Building Access to the Attic: Part 1

We are fortunate enough to have a pretty kick-ass attic space. 

It’s totally not usable right now; it’s dirty and there’s no insulation (not that the rest of our house really has any…) and there’s no easy access.

When we were updating the electrical in our house, we made an access hole in the master bedroom closet.

But that was never going to work since we actually want to use our closet.

Luckily, there was an old access hatch located in the hallway just outside of the master bedroom. It was drywalled over during the previous renovation so we didn’t know it was there, but once we got up into the attic we could see it.

The original opening was small (18 3/4″ x 26″) but we luckily found a compact attic ladder from Werner that worked for us. It’s 24″x18″ – just small enough to fit!

Opening the Ceiling

The first thing we had to do was cut a hole in the ceiling. We drilled some holes at each corner to get an idea of where the opening would be.

We then cut through the hole using a hand saw.

Installing the ladder was relatively easy. The ladder came with an instructional video and a full set of instructions. 

We assembled the ladder and installed it on the floor of the attic. Because the floor was in rough shape, we installed a new piece of plywood so it had a sturdy base.

Once the ladder was installed, we also installed the arm thingy and the handrail.

And voilà!

We’re waiting to finish the attic hole until we’re ready to paint the hallway.