How to Build a Fold Down Attic Door Insulator

A fold-down attic door allows the stairs to tuck neatly up in your attic when you do not need them, but it can also produce some severe drafts from your upper floor. When you want to keep your heating bills low over the winter, insulate your attic door using foam board and duct tape. Essentially, you will be making an insulated box that sits above your fold-down door, holding the heat downstairs and keeping the cold from sinking through the door itself.

Measuring tape
Craft knife
Foam board
Duct tape

Instructions

- 1
  Enter your attic and pull the fold-down stairs up after yourself.
- 2
  Measure the length of the opening through which the fold-down attic door drops using a measuring tape, and add 1 inch to this measurement. This is measurement A.
- 3
  Measure the width of the opening through which the fold-down attic door drops, and add 1 inch to this measurement. This is measurement B.
- 4
  Measure the distance from the highest point of the folded stairs to the attic floor. While some stairs do sit almost flush with the attic floor when closed, others can rise between 3 and 4 inches or more above the floor. This is measurement C.
- 5
  Cut four strips of foam board, two using measurements A and C, and two using measurements B and C.
- 6
  Tape the strips together to form a symmetrical box.
- 7
  Set the box over the opening and around the stairs and tape it to the floor using duct tape.
- 8
  Cut a rectangle of foam board that matches measurements A and B. This is the lid.
- 9
  Lay the rectangle directly on top of the box, matching each edge to the appropriate side of the box.
- 10
  Lay a strip of duct tape along one long edge, taping the lid to the box and acting as a hinge. In this way, the lid can be pulled closed behind you when you exit the attic and pushed open when you enter.

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