# Attic door



## Old Rich

We have an attic door in the hall that is not closing all the way . . It[s in the ceiling and pulls down to make a ladder . . 

Is that something I can adjust? or does it need to be replaced? Frankenfoot keeps me off ladders, but I have a son and son in law that could work on it if it is fixable.


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## sarla

Not a expert but I had one once I had to use wd-40 on the hinge's because it was slow closing and would not go all the way up. About 1/2 inch gap


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## Old Rich

Thanks . . I have no treid WD-40. . I put some white lythium grease on the points that contact each other before frankenfoot . . that made it a lot quiter, but still does not close that last inch or two


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## sarla

Not sure Old Rich . That was all I could think of


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## Old Rich

Thanks . .


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## Gadsden

If the opening has gone out of square, some part of the hinges may be rubbing a section of the opening. 

Plus, just through time, some of the attachment hardware can become loose, causing the door itself to become a little cockeyed.

Any kind of gasket or insulation strip wedged between the hinges? Anything in the attic in the way?

Just some thoughts....


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## sarla

I thought of something when I got home. We have one door in the house that will seem to get out of square in the winter ( stick ) when we turn heat on. We found out the place it hangs on and rubbed a candle on there ( unlit of course ) the wax just makes it slide across .


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## Old Rich

Good ideas . . it may be aout of square . . the wood part seems to not fit well . .


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## DonaldG

Just picking up on the WD40 issue. Contrary to popular belief WD40 is not a lubricant. Although initially it acts like a great lubricant, it will dry out and form a sticky goo that becomes an anti-lube.

WD stands for *W*ater *D*ispersement. It was invented for the navy to disperse salt water & protect aircraft parts.


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## SABL

Old Rich said:


> Thanks . . I have no treid WD-40. . I put some white lythium grease on the points that contact each other before frankenfoot . . that made it a lot quiter, but still does not close that last inch or two


Yeps, DG is correct......WD40 is not really a lubricant. My understanding is Water Displacement formula 40......39 previous tries...:grin:.

IMHO white lithium grease is :nonono:. I really dislike the stuff after my son went nutso on all of our hood latches and other stuff. Shortly afterward our latches did not latch......they wouldn't return to the latch position and the hoods wouldn't stay closed. WLG is not my choice of lubricants......for anything (except a thin film on all bearing surfaces when assembling an engine).

Gadsden is correct in that there may have been a slight movement of your house framing.....all framing should be tight but that rarely happens...:sigh:. The framing is also subjected to the elements until the house is sealed up and in many cases the wood becomes wet in rainy weather and swells up, only to shrink slowly as the house dries out. 

The access is installed between the roof trusses and should have been shimmed to square the unit up. Most common shims are made of Cedar which will 'come and go' with changes in humidity......many times the shims are slightly damp when installed and shrink after a time. When my sons and I were trimming houses we always opened the bundles of shims and scattered them so they could dry out best they could......generally, the shims in the middle of the bundle were rather damp.

Clean the white lithium crap off the moving parts and apply a light coating of 3-in-1 oil (or IMO even better is graphite). Make sure nothing is interfering with the movement of the access door....it doesn't take much to cause these gawd-awful contraptions to not work right. You could have someone tweak and tap stuff back in place and see if that helps. What really needs to be done is a complete adjustment/shimming and the unit fastened in place with coarse thread (type W) drywall screws. Nails are a :nonono:.


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## Old Rich

They are god awfull contraptions . . I had a "handyman" type contractor look at it yesterday and his opinion was that is a lower grade to begin with and that it has warped over time with use. We've had the AC and Water Heater replaced in the last 5 years, so it got a lot of traffic.

He'll start on that in two weeks along with some other things that have had to slide since frankenfoot . . I really do miss having the ability to work on things like that


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## SABL

I've installed my share of those damned things.....:sigh:. Built about as cheap as you can get.....been a long time since I've seen one and would just as soon forget. The one advantage is that you don't have to drag a ladder around.....:grin:. The drawback is if the unit is not securely fastened to the framing......if not, it will move with use . Any movement and it is no longer in correct adjustment and becomes a PITA.

Your handyman should be able to get it squared away. They're finicky, but not impossible. (The access....not sure about the handyman.....:laugh


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## Old Rich

Thanks . . I'll mention those things, but he seems to know what he's doing! I'll be swamping for him as long as it does not envolve ladders


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## Wrench97

Bigger stronger springs:grin:


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## Keene22

Call door expert who told you about its main problem. 
My attic door lock is doing problem in last week so my friends have lot of expertise in it. He fixed problem in a few mints.


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## Wand3r3r

sewing machine oil is my fav for hinges. Grease can get on you when you brush up next to it.

What you want is someone in the attic with a flashlight and someone else below closing the stairs. Then they will see where the stairs are hitting preventing the complete close.


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## Old Rich

That is what they did . . between lube and correcting for the our of rack, it works a treat now!


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## Wand3r3r

Nice to hear Rich.


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