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The answer to this question really depends on the model, but the general answer is, not a lot. Most manufacturers supply a guide to maintenance, but these are usually no more than an inspection to check that nothing is showing signs of excessive wear or working loose. Non of the models that I have experience of require any from of lubrication to moving parts. In fact oil and grease attracts dust and can end up clogging up the part it is applied to.
All apparatus with moving parts will eventually wear out and need replacement, but generally electric loft ladders do not have the hardest of lives and are only used occasionally. Should you have a requirement for constant access each day then I think you would tend to leave the ladder in the down position most of the time, or look at an alternative permanently fixed solution. I would suggest that the heavier wooden fold out electric loft ladders put more strain on motors and operating gear than say a concertina electric loft ladder, but in my own experience I have never yet had to replace a motor or gear mechanism on any electric loft ladder that I have been involved with. In fact despite my scepticism in the early days of getting involved with anything that can break down, I have been amazed over the years just how reliable electrically operated loft ladders can be. Usually the only thing that goes wrong is that an electrical fuse will occasionally blow. This is usually when your grandchildren discover the fun of sending you electric loft ladder up and down an hundred times in a row causing the motor to overheat!
So my advice is to follow the manufacturers maintenance instructions and do not worry, you will probably find that your wonderfully useful electric loft ladder will out live you.
The Staircase Doctor
The questioner wants to install a spiral staircase over the existing main house stair to access the loft. I have been asked this question many times,usually by people who think a spiral staircase will save space and be an easy answer to their problem. Unfortunately the reality is that there are very few situations where you can do this.
You have to bear in mind that a typical spiral staircase has centre pole that needs to be supported on the floor, so as this is in the middle of the spiral stair it will have to sit on the edge of the landing. That means that only one half of the spiral staircase can be over the existing house stair, the rest will be over the landing area. There are two main questions to be asked with this set up, first, will the landing big enough to accommodate it, second, will you bang your head on the spiral stair treads as you ascend the house stair. In the case of most houses the answer is usually no to the first and yes to the second, so the project will be a non starter. True it is possible to have a stair made that has three or four straight treads going over the existing stair and then continues up as spiral stair, but this is structurally difficult and very expensive to achieve. It is also beyond the realm of any of kit spiral stair that is on the market.
Personally I think some form flight stair with a 90 degree or 180 degree turn is in most cases are far better solution than attempting to solve this problem with a spiral staircase. Even with a flight stair consideration has to be given to maintaining head clearance height while ascending the existing house stair.
As always consult someone who can advise you based on your specific details before you go to far with this idea.
The Spiral Stair Doctor
The Building Regulations do not really treat them differently, part K is a requirement for all stairs including loft stairs. I think the questioner is referring to the sections covering space saving or alternate tread stairs, and the section covering reduction of headroom in loft conversions. These sections allow for what is really a relaxation of the rules specifically for loft conversions. I have to add that The Scottish Regulations do not include these relaxations.
The reason for these easings of the Regulations governing loft stairs I think are quite sensible and are to be applauded. It is a fact that in most housing stock on this island it would be difficult to use a fully Building Regulation compliant loft stair because there is simply no enough room. I think some bright chappy realised that home owners are going to use the loft space via loft stairs in lieu of a more dangerous ladder whatever the Regulations say. It was therefore better to ease the Regulations to have some control over this situation rather than just ignore it. So Regulations were written allowing for steeper stairs using paddle shaped treads specifically for loft staircases. These also included a rule allowing for a little less headroom under the sloping roof. All sensible thinking as far as this old chap is concerned, Scottish regulators take note you need to face the reality of the situation.
A word of warning these extra Regulations for loft stairs do not cover you if you do have space for a full staircase and all the other requirements under part K still apply.
The staircase doctor
The answer is probably, if you are rich enough, although this old guy is yet to see a complete spiral staircase made of glass.
Structural glass is flavour of the month at the moment for all types of staircases including spiral stairs. This fact probably means that by the time the questioner gets her see through work of glass engineering installed it will be out of date and need to be replaced immediately with bamboo or something else exotic.
I can think of a thousand reasons why you should not pursue this project further. Here are a few of them.
If you have read this far you will probably have guessed that I am not really a fan of such a concept as all glass spiral staircases. I am the first to concede that good building design requires an element of adventure, but there are practical limits, and I think an all glass spiral staircases are a bridge too far.
For a less biased opinion ask Frank Gehry and Co.
The spiral staircase Doctor
As I understand it this questioner has a home made loft staircase squeezed into a bedroom recess. Having never seen this stair it is difficult to be certain exactly how it functions, but if the questioner is concerned by its steepness then I suspect that it is already saving space on a more suitable less steep loft staircase.
Unfortunately no one apart from Doctor Who has yet found a way to cheat on the laws of geometry. The only way to save space with a loft staircase or any other flight stair for that matter is to make it steeper in its angle of pitch. The steeper it is the less space on plan your staircase will take up. You can reduce the width of the stair which will save space in one direction, but length is determined by the number of treads that you use to reach your specific floor-to-floor height. If you reduce the number of treads of staircase you will reduce the length but you will also increase the steepness. You can also reduce the overall length of loft stair by reducing the amount of depth front-to-back of each tread which is called the going, but this will produce a stair which is dangerous to use.
True space saver stairs do actually reduce the going but use an odd paddle shaped tread that actually gives you an acceptable amount of tread to stand on, but this does not get way from the fact that it will end up steep. Typically kit space saver stairs are around 50 to sixty degrees pitch angle while a normal stair will typically be around 40 degrees.
So I expect that the home made loft stair that we are talking about is the best that can be achieved in the space available in terms of steepness. A space saver stair would probably be just a steep but may feel more comfortable because of the greater going.
The staircase Doctor