Unique 2.74m (9') Concertina Loft Ladder with Rubber Coated Non Slip Treads

The ladder itself is made from strong, quality material and should easily hold a heavyset person.

However, a couple of points prevented me from giving this a better rating:

1. The instructions are pretty basic to say the least. i.e. "Unless already done, you'll need to convert your existing loose push board into a swing down door." Not much in way of help there! Then "Screw the ladder back board to hatch surround". Easier said than done - a more detailed set of instructions / tips would have made all the difference.

2. The sides of the ladder (effectively the hand rail) had been filed to attempt to prevent sharp edges from snagging clothing / flesh. However this had not been done sufficiently well and several times I received cuts / torn clothing before I decided to take a file to it myself.

3. The spring loading mechanism is not damped in any way and as a result there is quite a thump both when unfolding and folding the ladder - this hasn't seemed to affect the attachment as far as I can see but it's a little unnerving and I would have preferred a smoother action.

4. I have seen other models where the loft hatch door is counterbalanced by the weight of the ladder. This prevents the loft hatch from swinging down rapidly (and violently if you have a heavy door). We needed to replace our existing loft hatch door for a lighter construction as it was too dangerous to try and unhook a heavy, hinged piece of wood using the pole alone.

Other than this it does seem like a sturdy piece of equipment which should hopefully last for some time.

I was about to buy a bargain £60 loft ladder when I found this one at only double the price!. Buy cheap, buy twice, they say! It's an excellent piece of kit though, one that I wish I had invested in years ago....with a few reservations. There are sharp edges on it as reported by another reviewer, caused by the machining of the small members which make up the sides, but half an hour with a file sorts that.

Hatch size? Well a minimum 450mm width accomodates the unit itself but I had to make the other dimension 750mm to enable comfortable access for me and allow for reasonable sized boxes to be pushed or lowered above me. That meant cutting through a roof truss to enlarge the hatch which neccesitated a bit of structural work. Not difficult if you know what you're doing but if that bothers you get a joiner to fit it. If it doesn't then don't do as I did and construct the hatch up there in-situ 8ft high, it's so much more difficult than building a frame and fitting the new door to it on a bench then fixing the whole thing in place at the one time. Duh!

Included in the kit is a little nylon hook to be mounted on a pole for lowering and raising the unit. I found this to be pretty useless in practice so devised my own method of operation as follows. The concertina'd ladder sits on hooks in a metal subframe. I fixed a 500mm cord to this frame which, when the door is opened, drops down to just within my reach and, pulled firmly at an angle of 45 degrees, gives total control of lowering and raising, otherwise the unit can bang down or up in a worrying and potentially destructive fashion. (A short pole and hook will allow vertically challenged persons to reach the cord, make the cord much longer and it interferes with the closing of the hatch)

So far so good, now the concertina'd unit has to be pushed upwards and outwards free of two hooks on the subframe on which it rests. It weighs about 10Kg and feels extremely awkward when using the pole. I made my own safer one using a substantial steel hook plus a Y-shaped double coat hanger for the upwards push but found it to be more comfortable to do it by hand, except that at 6ft 8ins above the floor it is almost out of my reach and certainly that of my wife. So a small stool is required. Once that's done the unit can be easily expanded down to the floor, either at a steep or shallow angle as required. From there on it's plus points come to the fore. The broad steps are comfortable to use and there are plenty of handholds. It's a pleasure to use and well deserves the 4 (and a bit if I could)stars I would give it. Buy it and you won't regret your choice.

Oh, and one final teensy weensy point, why do Amazon charge for carriage when BPS don't through their own site???
No, not final one, here's another important one. At some point in the lowering process the big red springs make a loud reverberating doinggg! So there'll be no question of nipping up to the loft quietly on Christmas Eve to get the Christmas pressies down once the kids have gone to bed. You have been warned!

This ladder has been great for us as we have a small loft opening and no space beyond the loft hatch to fit it. We had previously tried to install a traditional aluminium sliding loft ladder but this would not fit.