Does anyone have experience/information about building/designing a trap door on the floor of a deck that will lead down a set of stairs that was previously covered with a metal bulkhead door?

I'm in the process of make a design for a customer. The deck will have a section that lifts, with the help of lifters (type used in auto rear door lift). There will be stairs under leading to a cellar. One of the requirements is caging of some sort to guard against anyone falling in.
If you get more info, please drop me an email...
Tom
rteirich@yahoo.com

We are trying to build a trap door on our deck with leads to the basement steps. What type of hinges or what do we do so that the hinges do not show on the floor of the deck?

quote:

Originally posted by Tom Eirich:
I'm in the process of make a design for a customer. The deck will have a section that lifts, with the help of lifters (type used in auto rear door lift). There will be stairs under leading to a cellar. One of the requirements is caging of some sort to guard against anyone falling in.
If you get more info, please drop me an email...
Tom
rteirich@yahoo.com

whitbyc@shaw.cadid you finnish your design I am interested i have a crawl space with a trap door and i need a lift of some sort the door is heavy

Check out hinges and handles that are designed for boats. Usually flush with the surface (no tripping!) and will stand up to any weather without corrosion. Also consider not hinging it - just set it in place with recessed pull handles. I've done the access cover on a deck, but the area was small enough we didn't bother with hinges (it lead to a crawl space opening, not stairs). Stairs would require removal of more decking, so hinges and lifts become necessary if its going to be used for anything more often than once or twice a year.

Good luck, I'd also be interested in hearing about other solutions anyone comes up with.

quote:

Originally posted by greg petros:
Does anyone have experience/information about building/designing a trap door on the floor of a deck that will lead down a set of stairs that was previously covered with a metal bulkhead door?

This post is old but I am wondering if anyone has figured this out. I want to do away with my steel "bilco" doors so that I will be able to add a french door out of my kitchen and onto my patio where the Bilco doors are. I thought using the trap door system to gain access to the basement doors might be one solution, but I cannot figure out how to keep water out of the hole where the steps are. Has anyone done this or something similar?

This is a very common upgrade. There are a few ways to do this.
Depending on how high the deck is as compared to the top of the Bilco door is the steel doors can stay. This is the case in most of the installs. Reason being the top of the wall side of the Bilco doors typically does not go higher then the sill area in which the deck is fastened to. If you wish to have the deck lower then the sill area so you have a few steps down out of the back door to the deck. You can create a two tierd deck with the area by the Bilco doors being higher or high enough to clear the top of the basement door.
The bottom line is you keep the Bilco doors in place, create a hatch door to open to gain access to the Bilco door and build a hidden step to bring you down to the front of the Bilco door step area from the deck your building.