Many houses have unfinished attics, areas above the garage, or other unfinished crawlspaces that are not easily accessible. In many cases there is no room anywhere for a stair case, yet the space could be used for storage or perhaps even to create a new and additional living space.
At attic ladder can be used to access these areas. These are commercial devices you can buy online or at home improvement and hardware stores. They are folding ladders/stairs that can be used to access these types of areas that completely retract and are out of the way, folded into the ceiling, when not in use.
Installation requires cutting an appropriately sized hole in the ceiling and inserting/attaching these in place. Different type openings are available, although standard openings are around 22″ by 54. Smaller ones for restricted spaces are available too. You can buy them for ceiling of various heights as well, ranging from less than 8 feet to about 12 feet high.
Our attic ladder allows us to access our unfinished yet large attic space. We use it both for longtime and seasonal storage, freeing up other storage space in the rest of our house. When we need access, we merely pull down and unfold the ladder.
Depending on how handy you are, you may be able to install one yourself. I probably could have as it is not that difficult, but didn’t feel conformable cutting a hole in the ceiling, so I hired a handyman who did it quickly and inexpensively.