Made to Measure Loft Hatch – Insulated & Air Tested
Product details
Made to your opening, to the millimetre
A loft hatch is the weakest point in an insulated ceiling. A standard hatch dropped into a non-standard opening leaves a gap, and that gap carries warm air into the loft for the life of the building. This one is made to the size you give us, so there is nothing to pack out and nothing to make good.
Maximum size 1100 × 950mm. Handmade in the UK.
Specification
- Insulation — 50mm mineral wool. U-value 0.32 W/m²K.
- Airtightness — tested at 0.23 m³/m/hr at 50 Pa [insert test report ref].
- Door and frame — 1mm Zintec steel, powder coated in 20% white gloss (RAL 9010).
- Ceiling protrusion — 7mm. Hinges and fixings are concealed.
- Depth above the ceiling — 63mm standard; 30mm where either dimension is under 450mm.
- Weight — approximately 6-12kg.
- Insulation environmental data — zero GWP, CFC and HCFC free.
Both lock types run a cam that pulls the door onto the seal as it closes, which is what the airtightness figure depends on.
How to measure
Measure the distance between your ceiling joists in millimetres and deduct 5mm. That is the size to order. The 5mm takes up the out-of-square you get in almost every opening.
The outer frame then sits on the ceiling and adds 25mm on every side, or 50mm if you choose the wider frame option. All four sides are the same width — the frame cannot be made wider on one side than another.
Locks
- Tri-Drive — the standard fitting. An O-ring seal at the lock gives the tightest closure, and the opening pole is supplied free.
- Key lockable — for lofts that need to be secured. The opening pole cannot be used with this lock.
If the hinge side is longer than 750mm, specify two locks. A single lock on a long door leaves the far corner of the seal under less pressure than the rest.
Options
- 50mm frame — a wider face, useful where the ceiling around the opening is damaged or where you want more cover over an untidy edge.
- Silver insulation cover — a faced cover over the mineral wool. Supplied uncovered as standard.
- Second lock — see above.
Fitting
Fixings and step-by-step instructions are in the box. The frame screws into the surrounding timber.
The door sits slightly proud on the lock side when new. That is the seal under compression, and it settles back over the first few months.
Delivery and returns
Made to order, in the lead time shown above, free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes. Lead times are working days and exclude weekends and bank holidays.
This hatch is made to your dimensions and cannot be returned.
Is this fire rated?
No. The SDS is an insulated, air-tested hatch and carries no fire rating. If the ceiling forms part of a compartment — a loft conversion, a flat, anything where building control is looking at compartmentation — you need a rated hatch instead. We make those to size as well: SDS-FR, 1 hour, up to 900 × 600mm, and SDS-FR-OS-90, 90 minutes, up to 900 × 900mm.
Reviews
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Great product, made to exact measurements given, brilliant quality and arrived in good time. Very pleased with the lost hatch and would highly recommend Jupiter blue.
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We ordered a bespoke loft hatch as our previous one was so small we couldn't even get large cardboard boxes in. This one is absolutely perfect and fits like a glove. Excellent materials used, exceptionally well made and the quality of customer service is second to none. Extremely helpful and friendly advice when I phoned them before ordering. Thank you so much I would highly recommend your company.
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Brilliant product good quality just perfect
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Thank you for a brilliant service. Received the item in good time. Well packaged. Very simple an easy to install. Good quality and robust. For a few extra pounds, I would recommend an upgrade to the locking system. Having not physically seen the items I went for the standard locking system. My next preferred access panel would be an upgrade.
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We recently had our loft access moved from one of our bedrooms onto the landing ceiling which is much more practical. While doing so, we thought it would be good to go for a bigger hatch to provide more practical access, but didn't want to risk having something that would stand out like a sore thumb on the ceiling. This product meets our needs perfectly, and when fitted is extremely tidy, and you hardly notice it's there despite its large size. The only things to be aware of, being that it's made of steel, are the weight and chunkiness of the hatch door (which could cause injury if accidentally allowed to drop open), and the sprayed finish of the door and frame, which is beautifully slick but may be hard to touch up nicely if it gets scratched (one would probably need to spray paint it to maintain the finish, rather than use brush paint). But these are relatively minor considerations, and as long as the usual care is taken, they do not detract from the design or quality of the product. A minor observation regarding the loft hatch pole is that the end of the pole is made of rough metal, and could easily scratch the door panel if this was allowed to slip off the catch and onto the panel surface. The pole is very cheaply made by comparison to the hatch itself, and could be improved if the end that locates into the latch was made of a hard polyethylene plastic rather than metal, thus eliminating any risk of scratching the paintwork on the hatch. I've covered the end of mine in gaffer tape to avoid any such risk, but again if you're careful this shouldn't be an issue. It's essential to note that, when ordering a bespoke size, it is vital that you follow the measuring instructions precisely to allow a necessary small tolerance to enable you to locate the frame square into the hole, packing the edges where necessary once the fit is nice and square. Without this necessary tolerance, the frame could end up being a tight fit between the joists, leaving you with no allowance for adjusting the installation; and if your joists are not all perfectly square (which they likely won't be), this would lead to the door catching when you close it. It's therefore essential to follow JupiterBlue's instructions when specifying your sizes. It's also worth noting that mine was manufactured perfectly in accordance with the dimensions I specified on my order. This allowed me to install it with just the right amount of room for movement to ensure an absolutely perfect fit all round. I'm very pleased indeed with this product overall, and would definitely recommend it.
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item great quality measurements all ok and eaasy to install with on time delivery
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Excellent well made delivered on time and easy to fit
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Used this smart looking hatch to replace a draughty \made on site\ MDF one with no insulation which the builder had fitted in our new extension. (Beats me how the building inspector didn't reject it.) The new one is far superior - zero draughts, well insulated and looks very good. Easy installation: two person job to offer up but can then be clamped in place whilst fitting, releasing the wife to make a cup of coffee! Will be ordering another for the main house loft.
Specification
- Frame style
- Picture Frame
- Fire rating
- Non Fire Rated
- Material
- Zintec Steel, white finish
- Frame width
- 25 or 50mm
- Wall or ceiling
- Ceiling Only
- Insulated option
- 0.32 U Value