How to Make an Attic Entrance

Draw the opening you need to cut for the attic entrance on the ceiling using the measurements of the ladder’s door panel. Cut along the line you traced using a handsaw, and remove the drywall. Cut through any joists that sit in the cutout and remove them as well.

Attach a couple of 1x3 boards to the ceiling using wood screws, positioning the boards so they sit over both ends of the cutout. Cut 1x8 boards to the dimension of the opening in the ceiling. Spread wood glue on the joints and drive nails through the boards to hold them together.

Lower the frame you constructed into the ceiling’s opening, resting the frame against the boards you secured with the screws. Drive nails through the frame and into the floor joists. Remove the screws holding the 1x3 boards to the ceiling and remove the boards.

Hold the door panel at one end of the cutout you made in the ceiling, pressing the hinge attached to the panel against the frame in the opening. Drive screws through the hinge’s anchor holes and into the frame you installed.

Attach the spring drums for the stairs onto the frame your installed on the left and right sides above where you anchored the door’s hinge. Anchor the header guide frame to the wood frame you installed in the cutout, driving screws through the guide frame’s mounting holes. Position the guide frame on the end of the frame above the door’s hinge.

Mount cable pulleys to both sides of the frame in the ceiling’s opening, positioning the pulleys so they sit 20 inches from the end of the frame where the door’s hinge is anchored. Put together the attic staircase by following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Lean the staircase against the door panel, and then drive screws through the mounting brackets’ openings and into the door. Climb up the ladder until you can reach the top of the stringers. Push the stringers toward each other until the bars on the header guide fit in the grooves on the outside of the stringers.

Drive screws through cable holders, which you place over the pre-drilled holes on the sides of the staircase’s stringers. Pull out the cable from one of the spring drums and string it through the pulley on its side of the frame. Pull the cable to the cable holder on the same side of the stairs, and insert the end of the cable into the holder. Repeat the same process with the cable on the other side of the stairs.