Hello all,
The house we recently bought did not have an attic access for the main portion of the house, only one in the garage which only allows access to the attic above the garage. I added an access on the other end of the house with the help of my father while he was visiting (fairly new to this DIY stuff). What I'd like to add is some plywood around the edge of the access hole to make getting in and out of the attic easier by providing a small area to set tools and move around. I think this should be fairly easy with a few pieces of 1/2" plywood and some 2x4s for additional bracing. I just have a couple probably silly questions.
First, Would it be possible to treat the plywood with something like polyurethane finish or paint to help prevent splintering from moving in and out of the attic? Would it cause and problems or be a risk of fire due to the high temperature the attic can get to? The attic is ventilated but it still gets pretty warm up there.
Second, the way the wiring was run when the house was built means that there are two electrical cables and a coaxial cable running across where I would want to put some of the plywood. There's no slack so I can't shift them much to get them out of the way. I'd like to do something to protect the cables from any possible damage going in and out of the attic.
Thanks for any advice, sorry for the silly newbie questions!
Keith
The house we recently bought did not have an attic access for the main portion of the house, only one in the garage which only allows access to the attic above the garage. I added an access on the other end of the house with the help of my father while he was visiting (fairly new to this DIY stuff). What I'd like to add is some plywood around the edge of the access hole to make getting in and out of the attic easier by providing a small area to set tools and move around. I think this should be fairly easy with a few pieces of 1/2" plywood and some 2x4s for additional bracing. I just have a couple probably silly questions.
First, Would it be possible to treat the plywood with something like polyurethane finish or paint to help prevent splintering from moving in and out of the attic? Would it cause and problems or be a risk of fire due to the high temperature the attic can get to? The attic is ventilated but it still gets pretty warm up there.
Second, the way the wiring was run when the house was built means that there are two electrical cables and a coaxial cable running across where I would want to put some of the plywood. There's no slack so I can't shift them much to get them out of the way. I'd like to do something to protect the cables from any possible damage going in and out of the attic.
Thanks for any advice, sorry for the silly newbie questions!
Keith