How to Install Pull Down Attic Stairs

Your attic can be a convenient place to store things you won't be needing for a while, but you need attic stairs to access this space. If you don't have space to build a fuil staircase, purchase a kit of pre-built pull-down stairs. Follow these steps with the help from someone strong enough to help you hoist them into your attic.

Step 1 – Choose a Convenient Location

You'll need the right location, both in your house where you'll have room to pull down your stairway, and in your attic where you'll have room to enter with your items to be stored and where you'll have enough head room to stand erect. You'll also need to check in the flooring of your attic for wiring or air ducts you'll want to avoid cutting.

Step 2 – Identify a Place for Your Attic Opening

Plan to cut your opening between attic floor joints, so as to avoid cutting through joists that might be needed for support. Remember, this space between joists will be about 16 inches, so plan accordingly. In addition, you'll need these floor joists as framing for your stairway, so do not cut through them. To mark the opening of your new entrance, locate the place where you want the entrance.

Drive a nail through the center drywall where you'll want one corner of your entrance, but not more than ½ an inch away from an attic joist. This nail, when seen from below the ceiling, will identify one corner of your entrance. Then do the same with the other 3 corners, making sure all these nails are inside the same joist.

Step 3 – Cut an Opening in Your Ceiling

From below the attic floor, use your square and pencil to draw a square with the holes made by your nails at each corner of the square. Then use your saw to cut out the opening in the ceiling drywall.

Step 3 – Create a Frame

Cut two 2x4 boards that will fit the opening when fastened to the attic joists. Using your power drill drive your in your screws, and attach header boards to the two joists, so that the ends of the header boards fit parallel with each other. Next, cut two 1x4x20-inch boards. These boards will serve as temporary support. Place them on the surface of your ceiling and fasten them to the framing boards with screws or nails.

Step 4 – Install Your Stair Unit

You'll need someone to help you get the unit up into the attic. When you have lifted it up, put it into place with its hinges at the bottom of your new opening, then fasten the unit to your wood frame.