Picture several adjoining rooms, with a roof height of 16′. Now put a ceiling on a coupla of those rooms at 9′, creating a storage space above. Owners don’t want the typical attic ladder that installs in the ceiling be/t joists. They prefer an access “door” in upper part of the wall in one of the adjoining rooms. Would the attic doors work in this vertical arrangement, or is there another product that works better? Thanks.
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Any chance you could take another shot at explaining that? I'm not really following you.......
Vegetarian: Indian word for lousy hunter.
If I understand what you are talking about is a room with a high ceiling. High on the wall you want an access door to ajoining space. That ajoining rooms have lower ceilings that the the access is into the attic of the ajoining rooms.
And after you open that door you want a ladder to come out.
Is that what you want?
I don't think that a folding door would work without a complete redesign.
The one piece retractables might be workable.
But you might need an electric one or have a ladder to get up to pull out the ladder.
Boss, Bill described it accurately.
How about a normal door, cut down to the needed height, with weatherstripping for air seal.
And a normal ladder.
Or stairs, which would be much easier to use for getting stuff up to and out of the attic space.
Here are a couple of *thoughts*.
One use a side hinged door. Then look at using boat boarding ladder. Some of them are hinged and fold up on the deck (attic floor) when not in use. But I think that they are the few feet range and are designed to be folded/unfolded from the deck.
The other thing is to use a standard set up folding attic stairs. But you need to make a "ceiling" for those to work in.
Make a frame out of 2x4 the size of the ceiling opening. Hinge the bottom of the frame to the wall opening. Then install chains or other folding brackets so that when you pull frame out then chain will stop it in the horizonatl position. Then you can install the attic stairs in this "ceiling".
Thanks all. Today I was able to reach the building dept in that city, and he helped a lot with what we could and couldn't do. As long as we call it an attic on the plans, we can put a door anywhere on that high wall and use any means at all to access it (ladder, steps, levitation). We don't even have to address the access method on the plans. Just have to make sure the opening is >= 22 x 30. Easy enough. If I call it a storage room, loft, or anything else, then I can't do the door that way. So, "attic" it is!
I'm thinking of a pocket door so that it's opening doesn't knock anyone off the ladder. And for the ladder, something like a library ladder, except not on wheels. I'm looking for a picture of something similar I've seen, and will post it if I find it.