Three ladder types for narrow hatches, compared
Each of these fits a smaller opening than a standard folding ladder, but none of them get the space for free. One takes it from the loft floor, one from the depth behind the joist, one from the landing below.
| Ladder type | Opening it needs | Space it needs in the loft | Worth checking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Werner Easy Stow (sliding)Takes its space from the loft floor. | From 381 mm wide | 1,170 mm of loft floor behind the hatch, plus 710 mm of height to stow it flat | Needs a loft with clear floor behind the opening |
| Youngman telescopicFolds section by section within the hatch, so it asks less of the loft behind it. | A hatch of about 510 x 600 mm, opening downwards | 235 mm of clearance behind the joist | Rated to 150 kg, for the person using it plus whatever they carry |
| Fakro LST (scissor)Puts its space demand on the landing below. | Openings from 50 x 80 cm | A swing space of 140 to 170 cm in the room below | Fakro's standard figures cover room heights of 250 to 280 cm |
Dimensions are read from Werner, Youngman and Fakro's own published specifications. A landing length, a ceiling height or a weight that falls outside these figures needs checking against your own loft before you decide; see /measuring-for-a-loft-ladder.html for how to take those measurements.
Fitting a ladder into a 52 × 62 cm hatch
A hatch measuring 52 by 62 cm is narrow by most makers' standards, and it is often the detail that stops a straightforward purchase. The two figures are the opening width and opening length, and together with the floor-to-ceiling height and the landing length below the hatch, they decide which ladder designs can go in without further work.
Working through the measurements
Take a hatch of 52 × 62 cm set into a 2.4 m ceiling, with 1.4 m of clear landing underneath it. The opening is fixed, so the first question is whether a ladder's folded or stowed size clears that gap. The second is whether the ladder, once open, needs more landing than 1.4 m to reach the floor at a usable angle, a distance makers sometimes describe as swing clearance. A ladder that folds small enough for the opening but needs 1.8 m of landing to come down has not solved the problem; it has only moved it to a different measurement.
The loft side matters as much as the opening. A ladder stored against the rafters when not in use needs headroom above the hatch, and a 52 × 62 cm opening set into a shallow roof space may not give it. Checking the opening on its own, without checking the landing and the loft-side clearance at the same time, is the usual reason a ladder that looked right on paper turns out not to fit.
When enlarging is the better answer
If nothing fits within 52 × 62 cm without squeezing the landing or the loft-side space, enlarging the hatch is the other route. What that involves depends on what is above it. A trussed roof, where the roof's weight is carried by factory-made triangulated frames, cannot have any truss member or ceiling joist cut without a truss designer or structural engineer approving the change first; cutting one without that approval risks the roof's structure. A traditional cut roof, built joist by joist on site, gives more room to trim an opening, though the work still needs doing properly and may still need sign-off.
That distinction is worth settling before measuring up a larger hatch, because it changes who does the work and how much is involved. Enlarging a loft hatch sets out how to tell the two roof types apart and what trimming an opening involves in each case.
Before deciding either way, measuring for a loft ladder covers how to take the five measurements accurately, and loft ladder types compares what each design needs in the opening, below it and in the loft.