My garage/shop is a 1911 carriage house/barn. It has an attic/loft above that's accessed by the usual wooden ladder nailed to the wall. Currently, I use the loft to store empty boxes and other light items.
I'm currently working on re-working several parts of the building, and considering adding either a staircase or pull-down ladder/stairs. I'd like to make better use of the loft for storage -- it's strong enough to hold heavier items (it was used to store hay originally), but the majority of the items would be fairly light -- motorcycle parts and empty boxes, which I use for a part-time business. Getting those out of the garage area would be beneficial, as the building is only 520 square feet. The ceilings are 9 foot, btw.
I currently make the climb up and down the ladder several times per week, and would do so more often if it were more convenient. Obviously purpose-built stairs wins in the convenience arena. The downside of course is space -- and wall space, at that -- although I could use the area under the stairs for the air compressor, storage, etc.
Attic stairs take up zero space when not in use, and could be positioned to "land" in an "aisle" area of the garage. The downside is they're harder to climb, particularly when carrying something, and there's the whole "****, forgot something in the attic, now I need to pull the stairs *back* down", etc.
So the trade off is the floor space of dedicated stairs versus the PITA factor of pull-down ladder/stairs. Either is a DYI project for me, and the cost is fairly close.
Wondering who else has made this choice and how they feel about it after living with it for a while?
I'm currently working on re-working several parts of the building, and considering adding either a staircase or pull-down ladder/stairs. I'd like to make better use of the loft for storage -- it's strong enough to hold heavier items (it was used to store hay originally), but the majority of the items would be fairly light -- motorcycle parts and empty boxes, which I use for a part-time business. Getting those out of the garage area would be beneficial, as the building is only 520 square feet. The ceilings are 9 foot, btw.
I currently make the climb up and down the ladder several times per week, and would do so more often if it were more convenient. Obviously purpose-built stairs wins in the convenience arena. The downside of course is space -- and wall space, at that -- although I could use the area under the stairs for the air compressor, storage, etc.
Attic stairs take up zero space when not in use, and could be positioned to "land" in an "aisle" area of the garage. The downside is they're harder to climb, particularly when carrying something, and there's the whole "****, forgot something in the attic, now I need to pull the stairs *back* down", etc.
So the trade off is the floor space of dedicated stairs versus the PITA factor of pull-down ladder/stairs. Either is a DYI project for me, and the cost is fairly close.
Wondering who else has made this choice and how they feel about it after living with it for a while?
) have them build the whole thing for me 
