You should feel the saw touching the side of the joist as you cut.
How to make an attic hatch door.
You are trying to save the drywall panel so work slowly to make clean cuts.
Measure and draw the width between the joists and 28 to 30 inches for the length of the panel.
If the door doesn t have these weather strip it to provide a tight seal and make sure the latch pulls tightly against the frame.
These new wood stops provide a larger area for attaching new weatherstripping.
They also give you an easy area to add hook fasteners if needed.
Why to make a scuttle hole in the attic.
You can buy knee wall doors that have built in insulation and weather stripping.
The weekend warriors home improvement show built by parr lumb.
If you have ceiling joists laid out in a way that you can not put a full sized pull down ladder in like us or you just don t need to access your attic much then a small attic access panel might be the best option.
Purchase some 2 4 interior door jamb stock from your local building supply centre or any shop that supplies doors for homes.
Tony and corey run through the process of installing an access door in an upstairs bonus space.
Line the rim on top of the trim pieces with weatherstripping at minimum.
Make your cross cuts using a utility knife.
For this attic hatch you need.
2 thick foam board 4 8 sheet with an r value of 10 orgreater you might need two sheets for larger hatches or to make it thicker 8 20 foamweather stripping the wider the better 1 can great stuff foam or similar 1 tube liquid nail or other construction adhesive.
Use a narrow drywall saw and cut along your joist lines first.
A better plan is to mount a piece of foam insulation to the top side of the door construction.
It s super easy and very inexpensive to put in a small attic access door like this one.
This generally comes in 7 lengths and you will need three pieces of it for a standard sized attic access hatch.
If the attic hatch rests on the molding you should add 2 1 2 inch stops around the entire opening.