Hi all,
I do apologise if this has been covered elsewhere, I did look but couldn't find my answer!
I need to extend my loft hatch ever so slightly to be able to accommodate a new ladder (and my shoudlers..). At the moment the hatch is just an opening cut between the joists, so is about 420mm wide. I only need an extra few inches width to fit the ladder, and that will also be sufficient to gain comfortable access.
A friend suggested that I secure a piece of timber to the outside of each joist on either side of the current loft hatch, and then cut out a length of each joist to give me the extra width of the now cut out joists. Does that make sense?
Is this a good idea? Will it be structurally sound if I use a a like-for-like size of timber and overlap sufficiently with what joist will remain? Is there a better/more efficient way to do this? If this is a good idea, are there any tips/tricks that I should note to make sure it's done well?
Thanks in advance for any input!
Liam