Attic Stairs

Finally, I can now get into the attic without crawling through a tiny hole in the closet. Seriously, what were they thinking back then? Isn't it nice to have storage space up there?

So I wanted to have some fun, and cutting holes in the ceiling and re-framing attic access doors was right up my alley for a couple of weekends. It was easy, considering that I didn't have to worry about making a mess, nor the structural integrity. I mean, if it broke at this point I could still fix it without a bunch of problems. Nonetheless, the attic openings were a simple matter of cutting through the plaster to find the placement, slicing through the joists, adding a few members and hanging to ladder access doors.

Sounds fun, right! Let's go cutting...

First I started by cutting the lathe out where the first door was to go. That allowed me to relatively easily get into the attic. Then I nailed 2 x 6's on both sides of the future cut joists to shore up the ceiling framing. Next I sawzalled the joists at the proper dimensions and created the opening. Lastly I nailed the everliving crap out of a couple 2 x 6's (that was the existing ceiling joist depth) to frame out the opening. I actually used doubled up framing on the sides and not both ends, which is discussed differently in the directions. But I'm not sure under the circumstances that it's going to matter.

The door was a fancier version of the standard wooden ladder type door. The door I decided on was about $40 more, but it fashioned metal steps and more sturdy construction. Plus, it was much easier to install. It was a 2-piece installation, placing the simple metal frame in place first and hanging the stairs on second. And the feet are adjustable without cutting the stair legs. It is very cool and well engineered.


The door also features a cushion stop closing device, because it is pneumatic vs. spring driven. I believe it to be well worth the extra investment so far. In case you're wondering, it is a Werner product.

Once the first door was installed and operational, I began work on the second. I wasn't able to move a couple pieces of 4' x 8' plywood through the installed opening, so I would have to wait until I had the other opening framed, but not compelted to move the 2 sheets I bought into the attic. Mostly I wanted something more sturdy to stand on - my knees were killing me after the first opening installtion (that was weekend #1).

Cutting out the lath to make a clean cut was relatively easy from above. The sawzall made clean slices through everything, including the joists, once they were shored up with top mounted braces. This is during the removal process for the South unit. Speaking of that, I wanted to make sure to have 2 attic accesses in this house to increase storage capacity. I'll have to building an attic enclosure wall later on, but I think it's worth it.

And we're done. That was 2 weekends worth of work. Well worth the final effort.

This is what the sill looks like for the attic windows. Pretty destroyed, but salvageable considering it is the only original portion of the exterior that I'm keeping. Plus I'm going to "resotre" it. That will probably consist of slapping some epoxy finishing putty to the sill and painting the crap out of it.

That wraps up this installment. Next time will go through the work that I've had done by a very usefull and skilled laborer...