You might know those slide-out ladders to the attic floor. Many houses in the Netherlands have an attic floor, which is often used for storage of household goods.

You don't use the attic that often. An extendable and folding ladder is ideal and these are also not that expensive to purchase. If you want to turn the attic into a children's room, pay close attention to the safety and depth of the loft steps.

(FUN FACT)

A loft ladder, also abbreviated as vlizo, is an extendable or foldable staircase that leads to the loft or attic in many homes built after the Second World War. Hence the name vlizotrap (a syllable word meaning the attic/attic stairs). (Wikipedia)

In recent years you have seen more and more that the attic is being refurbished for an extra children's room, usually this is a good investment, which makes the living / living space larger.

Unfortunately, you have to take the stairs to the attic. The pull-out loft ladder is difficult to walk on and is often folded out in the middle of the hall and therefore quite in the way.

If you want this differently, the renovation is often very expensive, you have to take into account that the stairwell has to be moved and sometimes also a few walls on the first floor.

detail van de betere vlizo trap

Attic for children's room
In recent years, the attic has been increasingly converted into an extra children's room. This is always a major renovation. A dormer window must be installed to provide sufficient daylight.

The insulation on the roof must be improved, heating must be installed and so are a few things that turn the attic into a beautiful children's room.

The loft ladder to the attic must therefore be replaced and this is a major problem. Where the loft ladder is now, it is usually not possible to install a standard home staircase.

Major renovations are then necessary to make this, such as moving walls, rearranging bedrooms on the 1st floor, the stairwell that needs to be moved, the central heating system that gets in the way 9 out of 10 times.

All in all, a major renovation that costs a lot of money. The advantage is that you get a nice extra room for this and, not unimportantly, that it also increases the value of your owner-occupied home.

If you do not want such a major renovation, a tilted skylight for sufficient daylight is a more economical solution and it is decided to leave the 1st floor as intact as possible.

You then make the loft ladder safer with a railing on one side and a non-slip stair strip for the stairs, or you replace it with a better and stronger model.

With a taperoll of 5 meters you have enough to provide the loft ladder with good anti-slip. The big advantage of the strip is that it has anti-slip grooves and it does not feel sharp on your bare feet. See picture below:

Folding models are safer
The steps of the older vlizo stairs are not deep, say about 6 to 7cm and for getting your Christmas decorations from the attic once a year this is a great staircase. However, if you are going to furnish the attic as a full-fledged children's room, view the range of anti-slip strips here so that you can make the new stairs optimally safe.

Nowadays there are loft stairs that are foldable and that have a width of 70 cm and a step depth of 12 cm. You can also mount a steel handrail bracket here, which you can then use as an extra support.

Rubber strips on every stair step will make your stairs a lot safer. The collapsible models are more expensive but certainly a lot safer.

Miller's stairs as the best solution!

If you have enough space on the landing to place a fixed miller's staircase, this is an even better solution for a safe staircase to the attic (See example made by the stair maker).

The steps are made in such a way that you can also walk face forward down the stairs. Each stair step has a recess that gives you more space to properly place your foot on the next stair step.

I saw this image on pinterest, a nice solution to the attic and yet a fixed staircase. The stairs have a very short deflection, say the depth (length front of the stairs to the wall) and also a smart solution for storage under the stairs.

If you want to see more of these kinds of stair solutions, visit this pinterest page.

The stairs are for sale with a balustrade on 1 side and you can easily provide the steps with a non-slip stair strip that can be glued, for optimal safety.

blogwriter: Jeroen Hooijmans