Custom Pull Down Attic Stairs in Middletown, NJ

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022 by Michael Gloeckler

Challenge

Our customer was having heat and cold air seeping in and out of their attic hatch in Middletown, NJ. This homeowner’s attic hatch when closed leaked huge amounts of air. All that lost air is then replaced with cold or hot air which continuously escapes into the attic. This issue causes cold drafty rooms that are harder to heat and sustains higher heating and cooling costs.

In addition to the leaky attic hatch, our customer had an older style attic hatch. The attic hatch was a telescoping pull down stair system. These created issues for insulating the attic hatch due to the lack of attic space.

Solution

When our team at Dave Hoh’s Home Comfort & Energy Experts inspected the attic hatch, we found the solution wasn’t our standard type of treatment. Normally our team will fasten a David Lewis Hatch Cover right over the pull down stairs, but in this case our homeowner’s attic had no room. The attics telescoping stairs was too large for our hatch cover. Our solution to this problem was to build a penthouse over the attic stairs. Before we do this, we first air seal the seams of the attic with our ZypFoam. Finally, our team built a penthouse box made from our SilverGlo Insulation Foam over the attic hatch.

This solution results in a more comfortable and less drafty house. Also the homeowner will now enjoy a lower fuel and electric bill.

With no insulation installed to our customer's attic hatch, the homeowner will lose heat and cold air through the attic hatch.

Not our typical job, but we adapted and instead of using the David Lewis Hatch Cover, we created our own penthouse hatch cover. This image is still in the production stages and shows the fastening of the SilverGlo insulation foam boards used. We also created a hatch on top of the penthouse for the customer or whoever needs to inspect the attic for easy access.