The Home Improvement & Repairs team attended the 2024 National Hardware Show, where an interesting approach to an attic-access ladder caught our eye. We asked about its unique design and met the inventor, Ed Ingalls, CEO of Tri Line Services, LLC, manufacturer of the Safe Step Stairs.
Ed explained its origin: He and his wife had moved to a retirement community, only retirement didn’t sit well with him, so Ed launched a handyman business to service the retirees in his new community.
“As my customer base grew, people began to ask me to get their holiday items out of the storage space above their garage and put them back after the season,” explains Ed. “I quickly found that at 60 years old, it was not easy to navigate the narrow steps and unstable fold-out ladders. I understood why my customers were asking me to do it for them.
“I developed the concept of a set of stairs that were built to the same standards as a
regular set of stairs where the run of the step, rise of the step, and angle of the stairs were
the same or very similar to what people already navigate and are familiar with.
“After several months of thinking about what would and would not work, I came up with a concept for a set of stairs that was simple and did not require expensive motors, cables, switches, or need to be connected to power to operate. I based the idea on a SUV tailgate being leveraged up and held up, yet easily opened and closed by hand.”
Ed made some basic calculations and ordered a set of industrial gas shocks that
were much larger than those of a SUV. He then drew up the concept of a hinge-and-lever system to hold up the stairs from one end with no cables or other devices impeding the use of the stairs from the bottom to the top.
The first step is to assemble the Safe Step Stairs from the kit, which includes all necessary components except for the lumber.
“After gathering the materials, I found a weekend where my wife was away and built a set of stairs in my garage, then cut a hole in our garage ceiling that was 22 inches wide and 10-1/2 feet long,” says Ed. “I installed the stairs, and my hinge-and-lever system proved the concept that the stairs could be held from one end and would open and close easily.”
“Then my wife came home! She saw the hole and said, ‘I don’t know what you are doing, but you better fix it!’”
It took a year for Ed to perfect the geometry and to design the hinge and other components to construct a viable set of retractable stairs. At that point he started the patent process, which is currently pending.
Tri Line Services, LLC, brought Safe Step Stairs to market, offering them as fully built stairs including installation in the central Florida market, and now the company offers them sold as a kit across the U.S. and beyond.
Pull-down Staircase Makes Accessing the Attic Easier than Using a Ladder
Different Design
The major difference between the Safe Step Stairs concept and conventional attic access methods is that most available options are ladders, not a set of stairs. Ladders are steep and have narrow and shallow steps or rungs for your feet. The design of fold-out attic ladders necessitates that the climber be on their toes, as only about 3 or 4 inches of depth on each step is available. This, along with the steep angle and typical lack of stability, results in
a product that can be difficult and possibly dangerous to climb, particularly as we age.
Safe Step Stairs are not a ladder at all but an actual set of stairs that retract to the ceiling with wide and deep steps on an angle, similar to almost all stairs used on a daily basis. Due
to the wide and deep steps, users can easily navigate Safe Step Stairs because most of
the foot can be firmly planted on each step. Combined with the shallow angle, easily
accessible handrails, and an unobstructed pathway, this provides a unique method for
easy attic access. The Safe Step Stairs are easy to open with a light pulldown of about
20 lbs. and will stay down. To close them, simply lift them up about two feet, and they
will retract to the ceiling and stay closed.
The Safe Step Stairs installs between ceiling joists with no need to cut the framing. Installation is a two-man job that requires careful alignment of the staircase.
Installation
The Safe Step Stairs are designed to install between roof trusses and will require about
10-1/2 feet of unobstructed ceiling access. This means that the orientation of the ceiling framing in relation to the house design might make this attic-access method impractical for some homes, so it’s most appropriate for use in garages, large rooms, and open-concept floor plans.
The kit is designed so anyone experienced in the use of general hand and small power tools can build and install the stairs. A comprehensive installation manual is included, and customers have access to several online instructional step-by-step videos.
The kit includes every component necessary to build and install stairs except the lumber.
The build process usually takes between three and four hours for first-timers, and installation is a two-person job that normally takes three to four hours.
DIY installers should take a cue from pro installers and devise a method to lift and suspend the staircase during installation.
Pro installers make use of a winch secured to the roof framing to facilitate lifting and adjusting the stairs into position when making the hardware connections.
The installation of Safe Step Stairs does not alter the home structurally in any way, and its design does not involve cutting joists or trusses at all. The stairs are installed between the existing joists or trusses, so only the drywall is cut.
The standard kit is designed for a 24-inch on-center joist/truss system using 2x6 materials for the joists/truss. Customers often install the stairs in wider or narrower applications with up to 2x12 joists/trusses.
Three standard kits are designed to be installed in homes with a floor-to-ceiling height of 7-1/2 to 10-1/2 feet. The kits carry a two-year unconditional warranty on all included
components.
Once installed, the Safe Step Stairs can be trimmed and painted to match the surrounding ceiling.
“I have invented other products and always see a problem as an opportunity to find a solution,” says Ed Ingalls. “So, I set out to find a solution for my customers to be comfortable getting into and out of their attic, no matter what their age.”
Find more information at www.safestepstairs.com
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