Loft Ladder's

Corley

Im currently looking at buying a loft ladder, does anyone else here have one, and could explain how they fold up in the loft and where they stay?? when they fodl up in there??

lipidicman

Go here and look at the different camera views - that should help
http://www.loftshop.co.uk/products_detail.asp?catID=4&typeID=15&pID=17

mine is similar, not the same

Rhino666

It's a bit of a mystery until you fit one - I have now fitted a couple so understand it a bit.

They are usually spring loaded either with one sprung arm or two (on one side or both) - these are screwed to the loft floor in front of the hatch. The ladder mountings are hinged on the loft floor just in front of the loft hatch. The ladder stores flat inside the loft, mainly in front of the loft hatch with the sprung arms either side. You need to make allowance for the length of the ladder, the width including the sprung arms and the height as the ladder ascends into the loft. My ladders both had a template to help a bit. The hatch itself is attached to the ladder and is drawn up when the ladder goes back into the loft.

robowen

Hate to say this but, B&Q do a great loft ladder complete with hatch and door frame.
This has a wooden ladder too ! I prefer these to the aluminium ones.

You just cut your ceiling to the required dimensions and hold this complete unit up in one go.

rob

speedyjoe

It may be too late now but last week I got a wooden loft ladder from Wickes in Norwich for £39.99. I think it was the one they used to do for £99. The exact same Timberlux model, without Wickes branding, sells for £150 online.

I think they were on clearance, for when I went back yesterday to see if they still had another all trace of them were gone. Maybe another store will still have one.

Otherwise the best price timber one I found was in B&Q at about £120 IIRC

Best value aluminium seems to be B&Q 150KG rated with into loft hand rail at £59.98, bizarrely the 100KG version without a big rail was only £5 cheaper.

Joe

gromituk

I bought the sturdy B&Q one 18 months ago. It also comes with a catch for the loft hatch that you open by inseriting the rod and turning - this is much more reliable than the push-push catches usually supplied.

I took the opportunity to make my loft hatch twice as big - it now has a second door which opens upwards when you need it.

weekendwarrior

Wooden ladders are preferred to aluminium ones as they are far sturdier, although they do weigh more than their aluminium counterparts.

I have fitted several of these, someitmes you need to enlarge the size of the loft opening, I have found some instructions for you here-
http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/WOODWORKING_MAKING_A_LOFT_HOLE.htm

The instructions that come with the ladders are normally pretty good, but I always fasten them to a large piece of 3/4 inch plywood as this is very handy for when you step off the ladder in the loft.

Be sure to use screws only as hammering nails in the loft can crack the ceilings below!

bennygod

I bought and fitted the B&Q wooden loft ladder when they had it on offer, I got it for about £110 as opposed to about £134. They do two wodden ladders and the other is about £99, although if you were going to do that option you'd be better waiting for a Homebase 20% or 10% weekend as they do a similar one. This does come with a hatch or frame I believe and it is stored completely in the loft, I guess to the length of half the ladder (as it is folded in two). I had a smal problem with mine when I noticed that my rafters were too close together to house the frame but with the aid of a router, some wood glue and a few screws I was able to comfortably reduce the width of the hatch and frame by about 40mm so it would fit (you need to rout the hatch so it sits flush into the frame and the draft excluder works. I've had no problems and it is a really good solid bit of kit. As for where it goes the neat thing about this solution is that the ladder sits atop the supplied hatch and does not protrude into the loft (other that vertically above the hatch).