Design help -- building a trap door in the floor
Hey Houzz,
We are finishing up the major work in a bedroom renovation and we're now trying to tackle a sort of finicky component: the old trap door in the floor.
For background, we're on the third floor of a three-story condo. Previously, this was a storage room that looked sort of like a barn. The trap door led to an emergency set of rear-exit stairs. The flooring was rough-hewn pine subfloor.
We have installed a new, level 5/8-plywood subfloor and we want to maintain the stair access for emergencies. Otherwise, the stairs will never be used. We are installing 1.5-inch birch hardwood flooring.
For reference, the stairs are in a corner of the room, (unhelpfully behind the ladder in this photograph):
If you're looking straight down at the opening for the trap door, it looks like this:
Our vague idea of what we want the finished product to look like is this (random photo we grabbed from the internet):
Here are the nitty-gritty design ideas and questions:
1.) Currently, the trap opening is framed in 2x3s. Our idea is to sister another border of 2x3s along the inside edge of the trap door opening to provide a larger lip to support the trap door. Will this provide a strong enough lip for the trap door?
2.) We obviously want to avoid any feebleness in the design and we don't want the door to warp or flex underfoot. The plywood component of the door will need to be about 54 x 24 inches. Will 5/8ths plywood be stable in that size? Should we use 3/4ths instead? Should we use 1 inch? Is there any specific type of plywood we need to use for this application? (We would adjust the height of the sistered 2x3s to compensate for any height difference between the trap door plywood and the surrounding subfloor plywood.
3.) We were thinking of using one single long exposed piano hinge for the trap door, like in the picture above. Earlier in the design, we had thought about using fancy recessed soss hinges, but decided this may be too tricky. Is one long piano hinge the best approach? (It would need to be placed along the long side closest to the wall in order to be able to open correctly.)
4.) We'd like to create a picture-frame border around the edge of the trap door itself, partly to avoid an exposed line of cut flooring, and partly just because we think it will create a nice aesthetic between trap door and floor. We were thinking of using the 1.5 inch birch to make this picture-frame border and I was planning to affix it construction adhesive and facenailing. Will the picture frame border be strong enough with this approach? Does that seem like the right way to create a visual border for the trap door?
5.) Ideally, we also wanted to build another picture-frame border on the surrounding subfloor edges (so, a double picture frame like the one in the inspiration photo above). However, as you may be able to see from the photo of our trap door opening, the two "wall sides" of the opening have very narrow ledges, of about an inch. We are not quite sure how to finish these. One option we considered is to rip the birch flooring and facenail and/or glue in place. (I'm not sure if that will work.) Another option we considered was to try rig up something with baseboard and quarter-round, but I'm worried that might look terrible. Does anyone have suggestions about how to finish these narrow ledges so that they match the birch flooring and are strong?
We are quite new to home-owning. We are profoundly grateful to you all for your experience and wisdom.
Thank you very much.
Adam
Comments (10)
A B
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Need help with house design and layout- want to build this year
Comments (8)A master with three additional bedrooms upstairs. So that wouldn't include the dining being converted or would? I think you will have a hard time getting the wish list of master bath ideas and all the rooms plus a bath for other rooms in a 40x32 space upstairs. If one if the three rooms is the dining downstairs then it might work. Or maybe in my head I'm allotting too much room to closets. Not sure. If you omit the butlers pantry you get rid of a LOT of food storage space. Fill us in on your family lifestyle. How many are in the crew? Is it small kids who would need a playroom? Do you want flex space above the garage? Do you cook most meals. This kitchen wouldn't be big enough for me. If you want cost effective omit the bump outs on the footer. And keep plumbing centralized in one 1/4 or so, of the house. If you have a basement then you would loose the entry closet for guests. With your list it might be adventageous to enlist in the help of a designer/architect. Jen...See Morelazy susan/ trap door for groceries
Comments (7)Thank you all, I will research further now with your suggestions. We are buying a fixer which has a long driveway to a detached garage. We want to seal off the mud room door which opens to the driveway, it takes up driveway room (the stoop & stairs) also because there are 2 doors to outside in this mudroom. It would be a good time to seal one off as we are remodeling that mudroom & incorporating a laundry area. The other mudroom door goes towards the back patio, which is only a few steps to the gate and then to the driveway. That back patio door is actually almost as close to the driveway & garage, just a different path and a few more steps, so not a real biggie to lose one of the doors. I was just thinking of a quick way to transfer groceries. I remember another GW poster years back who used something similar to pull up to in her vehicle for unloading her groceries without there being a full size door there and they actually loaded into a walk in pantry, which made putting them away easy, as well as less carrying. I suppose I could just leave the 2 doors as is I hadnt thought about fire codes (although my DH is a GC so he could handle it if it was allowed). It would be nice to have some more organized storage space and look better in there if one door was sealed up. Thank you all again for the responses....See MoreStuck on main floor design layout on new build - HELP
Comments (8)There's a lot of space devoted to circulation, and the in-law suite looks almost as large as the regular living space. I think it's possible to do better. I don't know what that space is opposite the entry, but I certainly wouldn't want to enter the house (or have my guests enter the house), and the first thing they see is whatever is in that room. If it was my house I would at least put the entry to that space opposite the stairs, and use the solid wall opposite the entry for display, built-in shelving and appropriate lighting. I think you can do better than this......See MoreHelp with exterior design, custom build
Comments (39)I should note that while this build seems very expensive, the quote we were given (and again, we've used this builder previously) was way below market - for CA, I know :), not where many smart folks live and pay way less! We are also in unic. county land so taxes waay lower. Water, power, driveway, cable, etc. all at the street, which is why we couldn't pass it up. Low quote was due to the fact that a) we've used him before b) we've referred him 5 clients whose homes he's built and c) he is building 6 other homes in a 2 mile radius at the same time as ours. And, he's allowing us to tile bathrooms ourselves, find and have our own flooring installed, etc. We've done this trim work ourselves on other property, and husband as I've said is quite capable of handling heavy machinery, so while it seems prohibitively expensive, you might be surprised (but CA prices so....take with grain of salt). Everyone has been so helpful, I'm extremely grateful. Will go back to architect to do some tweaks as you've all kindly mentioned (and you've been so consistent!)....See MoreA B
3 years ago- PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago A B
3 years ago
Lizzy Chapman
last yearA B
last year
Patricia Colwell Consulting