Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

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.

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".

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. I
used wood trim previously to frame out the opening and all is painted
white. Buying a whole new attic ladder seems overkill and unneccessary
as the ladder itself works nicely otherwise and doesn't leak air (not
noticable) if fully closed.

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

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.

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

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.

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

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.

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".

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. I
used wood trim previously to frame out the opening and all is painted
white. Buying a whole new attic ladder seems overkill and
unneccessary as the ladder itself works nicely otherwise and doesn't
leak air (not noticable) if fully closed.

Rig a "screen door latch?" The kind that click shut under spring tension.

Beef up the springs - perhaps they're adjustable?

A counter-weight?

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 09:01:01 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

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.

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".

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. I
used wood trim previously to frame out the opening and all is painted
white. Buying a whole new attic ladder seems overkill and
unneccessary as the ladder itself works nicely otherwise and doesn't
leak air (not noticable) if fully closed.

Rig a "screen door latch?" The kind that click shut under spring tension.

Beef up the springs - perhaps they're adjustable?

A counter-weight?


Bungie cords or a pair of long extension springs, screwed to
the first section of ladder and the roof. Or big-ass
magnets and a metal plate. How much force is needed to
keep the thing in the fully closed position?

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

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.

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".

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. I
used wood trim previously to frame out the opening and all is painted
white. Buying a whole new attic ladder seems overkill and unneccessary
as the ladder itself works nicely otherwise and doesn't leak air (not
noticable) if fully closed.

Since you had to reassemble it, are you sure you got the springs
re tensioned the way they're supposed to be? In mine, the springs have
to be routed over a pair of metal bars that hold them away from the
opening.

I'd go to a hardware store (or even a neighbor's house) and compare with
how they look when properly assembled.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

Attic Ladder lets warm air out, cold air in
 

On 3 Jan 2007 04:00:37 -0800, "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.

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".

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. I
used wood trim previously to frame out the opening and all is painted
white. Buying a whole new attic ladder seems overkill and unneccessary
as the ladder itself works nicely otherwise and doesn't leak air (not
noticable) if fully closed.

imho:

I installed a sash lock on my attic door, with weather stripping
around the edge.

This seems to have worked for me, but I've been looking at the "pink
cap" from OC to further minimize air leakage.

tom @ www.FreeCreditCheckGuide.com