They were rickety and the rusty spring that closed the hatch never completely closed.
This was especially problematic because the stair opening is directly above my thermostat.
So in extreme weather, cold or hot air would leak from the attic directly to the thermostat which was a bad situation.
Here is the install in progress.One problem I ran into was the old opening was about a 1/2" too small.
I do have a reciprocating saw which I used to widen the opening.
But my saw is a cordless kind, so it took several recharges to complete that part of the task.
Here is the view from below.There is a temporary board holding the ladder in place while I used shims to make the new stairs square and flush to the opening.
The new ladder has a gas shock style closer.I'm hoping it lasts.
It does close the door nicely as of this post.
And here is the finished install.I still need to put some trim pieces around the rough opening the clean up the edges.
