Does anyone have an attic room with pull down ladders?

[skintyskintskint]

We have just put created an attic room. It looks faband is much needed space in a tiny cottage with 3dc. The plan is to use the room as a den/tv room/spare bedroom, so basically a room with a futon and a tv.

We had originally thought of a space saving staircase but it means lowering a section of the ceiling to make a platform. So we are now considering a pull down ladder. Im just not sure how much of a pita this will be.

Anyone use an attic room daily and have a pull down?

I looked at a house that had one and I didn't like the thought of it to be honest. I was worried about using that as my only means of escape in a fire.

Also it might be worth getting the space saver staircase and bringing anything else up to regulation (I don't know what they regulations are but you can ring the council and ask), then you can class that as a room in your house.

Just a thought, while you are on doing work it might be worth doing that little bit more.

you haven't thought about building regulations, then?

It wouldn't pass building regulations so if you did it you probably find it tricky to sell your house in the future.

if you sell it, you have to call it a "loft storage area"

if it is not done to building regs, it adds negative value to the house since a buyer expects to have the extra cost of pulling it all out, then the cost of doing it again properly.

sorry.

I dont care about bringing it up to regs. It would never be classed as a room as the ceiling height 2 inches short of what they ask for. It is a temporary solution to our problem. Not planning on selling.

We have! My husband uses it every day as his office and it works for us. It's noisier than a proper staircase, obviously, but it was all we could do with the space we had and it's working really well! It's not officially a room, as you said, but it's been a massive help to us.

My daughter sleeps in a room like that-we just leave the ladder down. Mean to upgrade it at some point but i am avoiding the issue as i rekon it will cost a fortune

We have one. The loft room is like an office for all DPs junk stuff. It could never be classed as a room as such due to the ceiling height being a bit too short. But the people that had the house before us used it as a bedroom.

We viewed a house with one... I have 3 kids (7yrs, 3yrs and 1yr) and there is no way that I would've allowed them to use the ladder to get to the stairs. Not even my oldest. It would only have worked for us if it was a study for my husband who works from home 2 days a week. It just didn't work for us. The thought of anyone, even my husband missing his footing, and falling down, trapping his legs/potentially breaking one... just scared me.

But, this was an old ladder.. and was literally a metal ladder which was pulled down. Maybe there are better ones on the market which are safer. I'm normally quite laid back - but on this area I wasn't.

Also, I think it sounds a great solution to your space problem with 3 kids... I'm sure you can get a safe ladder for them. Good luck. x