Home Inspection Tip #10

14 Quick, Easy & Inexpensive Ways to Improve Your Home Inspection Report: Tip #10
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Tip #10 involves the “pull down” attic access ladders found inside most homes, sometimes in the hall and sometimes in the garage. These ladders, if improperly installed, can be very dangerous to anyone that climbs them. If, however, the homeowner believes the ladder to be in good operating shape, then the following 3 items should be inspected and any defects found should be repaired before the Buyers Home Inspection begins.

1. The access ladder comes with the ladder, the door and the jam to which all this is attached. This jam must be secured to the ceiling joists that frame the ladder opening. Occasionally, and sometimes regularly, depending on the builder, these stairs are installed with long drywall SCREWS. Screws have a low shear resistance, and stairs installed this way have been known to fall and seriously injure the person on the ladder. To see if your ladder was installed with screws climb the ladder and examine the jam. If screws were used you will see the Philips Head cross instead of a flat nail head. DO NOT remove the screws. Rather, add three 16-penny nails to each side and two to each end. This will ensure the safety of your ladder and satisfy the inspector.

2. Most attic access ladders are folding ladders and as such are hinged at two points along their length. It is very common to find these hinges with missing or loose nuts and bolts attaching the hinges to the ladder. Replace any missing fasteners and tighten any that are loose. Your ladder will be safer and your inspector will have one less thing to report.

3. Finally, some wooden ladders have a metal rod at each step, holding the two sides of the ladder Clearance tightly together. Unfortunately, some builders opt for the cheapest ladder they can use, so there are many ladders out there that don’t have this metal rod for support. Wooden ladders without this rod are usually held together with just nails or long staples which can and do work loose over time. The third tip then, is to make sure the steps are mounted securely into the sides of your access ladder. Re-nailing with finish nails is an option and often does the trick for a while. Over time, these additional nails can work themselves loose as well, so I recommend the use of a good carpenters glue before the nails, then allow the nails to hold the step in place while the glue dries. If the step has been previously nailed and there is little hope that nails will work again, metal “T” or “L” brackets can make a permanent repair. They take a bit more work, pre-drilling the holes and putting in the screws, but they should last the life of the ladder.

4. One final note; I have seen ladder steps with 6 or 8 nails in each end, splitting the wood and protruding above and below the step, creating a hazard all by themselves. If your ladder has this problem, or if your repair would create this problem, it would be much safer to spend the $200.00 for a new ladder.

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