A few nice Home Ladders images I found:
20110108 1858 – attic ladder installation – what to do if your latch doesn’t reach – GEDC2087
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
We ran into another snag. Once everything was drilled and installed, we found out the latch on the header didn’t reach the latch catcher on the panel. There was no way it ever would! It simply was too far away!
So we had to improvise…
How do you make a latch go a quarter-inch into the air? Go to your "random metal pieces I don’t know what to do with" jar and fine some metal pieces to space it out farther. This worked, and saved us from having to start over with another panel (+).
installing attic ladder.
brackets, latch, metal pieces, screws.
close-up. jury rigged.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn’s house, Alexandria, Virginia.
January 8, 2011.
… Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
… Read Carolyn’s blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: Too much raccoon noise in the attic! Time to install a built-in ladder, so that we can get up into the attic in 60 seconds to scare away any animals before they decide to move in again. Project cost exceeded 0 and involved 5+ Home Depot trips.