Attic Entrance

[drozwood90]

I'm trying to come up with the best way to "fix" the attic entrance. The builder left me a piece of painted wood, and a piece of 12" fiberglass insulation (cut to fit).

However, as this is a new house, I'm heading into the attic more and more (as the weather warms up) so I can add wires, etc.

I'm seeing the insulation starting to fray and want to replace the whole access panel with something a bit more professional then what I have.

My parent's had fold down stairs...but they also had storage up in the attic. I do not. My attic is purely for running wires...oh and holding the insulation!

the hole is about 2'x3'(ish, I never measured it). I'd be up for some kind of fold down ladder thing...but want to ensure that I can keep the "best" possible insulation that I can. Even if it required a multi-step to access the attic. I.e. one, fold down ladder, two go up ladder, three open "heavily insulated" access door

Thanks for any tips on what you have in your house / suggest!

--Dan

 

[Rupp]

My attics (2) are accessible via regular doors in the rear of closets. I put one of them in myself and it make accessing the attic a breeze.

 

[SteveQ]

Dan,

I glued 2 - 2" thick pieces of styrafoam insulation to the inside of the access panel. Not very elegant but effective.

Steve Q

 

[nightwalker]

Initially I had a hatch as you do. I converted it to a folding stair type one year and then noticed that I was losing heat through those stairs. I built a box, mostly out of that 2" Styrofoam board you see in the home improvement stores. It sits over the opening and is hinged so that as I opened the stairs and went up, I could push the box out of the way and pull it back into place as I was coming back down. It's been working great and took care of my heat loss problem.

 

[beelzerob]

I've got the hatch, in the guest bedroom closet. A board just rests in the "cavity" to seal it. On the other side of that board is a piece of blue foam glued to it, and on top of that a thick piece of bat insulation. *shrug* It might be losing heat in there, but that bedroom has never had a problem staying warm.

It's a pain going up there, but I just keep a ladder in that closet now, since it's a guest closet anyway. Usually I find myself going up into the attic a lot only ocassionally...during some particular project. So, year-round frequent access really isn't normal, in my opinion. I don't have a problem with the hassle involved, given the relative infrequency of having to get up there. It's not like our above-garage storage area, which has a pull down ladder (and also no need for insulation).

 

[Neurorad]

Pre-made styrofoam covers are available, to reduce heat loss, and they can look pretty good.

R-39
http://www.essnrg.com/index.html


I don't think you could get folding stairs for that size opening.

 

[DrunkenLizard]

Droz I'm in the same boat, well they left me a piece of 5/8 drywall and the opening is just a bit bigger than a box of cat5. My biggest issue besides the heat loss is the blown insulation that gets everywhere in the room whenever I venture up there to run some wires.

 

[beelzerob]

For our entry "hatch", (it's about 2 X 3), they surrounded it with 2X12 boards on top of the 2 X 4's from the framing, which puts the top of the entrance above the level of the blown-in insulation. It's a good way to keep it from raining down.

My biggest problem initially was...when I lifted the hatch up and set it aside, I set it right into nothing but blown-in insulation. Boy, does that stuff compact! So now there's a big dent up there in the nice bed of insulation. I finally had to build a little platform next to the entrance so I could easily slide the lid off to the side as I came up.

 

[wuench]

For our entry "hatch", (it's about 2 X 3), they surrounded it with 2X12 boards on top of the 2 X 4's from the framing, which puts the top of the entrance above the level of the blown-in insulation. It's a good way to keep it from raining down.

My biggest problem initially was...when I lifted the hatch up and set it aside, I set it right into nothing but blown-in insulation. Boy, does that stuff compact! So now there's a big dent up there in the nice bed of insulation. I finally had to build a little platform next to the entrance so I could easily slide the lid off to the side as I came up.

All my blown in insulation is completely tramped down from running wires. But the upside is it allowed me to find a wire with a staple completely piercing it. Another future disaster averted....

If you go to Home Depot or Lowes and check out the ladder aisle there are a lot of attic door options to consider. From stairs to telescoping ladders. It's on my list too.

 

[zpollock]

I had the builder install a drop down ladder in the attic entry over the garage, but got tired of climbing from one end of the house (where the garage is) to the other (where the equipment is) to fish wires. My wiring closet is off of the master bedroom closet, so I added another entrance with one of these drop down ladders in the closet. It's made wire pulling much easier.

 

[WayneW]

Here is a company with high-end and/or unique stuff, if needed. http://www.rainbowatticstair.com/