The loft hatch is finished... finally!

Well it's only taken an age, but the loft hatch is pretty much finished.  And man does it look nice a smooth!

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.

After one coat

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!

Do you think it looks better?

Making a new loft hatch

The old loft hatch was pretty gross. The trim was coming away and it was covered in bumpy artex. By leaving it as it was, it was ruining the ambience in our (slowly getting there) hallway.

I had my dad kindly cut out a piece of 18mm plywood months and months ago using his jigsaw. (My dad is a bit of a badass with a jigsaw, and I know I'm most certainly not! This was also in the days before my circular saw became a big part of my life). But alas, it sat in the spare bedroom for months, waiting for me to do something with it. The piece of board I used was actually a bit warped, but was the straightest piece in the pile at Wickes so determined as I was, I decided I could make it work.  We used the old loft hatch as a template.

I started by trying to make it as flat as possible by attaching two battens across the board.  One of the battens (the one at the edge) would be used to help attach the hinges, but the one further in from the edge was just to try and make the board straight.  There is no reason why one of the edges of my battens is at 45 degrees. It's just that was a scrap of wood I already had in the garage and I couldn't be bothered to cut it straight!

I pre-drilled through the batten, but not the board.  I then had to use screws that would just go into the board without popping through the other side, as the other side would be visible!  I managed it though.

The trim was also an important part of the whole thing.  I had bought some D-shape pine moulding for the job.  I also dug out my mitre box and hand saw, as whilst I LOVE my circular saw, I don't think it was quite up for this job. One of the trim strips was completely on the board (so that the door could actually open and not impinge the hinges!), but the other 3 sides were half on the board and half covering the dodgy bit of plastering.

 I secured the trim to the board with some small nails, and used the nail punch to sink them into wood. I then covered the nails with a bit of filler. My 45 degree cuts weren't quite perfect so there was a bit of a gap between the pieces of trim.  More filler required!

Once the filler had dried and I had sanded it, I put on the first coat of paint which was the primer. I used the same paint as I would use for the stairs, Johnstones Joncryl Acrylic Primer.  It's very quick to dry and the odour is minimal so it was quite nice to work with.

I tested the hatch out to check it all fitted, but came across a small problem with the loft ladder.  The batten I installed to keep the wood straight was hitting the bottom of the ladder legs so I needed to move it. (I actually moved it and then realised I moved it the wrong way -doh!)

I've bought some new butt hinges, and the plaster patch up is almost done - so not far off a finished product now. Stay tuned!

Updating the loft hatch

I wasn't particularly happy with how the plasterer had left the loft hatch, and it certainly requires some work to get it to a finished standard.

This is what I was starting with:

I planned to completely change the door, and I have in fact had a new door cut out of plywood for probably about 6 months.  I've just never gotten any further...

But I also needed to sort out the plaster around it.  I knew I'd put some trim around the edge of the door, but I didn't want the trim to be too wide so I needed to sort out the plaster work a bit.

I went back to my trusty filler friend.  I actually used deep gap filler as that's all I had lying around, so I thought I would give it a go.  

I started with a filling knife:

But it really wasn;t working out for me.  The filler seemed too dry so I had a look at the instructions, and it recommended adding a few drops of water to it.  I did this, and also cracked out an old card. And it went on waaaay easier than with the filling knife.  

I had no intentions of getting it perfect first time.  But I have had a good go at it.  I'll follow up with some more filler and then sand it flush with the new plaster level hopefully.  Then when I mount the new door, I'll mount it a few mm lower than existing so it's also flush.

It's certainly not finished, but it's progress nonetheless. #smallprogresseveryday