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Help, looking for pull down STAIRCASE

user-121922 | Posted in General Discussion on April 28, 2006 10:17am

I am looking for Fire-escape styled pulldown stairs to gain access to my garage loft. I’m setting it up as my workshop. I have seen these before but I can’t remember a manufaturer. I’m not looking forward designing and building it myself if someone has already built the wheel.

The folding type are out of the question–not heavy duty enough. I”ve seen pull and slide down variants(Bessler.com for example). These do have higher load capacities and right now are my best bet as far as I can see.

Local codes prevent me from putting external stairs up to the loft—garages, and garages with loftspace are not allowed to be extra livingspace by their thinking. Retrackable stairs will get the building dept. off my back. Getting a variance to put in permenant internal stairs will be tough.

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  1. User avater
    gdcarpenter | Apr 29, 2006 12:00am | #1

    Not exactly what you may be looking for but try 'Rainbow' stairs. They are quite heavy duty metal pull down stairs, albeit not inexpwnsive.

    They do take up a much smaller 'footprint' than most pull down stairs, the flip side of which is they are steeper to climb.

    Good news is they are a bit wider than most, an advantage depending on your girth and what you are moving. I believe the door for my set was about 5' long, but that's for a 10' - 8" floor to ceiling height.

    Let's not confuse the issue with facts!

  2. philarenewal | Apr 29, 2006 01:16am | #2

    >>"Getting a variance to put in permenant internal stairs will be tough.

    I would never advocate building stairs to a storage loft without a permit because there is some remote possibility that some day you might just use it as living space even though you know better than that . . . but . . . if you can fit a set of permanent stairs inside where the BI can never really see once all the other inspections are complete . . . it would make me wonder, strictly as a thought exercise of course, whether a permanent set of stairs would actually be safer and more comfortable than temporary stairs . . . .  ;-)

     

    "Let's get crack-a-lackin"  --- Adam Carolla

  3. RevTed | Apr 29, 2006 09:48am | #3

    How About--    http://www.jomy.com/cbladder/page.html

     

    T  

  4. woodguy99 | Apr 29, 2006 03:20pm | #4

    Another vote for Rainbow stairs, if you can afford them.  Heavy duty and good looking.

     

     

  5. woodway | Apr 29, 2006 07:36pm | #5

    Why not install or build wooden ladder as access then when the inspector signs off on the final, replace with whatever you want. Leave a little time lag between final inspection and reinstall of stairs or whatever. We do this all the time with bath lights and outdoor stairs wo handrails etc.

  6. alwaysoverbudget | Apr 30, 2006 06:13am | #6

    how about a set of shop built stairs with a set of machinery casters,with locks, just in case you need to move them.similar to the ones used at lowes only homebuilt .[you could always move them if inspector needs to inspect a new hot water tank etc.....some time.] larry

    hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.

  7. Sawdaddy | Apr 30, 2006 03:51pm | #7

    Here's a site for pull down stairs.

    Dunno if they might be what yer lookin' for or not.

     

    http://www.calvertusa.com

     

    -Sawdaddy

  8. User avater
    BillHartmann | Apr 30, 2006 04:12pm | #8

    If that space is going to be used as a shop I don't think that any retractable stairs are going to be usable.

    I think that you need stairs with normal rise/run to be able to carry the materials and supplies and finished products up and down.

    And they will need to be wider than most common retractable stairs.

    1. user-121922 | May 01, 2006 08:58pm | #9

      Bill, thats my thinking and it just may come to that. I'm already working on getting a variance that will permit me to do just that but it will be a tough hill to climb--city redtape and BS. Since I plan to be here for a long while, I'm tempted to go ahead and build a permanent set and deal with the fallout. I really like to be on the up and up, it is just the way I'm wired. However, in Chicago, if you build it and no one says anything, you get away with it. The build dept. is so overwelmed and there are so few inspectors that most get away with what ever they do---as long as it does't make the news and give the build dept a black eye.   

       However, what I am looking for are a set of stairs that functionally work like the old fire escape stairs that come down as a complete staircase. They are very sturdy and have load capacities in the 1200 lb+ range. In my youth ,I spied a few of these in some old barns that gave access to the loftspace.  As most of us, I was foolish in not thinking that I might need that info later in life.

       

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