I finally started it about 3 weeks ago, and since I have pathetic stength & endurance I didn’t finish it until this weekend. The carpet (see pics below) is just a test piece of scrap so it doesn’t fit right yet (and our kitten dug at it). It’s OK for now as I needed to see how well it would open, and whether I could inset the handle right through the carpet. The clothes fit down easily (it’s about 14" square) and I lined the sides with plastic screen material so they wouldn’t snag.
I’m going to install a latch on the underside that is only accessible from the basement, so when my nieces come over there won’t be any chance of an accident. They don’t go in our bedroom, yet I’d hate for that one time they get in and find a handle to pull on.
The frame is made with 2’x8’s fastened to the floor joists (and each other) with about 30 deck screws. It should be able to hold the weight of a small dump truck. The door itself is two thick wood things glued and screwed together… not sure their names - but they’re sturdy. There’s no transfer of cold air through it since it seals tight and has carpeting and padding.
We desparately needed something like this due to the screwy layout of our house (your forced to walk in a big circle on both floors) and my being sick a lot… and my significant other not having much motivation.
Though it doesn’t look quite right yet, I’m really happy with it, and I’m thankful for all the ideas everyone put forth. In the end I had to go with a recessed design since I couldn’t put it close enough to the wall to have a hamper type thing. Then our closet door opens over part of the trapdoor, so I had to go fully recessed instead of just flat.
Whoa, that’s awesome, very nice. My thinking is that you could put a rug or something on top of that and you probably would prevent tripping or unwanted tampering.
Thrrppttt - nice job with the annotations. I think we’ll have to put that up in the laundry room! We don’t leave it up unattended, and given enough time I have no doubt she’d jump through.
We don’t trip over the handle. Normally there’s a dresser right next to it, so we’d have to make an effort to stick our foot in the handle.
That rocks. But I need one with a teleportation feature, since I don’t have a basement. And our washer/drier setup is outside the house (ah the joys of living in Southern California).
“I want trap doors that I will own and operate…I get goosebumps…thinking about a bandit stealing so I can use my trap-goddamn-doors.”
