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The left-hand side spring on my attic ladder now pops off the retaining thing when it is put back up. It then will come down, but will not go back up unless I manually lift the spring up-n-over. Rinse, repeat.

There is nothing to tighten or adjust (it is a riveted mechanism), and nothing to "bend back" into place. I have an idea, but I don't want to pre-load anyone with any solutions.

Have a look and see if any thoughts or suggestions come to mind, please:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl8hw3yfrrlv4d5/2023-05-17%2016.09.04.mp4

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  • Please embed one or two photos here instead of expecting us to watch a video. I can't even access that on my network.
    – isherwood
    May 19 at 14:12
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    I think DrMoishe Pippik is correct in his answer. But to know for sure what's happening you need to go up into the attic and have someone close the stairs. Then have them pull the stairs down and watch what happens at that hinge that the spring goes over.
    – SteveSh
    May 20 at 14:35

1 Answer 1

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There is a similar support for my attic stairs, which had the same issue, fixed as shown below.

Repaired attic stairs hinge

  1. Carefully, to avoid injury, remove the spring. A hook tool or length of strong cord can be used to grab the lower end of the spring.
  2. Remove the hinge from the opening frame.
  3. Drill out the weakened rivet.
  4. Replace the rivet with a short bolt and locking nut, or a pair of nuts. Adjust tightness for minimal play, but without friction, and firmly lock nut.
  5. Reattach the hinge arm to the frame.
  6. Push or pull the end of the arm towards or away from the frame so the spring will ride straight.
  7. Carefully reattach the spring.
  8. Double-check that the the bolt, spring and and arm do not interfere with the frame or stairs when opening or closing the stairs.

Of course, one could just buy a replacement hinge -- which would fail when the rivet eventually loosens with use.

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    So was the problem that the loose rivet allows the two longer arms to flex away from the wall, and the stubby spring-catching arm to flex towards the wall, hence the overall alignment becomes the opposite of what it should be with the spring on the outside?
    – jay613
    May 19 at 18:21
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    @jay613, it was worse, in that the arms wobbled. The original rivet was also quite thin, a potential hazard that might have let the steps fall.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    May 19 at 21:57
  • @jay613: "So was the problem that the loose rivet..." with regard to my issue, I >>think<< so, but one of the goals of my orig post was to seek a diagnosis. Seeing the door open/close in real time, as opposed to just static pics, was necessary for that.
    – AA040371
    May 19 at 22:08
  • Thanks. Designer striving for understated elegance foiled by manufacturer being cheap and simplistic. I bet this is a knockoff of some wonderful Swiss mechanism. :)
    – jay613
    May 19 at 23:42
  • DrMoishePippik (or @jay613 or anyone else monitoring this thread): do you know where I might source a new hinge(s) in this style. It's an older model and so I am having a difficult time just with Amazon (U.S.) and e-Bay.
    – AA040371
    May 24 at 13:28

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