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How Do I Choose the Best Attic Hatch Door?
The right attic hatch door can depend on the size, location, and purpose of this storage space. If you rarely access attic storage, a door that merely slides over the opening might be a good choice. For attic space that is frequently accessed, a door with a pull-down ladder could be a better option. If your attic also serves as living space, you may want to choose a knee-wall door, especially if there are already stairs leading up to this room.
An attic hatch door can be very simple or elaborate. One of the more simple types consists of a wooden panel, which slides over top of the opening. To access attic space, this door is normally pushed up and then slid to one side. An advantage to this type of door is that it is inexpensive and easy to install. Even so, you may need to use a ladder to access the door, so making use of attic storage could be awkward to do.
If you feel a sliding door might be difficult to use, one with a pull-down ladder might be a better choice. This type of attic hatch door normally contains a lever that is pulled whenever you need to open the door. One of these doors can work well if you merely plan to use the attic space for storage; however, you should not use the ladder frequently such as when there is a bedroom located there. An advantage of this type of attic hatch door is that it may block more cold air from getting into your home that a sliding one does. It may nonetheless need to be installed by a professional, which could make it a more expensive option.
A knee-wall door could be a better choice if you use this area for sleeping or office space. One of these doors looks much like other interior doors do, but may be somewhat shorter depending on your attic design. A door that is around 3 to 4 feet (0.92 to 1.2 m) high might be best if you have very short walls. This small door could work well for a child's bedroom, but may be difficult for adults to use. If your walls are large enough, a door that is around 5 to 6 feet (1.53 to 1.83 m) high could make your attic much easier to access no matter you intend to use this space for.
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Discussion Comments
The cheap slide attic doors are fine as long as you are young and in good health, but as you get older you are not going to want to be climbing a ladder to get to those Christmas decorations down each year. And then you have to get them back up there as well.
If you're in a house and you are planning to be their until retirement then go ahead and get a sturdy set of pull down stairs. The key word there is sturdy. Some of the pull down steps are not well made and almost as risky as climbing a ladder.
@Feryll - I don't see why you would need more than a slide door to your attic since you are not going to be using it often. The main task will be to make sure you get the opening large enough so that you can get whatever needs to go up there through the hole. Once you have the door, you can use a good fiberglass stepladder to reach the attic.
Our old house has an attic entry in one of the closets and the opening is almost impossible to get to, let alone actually get anything in and out of the attic. I like the idea of adding a simple, but larger slide door like the type talked about in the second paragraph of this article. I don't want to spend a lot of money, and the slide door sounds simple and inexpensive.
However, I am concerned that we might need something more elaborate. We don't use the attic as living space, but we would like to use it as storage space for items we seldom if ever use.
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