All the engineering solutions are pretty cool sounding, but after being
a landlord myself, there's just no way I'd ever rent out a house with a
trapdoor in it, no matter what. I'd build a staircase--even outside the
house, if I had to--before I let tenants use a trapdoor in a hallway.
Shoot, I'd nail the trapdoor shut and just eliminate access to the
basement entirely before I let a tenant use a trapdoor.
I don't think you could buy enough liability coverage to cover lifetime
skilled nursing care for someone falling through that thing. And they
will find a way to do it. I had a tenant flush a deodorant bottle down a
toilet. After that, anything seems possible.
For just you guys, you could install gates in the hallway--like a
railroad crossing barrier. When someone uses the trapdoor, they lower
the barriers on either side of it. If they were just above waist-height,
and if they locked into a latch on both sides of the hallway they'd
certainly make you aware of their presence before you fell into a hole
in the floor, no matter how sleepy you were. You could even tie them
into the operation of the trapdoor itself.
But all that sounds to me like as much work as putting a three-foot
bump-out and a staircase on an exterior wall.
Scott
On 1/17/2013 7:40 PM, Eric J Russell wrote:
> I'm imagining something like the mechanisms at Thomas Jefferson's
> Monticello. When the doors are opened a hidden pulley system could
> move bars - like the trafficators on an olde English car - into the
> hallways around the opening.
>
> Can you upload a photo of the floor doors for us to peruse? Us visual
> learners like photos...
>
> Eric Russell
> Mebane, NC
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Stone"
>
>
>> I can envision an elaborate system where three barriers would
>> 'unfold' when the door was opened,
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