. Install attic stairs. You know, the kind in every modern house, with a door flush to the ceiling and a long rope hanging down. You pull on the rope, and a set of ladder-like steps miraculously unfold allowing you to walk up and down, carrying boxes, with ease.

The attic stair packages are surprisingly cheap (under $100 for the most basic variants). They are also designed for modern building standards, that is, joists 22" apart, not 16"). HomoDomi thought long and hard about whether, and how, to cut the ceiling joists on the second floor; and how to position the attic stairs so there was space for the steps to fold out.

It took less than two days from start to finish. First, measure out the size of the new "door" in the ceiling -- Sorry: First, allay the fears of the sister who is convinced the whole house will implode if you cut out joists from the middle. Then measure; then cut.

Cut the plaster ceiling, and cut lathe and plaster above it. Do not cut the joists, at first. Place a jig (I think it's called -- something temporary to keep things in place between cutting out major supports and installing the permanents stays) and install framing around the hole.

Curiously enough, the actual frame for the door sort of hangs inside the framing. You pound shims between the frame-attached-to-the-attic-floor (darker wood) and the frame-that-carries-the-steps (lighter wood). HomoDomi bolted the shims into place, but you can clearly see a 1/4 inch gap between the frames, except for the shims. But that's what the attic-stair package instructions say to do (and it seems to be holding fine).

Anyway, finish up by bolting in a metal stay at one end. Hang the stairs mechanism on that, bolt it on, and voila! Attic stairs!

We have yet to finish the ceiling off with a decorative woodwork frame and a minimum of ceiling plaster. And then paint the patched ceiling and the new door. In order beyond that is repainting the walls (same color) and old woodwork of the area -- since the new cupboard was added, the rest of the hallway looks dingy.