Hi
I've just moved house and and thinking about what to to with the loft. I want to board the loft with chipboard kindly left by the previous owner - they not secured down so I want to screw them into the joists.
The joists are about 7cm in height and have 42cm centre to centre. In the gaps there is some old insulation which comes to between 3 and 5 cm. I would like suggestions about how to top up the insulation as I have two ideas:
1) put polystyrene beads on top of the current insulation up to the level of the joists and screw the boards on top. I know that beads are sometimes used for cavity walls so is it possible to use them in this context too? If so where would i get hold on them?
2) put in proper loft insulation (upto 20cm extra) and put boards on top of that. Clearly this is much more difficult as I would have to put extra joists in to raise above the insultation to put the boards on.
Currently I favour number 1 as it seems much easier. I realise that these days at least 25cm of insulation is recommended but this doesn't seem practical if you want to put boards down since lofts aren't built with joists that deep. What do other people do when faced with this problem?
Any ideas, suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Andy
I've just moved house and and thinking about what to to with the loft. I want to board the loft with chipboard kindly left by the previous owner - they not secured down so I want to screw them into the joists.
The joists are about 7cm in height and have 42cm centre to centre. In the gaps there is some old insulation which comes to between 3 and 5 cm. I would like suggestions about how to top up the insulation as I have two ideas:
1) put polystyrene beads on top of the current insulation up to the level of the joists and screw the boards on top. I know that beads are sometimes used for cavity walls so is it possible to use them in this context too? If so where would i get hold on them?
2) put in proper loft insulation (upto 20cm extra) and put boards on top of that. Clearly this is much more difficult as I would have to put extra joists in to raise above the insultation to put the boards on.
Currently I favour number 1 as it seems much easier. I realise that these days at least 25cm of insulation is recommended but this doesn't seem practical if you want to put boards down since lofts aren't built with joists that deep. What do other people do when faced with this problem?
Any ideas, suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Andy