boarding loft out..

[george07]

i am just in the process of insulating & boarding the loft out for storage use etc..my house is a steel framed house & the depth of the steel beams in the loft is 200mm,i am going to insulate it 1st 270mm as required 100mm base + 170mm top up insulation,obviously when i lay the loft boards onto the beams it is going to pack down the insulation ! i realise other people have fitted 3x2 battens in their lofts to increase the depth etc but is this really that neccesary ? whats the worst that can happen ..surely the insulation albeit packed in will still do its job adequately.
also i think i need to use 6ft x 2ft loftboards as this length will span 2 whole bays whereas wickes/b & q loft boards are only 1200mm long and dont..what would be the cheapest + best sheets of timber to use to do this job ? 6x2ft 18mm plywood or maybe something else ? will be going to b&q mon/tue to purchase 1 or the other..cheers again

 

[george07]

or i may just insulate it with 170mm insulation leaving 30mm gap for it to breathe etc then board over it..the loft insulation i took out was only 100mm or so & the previous owners lived with this for yrs seemingly without any problems....

 

[george07]

also as its a steel framed house the width between each steel beam is 850mm which doesnt give me alot of confidence with this span..of 18mm chipboard sheeting etc to be able to cope with a larger persons bodyweight walking on it!... on suggestions on wehat i need to do cheers again View media item 40897

 

[Static]

You would be better off counter battening at more reasonable centres (400mm-600mm) and leaving a ventilation gap (especially in a steel framed house) the boarding out..

 

[george07]

cheers static..do you mean running 3x2 battens accross the steal beams on top thus also giving this ventilation gap to let the insulation breath etc...+ should i lay the 3x2 battens tall or flat for this required depth cheers again

 

[Static]

Yes on top and tall.. the air gap will be more for the steels to avoid condensation forming and corrosion etc..

 

[george07]

ok cheers i will do it that wat then..just get my 3x2 & some long bolts to fix through the timber & through the steel beam etc ..then i can board it out with b & q loft boards..hopefully get a discount on them and the 3x2 as i have a tradecard