Let's Build Something - Ladder

Since I have all that used lumber, and it is going to be transported to the tree house site fairly soon, I thought it should be a good idea to get whatever I can build done now while I have access to power tools ... and the power to run them.

I decided it would be a good idea to get the ladder built now since there is a lot of cutting, drilling and screwing involved.  The added bonus is the ladder can be easily transported, unlike a wall for example.

I know that I want the floor surface to be 7 feet off the ground, and after doing some research, I decided to have a 70 degree angle ladder.  Subtracting the width of a 2x8 floor joist, I figured that the ladder can be 7 feet long.  I also researched that 10 inch rung spacing is good for kids, so I went with that.  Lastly, I made the rungs 18 inches wide so the finished product will be 21 inches wide (18 + 2x1.5).  21 inches long can tuck up into 24 inch centered joists if I decide to have the ladder hinge up into floor with a pulley.  Just trying to think ahead :)

For the materials, I used 2x6s for the vertical stringers and 2x4s for the rungs.  I cut short 2 inch pieces from 2x4s to make cleats to go under the rungs for added support.  Lastly, I used 2 1/2 inch long galvanized deck screws to assemble everything.  

Here are a few pictures to show the build in progress and the final product.

Here is a close up to show the rungs and the cleats that support the bottom of each end.  This gives each rung 10 screws to support it, so this should be sturdy.

And of course I called in my product tester.

It got a resounding thumbs up.  It took a while to get her down from there.  Imagine what will happen when there is a tree house at the top.