Cheap alternative to loft stilts - Reasonable idea?

[WaxCrayon]

I'm adding insulation to my loft (200mm over an existing 6") and want to put stilts in now so that when I board on top of the insulation in the future, I won't have to poke around in the (fibreglass) insulation.

But I'm doing the job on a budget.

I was looking at loft legs or similar, but they'd be quite expensive to cover the whole loft space.

My cheaper workaround is to get some 40x80mm(ish) cross-section wood, cut it to 200mm lengths (with a mitre box to get a neat square cut), mount it on the beams and drill at a downward angle through the base of each 'leg' to make a hole to screw it into place. Then when I board on top of them, I'll drill vertically into the top of some of the legs to secure my boards in place.

Good idea / bad idea?

 

[SimonH2]

Could you afford to cross-joist now and fit the insulation between the new joists. Then when you can afford the boarding, it just needs dropping on and screwing down.

Biggest problem I see is finding timber that wide (200mm) without also being thick (like 2-3 inch or more) making it heavy and expensive. The nearest I've found locally so far is 150mm x 22mm rough sawn & treated wood sold for fencing. IMO it doesn't need to be any thicker - it's going to be supported and restrained every 600mm (or whatever the spacing of your existing joists is), and before it gets loaded, it will be restrained at the top by the boarding. All it should need is a few noggins to avoid the whole lot toppling over.

 

[WaxCrayon]

I've scoped out parts at my local wickes and I've found timber in the right dimensions - it's tall, fairly thin legs I'll be making. I think provided I can make the board/supports stable without compromising the beams, in theory it should work

 

[SimonH2]

The main thing that bothers me about the whole idea of stilts is that you're supporting the boards on points. That's OK in the middle of boards, but at the edges you have only half the width of a stilt under each board, and at corners even less.