Do you love your loft lader?

October 11, 2024 11:13 AM

To access the attic, I'm looking to install a loft ladder with a hatch. I've seen these in other people's houses but never used one regularly. If you regularly use a loft ladder, what do you like/dislike about yours?

I've looked on various makers' websites, but I feel sort of overwhelmed by all the choices.

I'm generally good on ladders, but neither my partner nor I are small or light people. We're also both middle aged and thinking about the future when things might not be so easy.

I'm looking for:
- something easy to take down and put back up
- which feels safe to climb
- sturdily built enough to last a while
- available in the UK

Currently there is only a small hatch up there which I access by leaning a telescopic ladder against the wall. It works, but it's not the safest, so I just don't use the attic much. I'd like to use it more.

posted by Pallas Athena to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

The only thing I don’t like is that the hatch doesn’t stay tightly shut. I mounted some powerful magnets to try to help, but it only partially helps. Also, my ladder folds, which I prefer to telescoping.
posted by bashos_frog at 11:22 AM on October 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

We had a wooden fold-down ladder installed for our loft hatch earlier this year to replace a horrible sliding metal one that bounced when you tried to climb it. I believe it was from Screwfix, and certainly wasn't anything fancy, but it's great. The guy that installed it said he always recommends wood and fold down mechanisms for stability. I would also suggest getting the widest hatch you can and, if you are considering moving it, see if you can put it where you can use a joist as a handrail to haul yourself up at the end.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

nthing folding ladders being nicer than telescoping/sliding ones - One particular 3 section sliding aluminium ladder has nipped my fingers more times than I can remember.

Generic 3 section wooden ladders are all pretty similar, the ones with an extra handrail do help when trying to climb with a box in the other hand.

If you have a choice for which way to put the ladder, think about what will happen if you slip and don't point it towards the stairs (or giant cheesegrater or whatever hazards you have).
posted by samj at 11:52 AM on October 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

Our access to the attic (from when we bought the home) was a small rectangular piece of wood in the guest room closet. Clearly that didn't fly and we had a workman put in a folding spring loaded wooden attic ladder in the hallway, and it unfolds from the end of the hallway towards the kitchen (a good amount of distance). That works good because it doesn't block the hall bathroom, and also gives you a good percentage of the hall to "stage" things you intend to move to the attic or things you took down one at a time from the attic (think seasonal decorations or camping things).

A couple other points: 1) of course this job involved cutting ceiling joists so make sure you get a responsible workman, 2) a few years ago we decided to insulate the attic space with batt fiberglass insulation, which has helped our energy costs but made the attic not as good for storage. But it is still good to have the access for workman to repair things (e.g., our attic fan) or when pest control folks need to find where critters are hiding.
posted by forthright at 12:48 PM on October 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

I replaced our small access in a closet with a FAKRO ladder in a hallway, to help with a re-insulation of my attic. Been very pleased with it, and now store luggage and holiday ornaments up there. The scissor ladders have been reliable, but I added padding to the feet to avoid scratching our floor.
posted by nickggully at 1:43 PM on October 11, 2024

We have a Youngman aluminium extending ladder. It's sturdy, but easy to extend, and fits through a relatively small hatch due to the way it pivots. It locks in the open position and has enough resistance not to slide open when you don't want it to.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001F7DLGM

We had a folding wooden ladder before and it always felt a bit flimsy, but perhaps that was because it was old.
posted by matsho at 2:15 PM on October 11, 2024

I bought a cheapish one with a folding wood ladder, and installed it myself and I like it but the ladder does feel a little flimsy; there's some wiggle to the left and right when climbing (which also goes for ladders in general), but I haven't felt unsafe on it.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:18 PM on October 11, 2024

I've gone through a couple of attic ladders - fold-down wood, then fold-down aluminum, and finally I got a telescoping "scissor" ladder and it's everything I wanted in an attic ladder:

https://rainbowatticstair.com/all-products/star/

Open/closing is super easy, and it's very stable and strong - I'm a big guy and it's rock solid. Because of its design, it can work in fairly small attic openings.

It is heavy though, you definitely need at least 2 people to install it.

Fakro also makes telescoping scissor ladders, I assume they are similar in experience/quality:

https://www.fakrousa.com/products/attic-ladders/metal-scissor/
posted by jpeacock at 3:05 PM on October 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

Just going to add in that you want to check weight tolerances for any weight the user might be plus anything heavy that might be conveyed by the largest person.
posted by childofTethys at 2:13 PM on October 13, 2024 [1 favorite]

Note any weight limit on the ladder. We have a hatch/ladder in our upstairs closet that is bent/twisted and needs to be replaced. We were told that the last owners moved a heavy AC unit into the attic up those stairs an it was over the weight limit on the ladder and caused the damage. If you don't currently have anything heavy up there, might you need to at some point?
posted by ersatzkat at 6:43 AM on October 14, 2024 [1 favorite]