We've been living in this house for 10 years and the attic pull-down stairs or ladder " buckles" when I come down from working in the attic. An A/C repairman told me the ladder was too short so I added and extra piece of bolted on wood making it longer-it still buckles. I recently rebuilt a worn hinge and use silicone on all the moving parts and of course the buckling is worse making me think the spring tension is too tight?? It sure goes up or down with little effort now but it still has that "thunk" when the ladder pops into place. Is the ladder too short? Do I need to reduce the spring tension?

 

Hard to say sight unseen. Post pictures showing what you mean. You shouldnt have to adjust anything on the spring, that's all preset.

 

As an electrician I get the honor of working in people's attics. I find those ladders are either well built and solid or they're a piece of crap. I had a piece of crap at home and ended up replacing it as there is only so much you can do with it.

 

If you do end up replacing it, the Werner aluminum ones are pretty nice. Look for the ones with 375lb load ratings.

 

I went with a wood one but it was heavy duty. Those aluminum ones are nice.

 

It's a wide pull-down so a replacement is somewhat hard to find and expensive. I'll try and take a photo today and upload it so you can see what I'm talking about. Like the guy said, it's a a piece of poop, contractor grade junk.