Choosing a loft ladder

Believe it or not, a loft ladder could be the best purchase you ever made for your home. Above your ‘living’ quarters is a void of space just waiting to be utilized. You can clear out all of those items that you occasionally use from your living space and store them up in the loft. Choosing the correct loft ladder will make it easier to get up in to your loft or roof space meaning that you will be inclined to use that space more.

Loft ladders come in a range of different materials, but the most common is aluminum or wood, they also come in a range of different configuration such as concertina, telescopic of sliding. What you choose will be driven by your budget, amount of use it will receive and the amount of space available in your loft to store the ladder when not in use. Ladders can even be custom made for your exact requirements.

There are two measurements that you will need to know before choosing your loft ladder and that is the height and reach of your ladder. The height is the measurement from the top of your loft hatch to the underside of the roof above it. The reach is the amount of space you will need to allow for the loft ladder when it is stored in the loft.

If your budget allows then a wooden loft ladder is a great option to go for. They can be used for floor to ceiling heights of between 2.3 and 2.8 meters (about 7 – 9 ft) and are relatively compact when in their stored position. Most timber loft ladders fold in three places and when you are pulling them down from the hatch are balanced by springs. This is an important feature if you are not as able as you used to be but would still like access to your roof space. The wooden ladders that you can buy online usually come with the loft hatch and more often than not this hatch is insulated. The loft ladder is actually attached to the hatch door so that as you open the hatch the ladder unfolds. A very neat solution.

Expect to pay between £189 up to £400.00 ($300 to $650)

If you want to get value for money then you should be looking at getting an aluminum loft ladder. They can be generalized in to two categories, three section sliding and two section sliding. They type you get will be dependent on the amount of head room in your loft. if you only have a shallow pitch roof and not a lot of head room in your loft you will probably need to go for a three section ladder. The beauty of the aluminum ladders is that they do allow for a wide range of floor heights, but this is only good if you’ve got the height available in your loft when putting the ladder away. An aluminum ladder will accommodate a floor to ceiling height of about 3m but you will need the height in the loft to be able to store it away.

Expect to pay between £30.00 up to £120.00 ($50 - $150)

So what do you do then if you have a large floor to ceiling height and only a shallow loft space? Well there are two options – a telescopic or concertina loft ladder. These ingenious mechanisms fold down to virtually nothing. In my opinion they’re worth buying just for the mechanism! Sad I know, but just look at them.

Concertina Loft Ladders will take weights of up to a 100kg and can be used with a drop up to 3m. You only need to have 500mm of height in the lofts so these ladders really can be used in the tightest of spaces.

The telescopic ladder needs no height in the loft, but do require a decent sized hatch. Most telescopic ladders fix to the loft hatch door and when they are in their stored positon need the loft hatch will still need to be shut. A telescopic ladder that needs to be used with a floor to ceiling height of 3.2m will need a loft hatch that is approximately a 1 meter long.

Although the concertina and telescopic loft ladders are fantastic solutions – in term of engineering – to fix a common problem, they do come at a cost. Generally out of all the ladders here you can expect to pay the most for them, but if you intend to use that space it may well be money well spent.

Expect to pay between £160 up to £800.00 ($250 - $1200)

As I mentioned at the start always make sure you have measured the space available to you in your loft and if a telescopic or concertina ladder is more appropriate measure the hatch dimensions to. Always check that that there is nothing obstructing where the loft ladder will lie once it is in its stored position.