Unfortunately, the original hinge design isn't the best. (not apparant
until ladder has been used 30 or 40 times). Menards probably supplied
their store from some overseas manufacturer that didn't test the design
properly. Buying new from the manufacturer just recreates the original
problem and I'll have another bent/broken hinge 3 years down the road.

Doug Miller wrote:
In article om, "1_Patriotic_Guy" wrote:
Recently the hinge on my attic ladder broke and my friend welded a
reinforcement strip of metal to the hinge to prevent a repeat. The
original manufacturer's design must have been a little off because the
hinge had been bending over a long period of time.

It's also possible that the installation was "a little off", causing the hinge
to be stressed when the ladder was operated.

Unfortunalely without holding it in place with an unused closet pole,
the door now hangs down about a half inch, allowing a considrable
amount of cold air into the room from the attic. I now half to close
the door to that room or let my heater attempt to "catch-up".

I guess your buddy with the welder might not have gotten things lined up quite
the way they were before...

What are my options to solve the problem. Perhaps some sort of
decorative "latch" attached to the frame to hold the attic door to the
ceiling. Has anyone else done this? What works best? I'd like a
solution that solves the problem and still allows it to look okay.

Buy a replacement hinge -- you can probably get one from the manufacturer.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.