﻿When renovating a house, you don’t really think about replacing attic ladders, because they aren’t
used very often. However, the old attic ladders in our home were pretty unstable, so I replaced
one in our very messy garage with a wooden attic ladder and one in our hallway with a metal attic
ladder. In this video, I’m going to compare both of them in terms of ease of installation,
price and quality. I received both these ladders from Fakro and roofing4us.com in
exchange for an unpaid and unbiased review. Let’s start with this scissor-style metal attic
ladder from Fakro. I picked a 25”x54” ladder because that size was closest to the existing
rough opening. You can find several other sizes from 22 and half inches to 30 inches wide.
It arrived well packaged with all the parts clearly labeled and an easy to
follow instruction booklet. All I needed were 3” construction screws and some basic tools.
My old wood attic ladder was pretty wobbly and also opened up right in front of ducts.
I had to crawl under them to be able to access the attic. I decided to install
the new attic ladder the other way around, so that it opened up to free space.
I first removed the outside trim with a pry bar. I then removed the old ladder piece by piece. Be
careful of the springs at the hinge. They are pulled tight and can snap back when removed.
The existing opening was larger than I needed, so I cut down some 2x6 pine studs with a miter saw.
I screwed them into the roof joists with 3” construction screws. The rough opening was
now 25” by 54” and it was ready for the new attic ladder, or so I thought.
This metal attic ladder has a white trim that needed to be attached before installation.
I screwed these small plastic pieces on the 4 corners and then screwed on the metal trim.
The trim looks beautiful, but it meant that I had to screw in drywall, tape and mud the joints
first. I put up a piece of polyiso over the opening because the mud had to dry overnight.
The next day, I sanded the mud, textured and painted it to match the surrounding drywall.
I was annoyed at the time, because I wanted to install the ladder
and close up the giant hole in my ceiling, but in hindsight, it wasn’t a bad thing.
There are no exposed screws or nail heads on the trim, and I didn’t need to paint it.
Installing the ladder was tricky because we didn’t have much space to maneuver
around the narrow hallway. Even after a lot of planning we had a couple of failed attempts.
Finally, we devised a plan that actually worked. We lifted the attic ladder over our heads,
sat one end on another ladder, and then held the other end in place. Meanwhile, I climbed up the
attic ladder in our garage, crawled through the attic and secured this metal ladder from
the top. The attic ladder had metal plates on the edges that connected to threaded rods and
a metal piece that straddled the wood joists. To lift the ladder up and level it, I turned
the bolt on the threaded rod. This was probably my favorite part of the ladder. It made installation
so simple. I didn’t have to worry about holding the ladder underneath while trying to level it.
Once it was set in place, I secured it to the wood studs and joists with construction screws.
Since the ladder was too long for our 8 foot space, I removed one step by simply unbolting it.
You can add steps in the same way if the ladder is too short. The S-shaped steps have an
anti-slip design. They also serve as handrails when climbing. Plastic wheels on the bottom
prevent the floor being scratched. The ladder has an R value of 5.2 and can hold 350 pounds
This ladder costs $1,106 on the roofing4us website. It’s one of the more expensive attic
ladders, but I think the cost is justified given the high quality of the product. The
powder coated steel seems very durable and I doubt it will need to be replaced again.
I had 3 issues with this metal attic ladder. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the scissor style steps.
The weight of the attic ladder is unevenly distributed because all the stairs are
folded up on one end. The second issue is the narrow width of the stairs. It’s fine for me,
but it might be too narrow for others. The last issue I had was with the mdf hatch.
After installing the ladder, I found a large visible crack
in the paint. I’ll have to sand it down and paint the entire surface to cover it up.
Now let’s move on to this fire rated wooden attic ladder I installed in my garage.
This is also a Fakro ladder and it measures 25 inches by 54 inches. Just like with the
metal ladder, this one is also available in different sizes from 22 and half inches to 30
inches wide. The old ladder was unsteady and frequently jammed when it was being closed.
I removed the old ladder and added a couple of 2x6 studs to reduce the opening to 25”x54”.
Once I removed the packaging on the new ladder, I installed the springs
and attached the metal arms together. Unlike the metal ladder, I didn't need to
install a trim first, so I can deal with the gaps in drywall, the texturing and painting later.
This ladder didn’t have those ingenious metal brackets on the corners. I was supposed to install
supports across the joists in the attic, and then pull this ladder up with a rope.
Now, I didn't have a rope, so we used another method that I would not recommend. We screwed in
a couple of studs into the bottom of the ceiling and rested the ladder on them. I climbed up the
other attic ladder, crawled to this one and secured it with construction screws. Again,
I would not recommend this method. You should follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
The ladder was too long for this 8 foot space, so I shortened it by cutting through the wood with a
jigsaw. The steps have an anti-slip design. It also has a handrail for extra support
when climbing. Rubber feet prevent scratching and movement. The ladder has an R value of 9.5 because
insulation is sandwiched in the hatch. It can hold 300 lbs. It has a gasket that expands
under extreme heat so it is certified for 43 minutes minutes of fire resistance
This wooden attic ladder costs $1018 on the roofing4us website. The product is very
durable and it’s easy to open up and store away. The stairs on this wooden ladder are
a little bit wider than the other one but I had the same issue with a cracked mdf panel.
This is very disappointing. So, let’s summarize the differences
between the two. The 25” x 54” metal ladder cost $1,106 and the 25” x 54” wooden ladder
cost $1018. Their R values are 5.2 and 9.5 and they can carry 350 lbs and 300 lbs respectively.
The metal ladder isn’t fire rated but installing it was much easier. Adjusting
the length of the steps was also easier. In conclusion, both ladders are great,
but since they’re similar in price, I’d recommend the metal attic ladder. I like not having a string
hanging down from the ceiling to open the ladder. It comes with this tool that hooks
into the handle. The stairs also hook in place really easily. I tried to be pretty thorough on
the features of these ladders, but if you have any questions about them, leave me a comment below.
I’ll link both the ladders in the description and I’ll link my Patreon page. If you can support me,
I’d really appreciate it. A big thank you to everyone already supporting me. Don’t forget
to hit that like button, subscribe button and the notification bell too. Thanks for watching. See ya