I made a ladder in one afternoon! It was way easier than I thought it would be. I used SteelTek parts from Lowes. I chose this brand instead of standard wrought iron piping based on cost, and how easy these were to use. I will go through the list of steps and materials so that you can make your own ladder too! Mine ladder was just under 4ft. as it was for a bunk bed, but you can make it any height you want with this method.
Materials:
- 3 long black iron pipes-Mine were 6 ft. and 3/4 in in diameter
- 4- 3/4″ Floor Flanges- I chose the oval design for a lower profile on the top.
- 2- 3/4″ Elbows
- 8- 3/4″ Tee shaped connectors
- 8- lag bolts to screw into the floor and wall behind the ladder
- 8- Washers to put in between the lag bolts and the holes to prevent slippage
- Locktite- Threadlocker Permanant- get the RED one.
- Allen Wrench for tightening the bolts in the steektek piece
- Sawzall for cutting the pipe
Steps:
Step 1:
The first step was cutting the pipe to be the correct length. I measured everything out. I needed it to be 4′ for my bunk bed. I cut two of the pipes to be the correct length.
I then cut the other pipe into 18″ sections to create the rungs of the ladder. I also needed two return piece that went into the elbows at the top to bring the ladder away from the bunk bed a little. I used parts of the left over portions from the other pipes to do this.
Step 2:
After cutting the pipe I laid it all out to see how it would end up looking. I slid all of the tee shaped connector pieces on to the longer side poles, and pushed the floor flanges on the bottom of the feet. I didn’t tighten anything down at this point. I was just laying it out to check it was going to look ok.
Step 3:
Next came tightening down the bolts inside of each piece. I laid out one side at a time with the connectors on a flat surface so I could see them correctly spaced out. I measured and moved each connector to its place.
Next I set the rungs set into the tee connectors so that I could try and set the tee connectors all at the same angle, making the rungs level, and facing the same way. I laid it on a flat surface to do this.
This part was hard to make sure they were not at any weird angles, but I just adjusted one at a time and laid it out trying to make it even. It took some time, but it was level in the end.
Step 4:
Next I removed the nuts inside of the connectors, and applied the loctite to the threads of each of them.
Then using the allen wrench I tightened the connectors little piece into the threads on the connector. I hand tightened first, and ended with the allen wrench.
Step 5:
Then I repeated it for the other side. When I spaced out the tee connectors, I only tightened them slightly on one bolt, so that I could stand it up and insert the rung into each one before I tightened all the way. I wanted to make sure each run was level first.
I placed the small level on each rung, and then tightened it, one screw at a time, adding the loctite again as I went. I also added the elbows at the top of the side pipes, and tightened them down. I added in the small return pieces to help it sit out away from the bunkbed, and tightened those into the top floor flange pieces.
I ended up with this
Step 6:
The last step was securing it to the bunk bed. I placed the washer in between the ladder and the bolt, and then screwed it to the floor, and to the bed through all 8 holes of the floor flanges.
and thats it! I built a ladder in an afternoon! It is very strong and both me and my husband can put our weight on it no problem.
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy creating!
-Amanda