Trapdoor Ideas

Yesterday, I began tearing apart the half-wall that ran along the side of the basement staircase. I’m sorry I didn’t take any pictures of it, but I was kind of on a roll. Basically, I just needed to get rid if it so I could begin building my trapdoor. And by the way, I guess it’s called a “trapdoor,” and not a trap door. I don’t know why, but that’s what Wikipedia says.

It took a few hours to get rid of the wall. All I’m left with is a pile of wood and almost a sheet of used sheetrock. I’m not sure if I could reuse the sheetrock, but I could certainly reuse the wood. I actually did for a while yesterday as I was building the trapdoor I planned on keeping for a good long time.

I built the door and I put it in place. I screwed it to the hinges. Then I looked at it and walked around for a while. Then, this morning, I took it all apart. I didn’t like the look of it and it really wasn’t what I was going for at all. I think my initial goal was to have the door inset and then put a carpet or something over it so it was totally hidden. After discovering that the hole wasn’t squared off, I had to make adjustments to what I was building. That was the beginning of the end. I’m horrible at working with wood and me trying to match a trapdoor to an existing imperfect hole was going nowhere fast. I’m just glad I didn’t think of it too much or I may have lost sleep over the ordeal.

By the way, here’s the hole I’m talking about. It’s in the log cabin room.

As you can see, I’m taking out a window above the staircase and there was an existing door in the room that’s not there anymore.

Here’s what I’m currently thinking to cover this hole. I want to make something that looks like an old barn door, put that on hinges and have it close on a pine frame. It’s no secret that the hole is in the floor – that’s fine. I just want to take my time and do this thing correctly while I have the chance.

There’s a guy up the road who owns a small wood mill. He can pretty much make anything you want as long as you give him the specs. I’m going to ask him to mill me the lumber I need for this project. I’m sure it’s going to be less expensive than going to a building supply store. And here’s an even better idea – I would like to take a tree or two down from our property for him to mill, therefor saving even more money. All he has to do it cut. I only need enough wood to cover a ten foot by three foot hole. I just want it to be straight and to look good.

How does that sound? Has anyone ever seen a really cool trapdoor? Any ideas?