I documented my progress so far here and here, after a less than perfect plastering job around it.
I sanded down the filler around the hatch and topped up in a few places where the first attempt hadn't been quite right. After another sand, I was ready to paint! (We won't mention how I managed to filler the old loft hatch in place to the point I had to chisel some of the new filler out so we could open the door... oops!)
I painted the ceiling in white emulsion, the same emulsion we used for the rest of the ceiling. A mini roller on the go and it was a 5 minute job. You can re-coat in 2 hours so I got three coats on in one evening.
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| After one coat |
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| After three coats - looking better already! |
I also had to sort out my double blooper with the bar on the inside clashing with the loft ladder. That was a quick fix with the drill. (You can see the two lines of holes - one the original, one from when I moved it the wrong way - doh!)
Another lick of paint was also required:
I put the new hinges in the same place that the old hinges lined up to be, but drilled them in slightly lower into the wood, as the new ceiling was a few mm lower than the old ceiling would have been.
Now for the cath on the door. We re-used the old one, but to fit it, I got in the loft while the hubby stood on the landing underneath. I'm so glad we did it that way. The first time I tried to fit it, it got stuck! The only way to release it was to unscrew the hatch from the inside. If I hadn't been in the loft, it would have been stuck shut!
The only flaw with the catch is that it needs a bit of space to enable the door to be pushed up in order to release it. This leaves a small gap at the front of the door which has an obvious shadow around it now. I'm thinking of filling it with a piece of white draught excluder as it would be compressible but would also fill in the gap to prevent the shadow.
Either way, I'm darn happy with it, and it's soooo smooth!
Before:
And after!
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