Previous house had a steep staircase behind a door in one of the bedrooms - it would never meet code today (build in 1936) due to tread and riser sizes but we never had any issues with it and I loved the convenience for all the reasons you mentioned. House before that had access within a closet that had a permanent built in ladder on one wall to a trap door - far less convenient and of course you lose storage on the wall with the ladder, but it worked for us at the time. House I grew up in had Bessler stairs in the bedroom hallway - I think they are the best option for a garage with attic storage. Current build we have a full staircase with entry through a door in the bedroom hallway and an exterior door at the top of the stairs because it is a buildable attic for a future owner if desired. Can't imagine we'll ever use our attic for storage since we have a full basement but I've learned to never say never!

Oh, yes, we had a townhouse with that type of stair through a closet. Since there wasn't good storage in the townhouse, that was invaluable!

Im thinking that even for inspecting the roof, the source of that (critter?) noise, correcting insulation, installing new ceiling fixtures, any attic access is helpful. The Bessler stair might be overkill if you're not using it for storage, but at least have the hatch accessible.

The best attic access is through a permanent stair (or is part of the second floor); however, this often means more money ... so it's fairly rare.

My grandparents built a 2-bedroom ranch house in 1950-something, and it had a Bessler stair to the attic. There was an apartment in the basement, and a single car garage - the attic storage was much used! As kids, we loved the opportunity to go in the attic.

We were able to install a Bessler stair in the upstairs hall of our house in St Louis. Then we floored the attic and put in iron pipe on which to hang out of season clothes. It was wonderful!

In my recent addition, I carefully placed the attic access in the walk-in closet at the highest point in the attic. The person that installed the gypsum board covered it and now it is no place to be seen.

But, the joist access is there, so if you used your stud finder you'd know where to sledgehammer over your head? Wear a helmet.

I hope you blew 20-inches of insulation over the attic access...!

I wasn't too concerned about the missing access . . . until Virgil mentioned the insulation.

We have two attics in our 2 story house. One is accessed by the pull down stairs in the hall between my dd's room and the guest room. The other attic is a walk-in (bliss!!) accessed through a regular sized door in the children's playroom. It is over the garage. Our garage is 3-car, so the space is huge. We don't even need to use the other attic.

Our new house has the access in the master closet. Once we close I am going to cut a new access hatch in the garage (this is a 1 story) and seal up the access through the closet. I will use the space above the garage for storage.

Access to an attic of a certain minimum height and size is required by every building code I have ever read going back decades. This is for firefighters and should be added to older houses that lack access.

A ladder is optional but the opening cannot be in a closet or otherwise obstructed or hard to locate. If there is mechanical equipment in the attic a ladder is usually required.

The best ladder system is made by Rainbow. Since you only need one of them and its must be safe to use its not something to be stingy about.

The 2015 IRC says:

Our townhouse and one house were both built in 1957. The townhouse had a stair through a closet, the house had attic in the closet. This current house, built a bit after 1960, one attic is through a closet. The other closet over the one-story section is in the middle of the laundry room, no problem, except we'd need to haul in the stepladder and climb up to push the hatch open.

Do not put your attic access in your primary bedroom closet unless the attic space is used solely for storage. The air handler for our air conditioning system is in the attic accessible only through our primary suite closet. Consequently, every six months service personnel have complete access to the most private areas of our home - my bedroom, my bathroom (have to walk through bathroom to get to closet), and my closet. Not to mention the two times our air handler had to be replaced - a team of four people had complete access and the clean-up afterward is terrible (had to wash almost every Harley of clothing). This total invasion of privacy in my own home could and should have been avoided simply by placing the attic access elsewhere!!!

Neglected to mention times air handler has malfunctioned and required service. Making matters worse, our security system is in same closet causing multiple privacy invasions from employees of yet another company.