Doors and Windows - Trap door for stairwell?

Hey,

I've got a little predicament that I'm hoping I can get help with. I have a master bedroom in my house, but it has no door. In one corner it has a stairwell with a 'L' shaped set of stairs leading to the kitchen. The opening in the floor is 8'-3" x 2'-11"

I don't mind it at the moment, but I have a couple room mates moving back in a couple weeks and one of them has a habit of making a lot of noise.

I want to rig up a door of some kind for the room, but I'm at a loss. My two thoughts have been:

1. A door at the top of the first flight (the corner of the 'L' shape) but where the wall opens for the stairs, the top of the opening is at an angle (front to back, not corner to corner), so I'm not able to build a normal frame to fit in there. The opening is 6' x 3'-5".

2. There's a 1.5" ledge along the sides of the stairwell, and about 2 feet space behind it (above the corner of the 'L') so I was thinking a horizontal (trap?) door of some kind. A sheet of wood would sit easily across, but then there is the problem of lifting it, I'd run out of walking room long before getting to the edge, and lifting from the middle would be a little heavy (I can handle it, but my girlfriend would hate visiting).

So while my girlfriend says I should invent sound proof bead curtains (isn't she just so helpful? :p), I am tempted to go with the trap door, I just need a good method for lifting it.

If anyone has a better idea (I'm sure that'll be easy) please let me know, the last time these room mates lived here I had to leave the room whenever she was around.

Thanks for any suggestions.

first: a room with no door(and no window?) is a disaster waiting to happen!! i would not even go IN a room with no door. should somehing happen in the kitchen, like a fire?, what would happen to whoever was in the trap door room??

second: maybe you need NEW, QUIET room-mates!!!

i think you need to re-visit this decision!!

Any trap door will violate code, as a falling object onto the door will block egress in case of emergency and will block ingress of help. Then no window.....no way. I agree with Mike, find another way. You may want to post a couple of pictures on a site such as photobucket.com and either give us the urls or copy/paste the HTML code to a reply post. That way we can see what you se.

Ok, I had been thinking that the trap door would cause problems (I draw house plans for a living, shouldn't I have known this?? :wall: My brain has abandoned me)

There are two windows, both above the stairwell. Also there is a set of double doors that lead out onto a balcony. There used to be a door that went to the other side of the house, but the previous owners renovated the bathroom on that side and where the doorway used to lead to is now a shower (there's just a fake door in the big room now) This house has just had it's 101st birthday, so it's a bit of a nightmare in some places (don't ask about the foundation...out of sight, out of mind...)

As for the quieter room mates, I wish. Regrettably I was not given an option. My brother and I live here, he told them that if they couldn't find anywhere else we could probably arrange something (the noisier of the two room mates decided this meant move in whenever you want) so now I'm stuck with trying to figure out this room.

Again, thanks for the help, it's greatly appreciated.

Box around the current opening with walls (insulated ones) and a standard 24" prehung door at the top of the stairs.