Installing a replacement attic ladder

The attic ladder in our garage never really seemed right. When we first moved in, it didn't "stretch out" all the way when it was open. Turns out the original installers skipped a "critical step" in the instructions, the didn't cut the extra length off the legs of the ladder and it made it not work correctly. That was 16+ years ago and I finally replaced it this week with a new unit and oriented correctly along the trusses instead of across them.


We use the attic ladder about 6 times a year, twice at Christmas time, Easter and some other random holiday. Not something to think much about, but as time wore on, the ladder wore out. After I realized that the legs were too long I contacted the manufacturer and they emailed me the original instructions. There in big BOLD letters was the phrase "DO NOT CUT TRUSSES" I realized that the original installers had also skipped that step and installed the ladder by cutting apart the bottom of the truss to make it so the ladder would open along the length of the garage instead of the width. Unfortunately cutting trusses makes them weak. A truss is a triangle made up of smaller triangles, if you cut any one of those triangles you make the whole structure weak and can end up causing damage. I realized that not only did I need to install a new ladder and cut the legs to the right length I had to turn the ladder 90 degrees and install it along the trusses. The ladders are even made to fit between 24" on center truss alignment, which I have in my attic.

Mind you I didn't just figure this out, I've known about this literally for years, I've just put it off. A few months ago Sandi made a todo list for the house and on it was the attic ladder. I had Martin Luther King Jr. day off from work and while cleaning up my email I noticed the todo list and thought "I could get this done today and that would be a great use of a day off" little did I know.

Taking out the ladder was a lot harder than I expected. While most of the nails that had originally been used to install it were loose there were some that were nailed in to other boards that themselves were loose. The whole structure was completely unstable. I removed all but four screws I had put in later to stabilize it. I had hammered out one end of the ladder box since one side of the ladder was no longer being held up by a spring assembly. This allowed me to work on each side separately, what I did not realize was the spring assembly that was attached would bring the exposed nails slashing across my arm as I removed the last screw. It was one of those moments when you think, gosh I wish I hadn't done that. It's not an emergency, but I really don't want to get blood on this nice shirt. Tyler had been helping me so I sent him in to get Sandi she was in no rush to come out because I told her not to, I realized that she did need to rush and we got it bandaged up and I was back to work. Now I had a hole in the ceiling with a three cut trusses and a bunch of extra cross bracing I no longer needed. I removed all of the old cross bracing, it was what the ladder was attached to, and prepared to repair the trusses.
Since the trusses were cut, I bought some "green" 2x4" lumber to "sister" along the trusses and screw between the sister and the original truss. Since the truss had been cut, the ceiling of the garage had started to sag. I knew I needed to jack the ceiling back up so I grabbed a sturdy bucket, flipped it over, put a 2x6 on there and a car jack. Then I stood up one of the 8 foot 2x4" and another piece of wood at the top to spread out the pressure. I turned the jack as Tyler watched the new 2x4 and the existing truss "level out" I wasn't really sure how far I should jack it up, I just wanted both sides of the cut truss to be even and I figured the only way that would happen is if the truss was jacked to be level with the shorter side first, screw it in, then move the jack to the other side where more sagging had happened and screw that together. Little did I know.

In the process of vacuuming out accumulated insulation and dust I discovered that one of the trusses on the other side of a joint was cracked. I used all 8 feet of the 2x4 to extend past that point and screw the cracked truss to the new lumber. I will eventually go back and drill bolt holes and put a reinforcing plate on there. Cutting the truss had no only caused the truss to expand, it also caused it to pivot around a point and cause it to crack.
It took me so long to fix the first two trusses that I stopped for the night. I bought another non-green 2x4" the next day to fill in the places that were cut out and used it to jack up the last of the three cut trusses and screwed that all down tight.
The next night I cut out the opening for the new ladder.
Now we're at Thursday night and all is set for getting the ladder in the attic, unfortunately we had company and Tyler was busy so I thought I would rig up my own little pulley system so that I could have the ladder hang in the right place while I nailed it in. This worked pretty well until the come along that I was using as a pulley got above the ceiling and I couldn't make it move any more. Tyler and the person visiting him helped me lift the ladder in to place in then use the provided metal straps to hang it from the rafters. Unfortunately even though the instructions specifically said that the opening was supposed to be 22 1/2" x 54" the ladder was about 3/4" shorter in each dimension. I really didn't want to have 3/4" on one side of the ladder so I purchased a 1x4 (which is really 3/4" on one dimension) to fill in that space. I took Friday night off and wanted to get done on Saturday.
I removed some of the nails I had initially put in and attempted to fit the 3/4" board in the space between the truss and the ladder. It wasn't 3/4" the whole way, so I had to sledge hammer the board in as far as possible. I could then start the final nailing of the ladder to the attic. I wanted the ladder to hang straight, so I used a level at the top. The instructions indicated that there are six places where you put a nail through a metal brace and drive it home to transfer as much of the motion during use directly to the supporting beams. Unfortunately they put those holes really close to the spring and I only have a hammer with a really large face. I spent the next hour or so hammering, unbending the nail, hammering some more, unbending the nail, pulling out nails that were completely bent, hammering in new ones. I was pretty happy that all of the nails were fully installed and there wasn't going to be any damage due to the nails coming loose.

One step remained to actually have the ladder in the attic, cutting the legs.
Like I said earlier, the reason the ladder failed initially was that the legs were never cut. If you don't cut the legs you put a lot of stress on the wood in places it's not designed to receive. Fortunately the instructions are simple, fold the bottom most section up out of the way and measure how far it is from the end of each side of each board to the floor. They cut it at the factory square, but you cut it at an angle to match the floor. Fortunately the measured spots ended up just below the metal rod that supports the bottom most step. Due to the sloped nature of the garage floor the side nearer the garage door is slightly lower. I cut the legs and the garage door side was 1/4" too long. I cut that off too and the bottom most step is almost on the floor, but it is very stable, something I've never felt in a garage ladder at our house.
Now all that remained was the minor job of repairing the sheetrock since it is the firewall for the house. I had the piece that I had cut out for the new ladder, but there wasn't enough to cover all of the opening that was there so I bought an entire 4x8' sheet bummed that I was only going to use about 2x5' but they don't sell it any smaller.
I got home and cut out the damaged pieces and was ready to cut one more piece and the whole area fell out of the ceiling. Since I had an 8' long piece, I went ahead and cut it all the way back to where it wasn't damaged almost 8' and all 4' across. The only thing we had to do was cut out a little in where the door was and take about an inch off the end since the trusses weren't exactly 8' apart. We measured the required opening, cut the sheetrock and test fit it. It didn't fit. I had to cut an additional 1/2" or so off one end in order to get it to fit. The cut I had made wasn't very square and it was interfering. Once we got it up there, we put drywall screws about every 6 inches and held it in place. Sheetrock is pretty heavy, and this was only 1/4" stuff, I can't imagine anything heavier in that spot. We would have had to have some sort of jack, instead we just used our heads, literally.

So, now that the trusses are repaired, the ladder is installed, the sheetrock is replaced, all we have to do is put the "flooring" back in up in the attic. The previous installation had two 8' sections of 1/4" plywood as the floor. Since the ladder has changed in position and orientation, we'll need to cut those pieces to fit, and get some more for the other side. Otherwise you can't really put anything in the attic without it sitting on the weak sheetrock.

Moen Shower Faucets are Evil - or how I learned to love the internet (even more)

This was supposed to be the "relax, do a little laundry" Saturday between the intensity of Thanksgiving week and the upcoming preparations for the Christmas Gift to San Jose. Somehow that changed when I thought "oh I could change out the tub/shower faucet in the hall bathroom while my wife is out of the house." As you can imagine that's now how it went.

I purchased two new valves, one made of plastic and one made of brass. They each included a small plastic cap that is used to help remove the old unit.

I took the knob off of the control and removed the keeper clip. I then placed the plastic removal tool on the old unit and started to turn the whole assembly inside the wall. It promptly stopped and shredded the tool. The Moen faucets work by rotating a metal tube inside of another metal tube selecting some part of the hot or cold water and mixing them together to go out the faucet or shower. The tool is supposed to loosen the outer assembly so you can pull both pieces out together. Unfortunately I hadn't loosened it enough and when I was pulling on the internal shaft, it pulled clean out, without the other piece I needed to get out. Now I had a worse problem. I couldn't grab anything to pull on the piece still in the wall. I tried putting a sprinkler system removal tool in there. That got it to spin, but it wouldn't come out. I eventually stopped and thought "I wonder what I can find on google with my iphone." I simply typed "Moen Faucet removal" fortunately there was another blog post that suggested getting a 1/2" tap and tapping the interior of the remaining metal and then threading in 1/2" shaft. At that point you have something to hold on to and can use a nut to jack it out of the wall.

This is a picture of the tap and interior after I got it out:


As you can see, I bought an eye bolt and a couple of washers. This allowed me to use a large tool on the outside to rotate the whole assembly. After all of this, the insertion of the new unit was a piece of cake. It works a lot better now.

You have to clean a Squirrel Cage? (fan)

For months I had been thinking that bathroom fan "super-quiet" fan wasn't so quiet. Today I was looking at a can of compressed air and I thought "Hey, I could use that blow any dust that might have accumulated in the bathroom fan." I figured if a can of spray can clean a fan in a computer, it should be able to do the same for a bigger fan too. I sprayed the air in to the opening, but it didn't really seem to help. Then I figured I should take the fan out of the ceiling and look inside:
Wow, that's a lot worse than I thought it was. It's hard to tell from the photo, but apparently there is a layer of dust on top of a white crust. I assume that the white crust is calcium deposits from the moisture in the air. Removing the dust and crust was a lot harder than I thought. I ended up taking the fan out of the housing and using q-tips and screwdrivers to break the dust and crust free. I vacuumed up the junk as I went.

After I thought I was all done I hit it with the air spray again and all sorts of more dust blew out of the fan assembly.

After it was all cleaned up I hooked it back up to power and it all sounded good. After putting the fan back in the ceiling and the low rumble that we used to have in there was gone.

It's in there! (Garage Door is done)

Friday was a full day. When they put "11-1" on the paperwork I thought it meant, arrive at 11AM leave at 1PM. Well when I got home at 11AM and they weren't there I waited 15 minutes and called to find out they meant "Arrive 11-1, finish as possible" oh.

They arrived about 11:45 and were two very polite hard workers. I told them that the door hinge was about to come apart and asked me to push the door opener button as they helped the door up. Of course since the door wasn't being held down by gravity any more it immediately slid off the door hinge pin and the springs released with a loud bang! Fortunately I had safety locks properly in place and the springs didn't go shooting off in to the ceiling or one of them. Unfortunately these two guys were literally holding up the garage door by themselves. One guy sturdied himself and the other guy jumped in his pickup and backed under the door to hold it up.

From Home Improvement

I always wondered how they got those big doors up on the roof rack of the pickups. Now I know :)

From Home Improvement

From Home Improvement

From Home Improvement

I asked them to estimate how long it would take and they said about two hours. I needed to get back to work so I asked if they could call me before they were done. They verified my cell phone number and I left them working with my wife home.

Later that day they called me to say they were just about done and to come back and sign it off. As soon as I arrived I noticed a problem. The window inserts were the "Full sunburst" where the combination of four panels make up the whole sunburst. I had requested the "Dual Sunburst" where two panels make up a sunburst and there are two sets. I went in found my order form, double checked that I had actually ordered it, walked back out and told them that there was a small problem. They immediately got on the phone with their boss and told me that they would take care of it without our intervention. The panels are installed from the outside and are easily replaced. I had him show me how so that if mine are ever damaged I can replace them myself.

The lead person showed me how to use the remote and as soon as the door opened there was a loud "pop" and I asked him what that was. He disconnected the motor from the door and manually slid the door along its tracks. At one point the upper and 2nd from upper door segments would bind up then release dramatically, kind of like an earthquake. He adjusted the spacing between the doors and sprayed lubrication all along the interface between the door segments. I still noticed some creaking, but it was significantly better. Not having a sliding door like this before I had no reference for how quiet or loud it should be. He showed me that there are new sensors near the bottom of the track for making sure nothing is in the way. He showed me how you can lock out remotes without disabling the button by the door to the house. I signed the paperwork and they left.

From Home Improvement

Later that night I needed something in the garage and when I went out I didn't have to turn on the overhead lights, there was enough light coming in through the windows in the door that I could get what I needed, clothes from the dryer, without any additional light. I had no idea how much that would improve our situation. I am really glad I went ahead with the windows. All in all it was a great experience.

The Door is in the mail

Well, I met with the "Costco" salesman yesterday. He was actually from a local contractor "Aaron Overhead Doors." He was pretty convincing on getting the double wall insulated door. When I asked my wife if she wanted windows in the upper portion of the door she said "I don't care" which of course meant she cared but there were too many choices etc. etc.

We ended up choosing windows with "dual sunburst" patterns.

The salesman ordered the doors, set up an install time tomorrow and we were done. That was the shortest sales pitch I had ever received. Of course the price was fixed and the options were limited so it made it pretty easy.

Tonight we have to clear 12 feet back from the garage door for them to be able to install it. I think we can do that without too much effort. Fortunately the outdoor temperature has dropped dramatically so it won't be unbearable in there after a day of sun baking.

Need a new garage door

The time has come for the makeover to start up again. In this case mostly because our garage door is about to fall off one of its hinges. I called the "Costco" 800 number for garage doors and was met by a menu for all of their other home contractor services like counter tops etc. etc. They obviously have a list of local contractors that they send your call information to for them to call you back. I got a call back yesterday from my local contractor and someone will be at my house today between 1 and 3 PM. They are supposed to call 30 minutes before hand so I can meet them there for the discussion. We'll see how that goes. By the way, when I started to ask Sandi a question about the garage door she said "four panels" what? "four panels." Oh, I see you want the garage door to be a four panel across variety, not three, not eight, OK thanks.

I'm going to leave the garage door removal and installation to the pros, but am going to add some outlets in the garage for the opener and an outlet near the front for plugging in electrical yard tools (string and hedge trimmers etc.) I have read that the newest electrical code requires all garage outlets to be GFCI. Most GFCI outlets can be put in series so that you only have to have one of them and any downstream outlet can be protected. The problem with this approach is that if you pop the GFCI on the opener for instance, the power to a garage fridge or freezer will go out. So I am going to pay the price to buy individual GFCIs and not put them in a chain to hopefully prevent this problem.

I had planned on having this done before any salesmen or installers came, but it has been unseasonably warm and the attic would be unbearable. So I asked the lady that called if I can get away with an extension cord and she said that they would do the installation, but not sign it off until that portion was complete. I can handle that, they are willing to work with me.

While I'm talking about the garage, I need to put a new Attic access door in. The one that was in the garage ceiling when we moved in was not installed correctly to begin with and has suffered and caused damage to that portion of the garage ceiling. I'll be doing that a little later after the garage door is in.

Wish me luck!

Putting the Piano back in place

With a lot of help, we got the piano off the piano dolly and back on the ground. My wife did a great job putting all of the decorations back in place and it looks great.



We bought some plastic "cups" with rubberized bottoms to hold the wheels of the piano in place. The wheels are metal and would likely drag and scratch before rolling if we ever bumped in to the piano, so we just locked it down using the cups.

From the pictures it's hard to tell that the piano actually looks pretty good against the color of the wood floor. The camera flash really makes the differences stand out, especially the water damaged left side of the piano.

I look forward to taking a picture of the island, but it's been in use a lot lately so I can't get a clear picture.