Turning my loft into a dumping ground.

[Matt.Steer]

Hey all.

I've not long ago moved into my house, and am still going through the "moving in stage" (If it lasts 8 months) anyhows.

I am currently looking to board up my attic, so that I can free up the rooms for their intended purpose.

I know the joists are 3" x 2" both roof and floor. but not sure on the spacing. My question is, What would be the the best thickness of chipboard for the flooring? I dont intend of storing heavy items, also would I be able to insulate the joists which gold the roof. Sorry for being vague, but i am a novice at this. Best if I start with the DIY which is out of site

All advise will be helpful

 

[brettjbuckley]

Hi Matt,

I have exactly the same situation and I have just started to solve it.

Because we needed to get our house rewired, I had the electricians install three strip lights and a couple of double sockets in the loft. I also made sure that any and all wiring for the upstairs lighting got renewed before I boarded.

We have 3x2 ceiling joists too, but we also have "ceiling hangers" which hang vertically between the roof beams and some of the ceiling joists. I decided that I dare not remove the hangers in case the ceilings sagged - or worse! I therefore decided that I should board around them and so ordered £300 of pine tounge and groove floorboards from a local timberyard. These came as 17 foot long and so I had them cut into thirds and delivered into my garage.

I choose floorboards over chipboard panels because they look better, offer more strength and also will fit around the ceiling hangers easier.

I had a mixture of existing insulation in my loft - some loose fix polystyrene and some fibreglass wool. I ordered a roll of astro-foil insulation off Ebay for £110 and I have started to put sections of this under the floorboards as I progress, on top of the old insulation, with the electricity cables on top again, under the floorboards.

I have used size-10 2" screws and have put two in everywhere a floorboard crosses a joist - quite excessive but I want as rigid a floor as possible. I will mark the location of all cables on the floorboards in pencil - or even one of those UV security markers incase I need to do any further work in there.

I'll post my progress....