The advantage of being self employed this morning was when I looked outside and saw six inches of snow I decided not to go to work, the disadvantage is that I wont be getting paid!
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| Our original loft hatch |
I decided instead to get some jobs done at home. Putting the Christmas decorations away a couple of weeks ago set me thinking. Our loft hatch is barely big enough for me to squeeze through, let alone massive boxes of decorations - I kind of adopted the open and shove method of loft storage, so I decided to do something about it.
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| Assembling the loft hatch |
Last year, at the big house I've been working at, I fitted five ready made loft hatches with fold down ladders (it is a big house1). These hatches are great as they're ready insulated, sprung loaded and come complete with a ladder so no having to go to the shed first!
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| Hole cut ready - this is where you hope your measurements were right! |
They're fairly simple to fit - well after having done five I think they are. I first went into the loft and found where the ceiling joist ran, I wanted the hatch to be tight on one joist over the door, so I made a hole in two corners and then went below to mark out where the hatch was to go. Checking it was square I then cut out this hatch out of the plasterboard ceiling.
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| trimming out the ceiling joists |
I then cut the ceiling joist running in the middle of where I wanted the hatch to go. I cut this 45mm back from the front edge of the newly made hole to acept the noggins. I trimmed out the hatch by adding timbers fixed with 100mm screws (not too much hammering up here as the artex on the ceiling isn't the best!).
Then the tricky bit, getting the hatch into position on my own! Although they're not that heavy they are awkward (very awkward) and sprung loaded. To make things easier I removed the bottom two sections of the ladder and I also screwed a batten to the one edge of the hole, this was to carry the weight of one side. With some none health and safety endorsed lifting I had the hatch in position, squared up and then fixed.
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| No more going out to the shed to get the step ladder |
It was then just a matter of fixing on the rest of the ladder (and cutting it to length), and trimming round the hole with architrave. Nice way to spend a snowy afternoon. I even used my old Nobex mitre saw as I didn't want to run any leads outside to cut the architrave.
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| Once I get it painted you won't notice it so much |
The old loft hatch will have to stay as it is for now but I plan to get it plastered over fairly soon. This new one should make putting the decorations away easier!
Anyone else done any jobs at home lately?
