If you’re planning to build a bunk bed for your kids, a very important feature in it is the ladder, without which, half of the bed cannot be used. A few easy instructions from this article and you’re good to build the ladder yourself.
It’s very common to see parents with two or more children install a bunk bed in their kid’s room. Bunk beds save a lot of space in a given room; half of what a bed would otherwise need. There are two types of bunk bed ladders: permanent and movable. The permanent one is generally fixed to the bunk beds by nails, screws, and bolts. On the other hand, the movable one comes with foldaway wheels, and can be attached to the bed or positioned somewhere else in the room when not in use. It is also lighter than the permanent one. Usually, these ladders are made of the same material as the bunk beds. A double-bed ladder has 3 to 6 steps, while a triple bunk bed has 6 to 12 steps for its ladder.
Required Materials
A drill, a circular saw, a hammer, few nails, and ¼” carriage bolts, tape measure, stain, varnish, a sandpaper, and 5 10-foot 2 by 4 pieces of lumber.
Instructions
Step 1: Using tape measure, measure the height of the bed from the top to the ground. Be very careful while you take these measurements, they’re going to define the size of your ladder.
Step 2: Saw two pieces of lumber of size 2 by 4 to the measured height. Then, cut 5 1 to ½ pieces of lumber from the third 2 by 4 pieces. These would be the slats of wood which would form steps of the ladder.
Step 3: Bolt the slats of wood to the two long pieces that you cut in step one, by spacing them 10” to 12” apart from each other in a vertical manner (nail the 5th piece of wood with the cove of the ladder posts).
Step 4: Now check the height of the ladder. Ensure whether it is going to be of the same height when the ladder hooks to the crown of the bed. If any changes are required, like shortening the ladder or so, do it right away by starting all over again.
Step 5: Once you are done with the nailing, draw circles at the top base of the ladder sides. Use a circular saw to smoothen the rough edges on the sides.
Step 6: Now, with the sandpaper, sand the full ladder before you fix it to the bed.
Step 7: Use varnish and stain for touch-ups. Dry it for sometime.
Step 8: Once your ladder is dry, nail it to the crown of your bed, i.e., to the top base board. If your work has gone right, you will notice that your ladder is touching the ground after fixing it to the top.
The instructions were really simple, weren’t they? Always cut the wood a little longer than the height you’ve noted down. This way, you can keep cutting it a little, till you reach the perfect size.