Boarding loft for storage

[Dougiebabe2003]

Hello,

I'm looking to board out my loft but would like some advice before I begin buying anything to make sure that I have the right idea/plan and that I'm not wasting my time.

Currently we have minimal insulation (Probably 100mm compacted down to around 60mm) sitting on top of lath and plaster (I believe). The stuff that is currently sitting up there (and has been for a while) is sitting on top of the ceiling battens and NOT the joists which is worrying me now!

The joists are 7x2's and look to be sitting on the inside cavity wall and run to the middle of the house (at around 4m long) and sit on top of the wall in the middle of the house where another joist continues onto the other side of the house.

The joists are spaced at around 1.3m apart from each other across the width of the house so I cannot lay any boards across this gap.

My plan is to add 4x2's to the top of the joists at 500/600mm gaps to allow me to lay boards on top of them. This will also bring the total height from the bottom of the joists to the bottom of the board to around 280mm, with the extra space between the ceiling battens I hope this should be enough for new insulation to fit in.

Have I got the right idea with this and will this work OK? Will the current joists take the extra weight of the new wood and boards? Should I be adding new 7x2's running parallel with the current ones to help with the extra weight?

Looking to start this project over the next few weeks and will begin doing half the loft first, allowing me to move the stuff that is currently there onto the boards and then carry on with the rest after.

Here are a few pics which might give a better idea of whats going on, excuse the mess!

Any advice or info would be greatly received

View media item 87570 Joist
View media item 87573 Joist outside wall
View media item 87571 Joist join 1
View media item 87577 Joist join 2
View media item 87569 View media item 87576 View media item 87574 Insulation
View media item 87575 Ceiling

 

[Dougiebabe2003]

Have spoken with a chippy and he suggests that creating a subframe out of 4x2 on top of the existing joists should be fine even with the gap of 1.3m between joists. He suggested only having a 400mm gap between the new frame so will be doing that.

Will now begin sourcing the wood, had a quote from one shop at £240 for 25 sections of 3.6m 4x2 and that will do just over half the loft!

 

[catlad]

Why don't you just put more 7x2" joist in between what you already have and put 150mm insulation between joists and then you can board straight on top.

 

[Dougiebabe2003]

Hello again

Got another question but also a follow up on my boarding adventure.

I decided to install 4x2 on top of the joists at 400mm centres to raise the height to a total of 11" giving me enough room to fit 270mm of insulation in.

I managed to get half the loft done before the offer on insulation ran out (along with my patience!) so will be finishing this winter time when the weather is cooler for working in the loft again.


My Question this time relates to the loft hatch.

Back story is the bathroom had a leak and is now being totally renovated, during this time the ceiling will be re-boarded and the loft hatch will need moving out of the bath room into the hall (where it belongs!)

I would ideally like to fit a loft hatch and intergrated ladder but all of these seem to need a hatch over 1m in length and I want to check if this is possible in my loft.

As far as I can make out I have 7x2 joists running the length of the loft which then have some 3x1.5 'somethings' nailed/screwed to them and then the laths are attached to the 'something'

Reading around you should not cut through more than one joist to fit the ladder but as far as I can tell I don't need to cut through any joists and only need to cut through these 'somethings'

Can someone please explain what these are and if I can cut through more than one at a time with the relevant bracing in place?


Pics of what I am talking about (excuse the mess!)







Any help is much appreciated, would be good to fit a nice big loft hatch with integrated pull down ladder if possible but if not will settle with loft ladder attached to loft floor instead.


Pics of boarding out earlier in the year
















Many thanks,

Doug