Dividing stud wall in loft

[Dizzybacon]

Hi,

When I bought my house the surveyor pointed out that there was no division between my house and next door in the loft space. I want to fix this as I know it's considered a fire risk and I want to use the loft more.

From reading around it seems like I can put in a stud wall with double skin of plasterboard or a single skin of fireboard. It all looked simple until I started to look at how/where to attach the studs.

There is a wood joist running along the top of the dividing wall between the two houses, which is perfect as the base, but there is nothing above this. There is a joist supporting the roof about 6 inches away running almost (but not actually) parallel.

Can I attach a head plate to this with some noggins and plaster around where they meet?

Also when plastering the wall what do I do where it meets the interior of the roof which is some sort of material?

Thanks!

 

[loftman]

I would plumb up from the sole plate to the ridge and put a stud,then put the head plate from that to the eaves/purlin,carefully SCREWING with correct length screws into the battens,trapping a thinnish layer of rockwool between the head and the felt to take up any slack and form a fire break,then infill with studs and board etc.regards carl

 

[Dizzybacon]

Hi Carl,

Thanks for your reply. I've started working on this now and was planning to do what you've suggested I think. Started measuring and cutting the studs but not screwed anything together yet.

I'm putting in the headplate from the apex to the purlin on both sides of the apex and continuing down to the eaves. This will be additionally supported by the vertical studs.

My plan was to get the headplate quite tight against the felt, but for obvious reasons I'm worried about damaging the felt. I could leave a slight gap and fill it with rockwool though. That will help with where the felt is not totally straight too.

Thanks!