Boarding over Loft for Storage

[Celeste86]

I know this is probably a popular subject but I've struggled to find any answers based on our loft.

Went up there today and the majority structure is from metal and are in a Triangle form roughly every 98cm the beams themselves are only 8-10cm wide. The loft insulation is currently partially covers the beams and i know if it is compacted it usually reduces its effectiveness & could potentially cause the ceiling to fall through if pushed down. I can post some pictures tomorrow if this would help.

My main questions are does this sound suitable to board over in anyones opinion, how can it be attach to the beams when there metal? could you stagger and glue without attaching? (Planned to use Tongue & groove) Should some of the insulation be taken up if this can be boarded?

We desperately need the space only intend to do in front of the hatch and to either sides but not all the way up to the edges (behind the hatch has a ventilation that goes to the landing so couldnt board there anyway)
Its just for stuff that we only use once a year xmas tree, baubles and baby stuff moses baskets pretty light stuff.

Thanks

 

[tony1851]

If the majority of your roof structure is steel, it may be a 'BISF' house. (Is it immediate post-War? ex Council property?).
These houses are not easy to adapt - can you post any pics of the loft and in particular the ceiling arrangement?

 

[Celeste86]

If the majority of your roof structure is steel, it may be a 'BISF' house. (Is it immediate post-War? ex Council property?).
These houses are not easy to adapt - can you post any pics of the loft and in particular the ceiling arrangement?

Thanks for getting back to me, It is quite possible it is a Bisf house with the exterior rebuilt, been trying to find documents to the house but cannot find them at this time stuff everywhere hence trying to create more space.

Will try to post some pictures tomorrow as its late now

 

[Celeste86]

Here our some Photos of our loft hope they are good enough for you to have an idea and I did a quick plan of what the top floor of the house is like where the ventilation is and loft hatch and roughly where we plan to board although it might not even be that far if its possible.


Heres a link to the album as having issues putting them all within the post
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h92/Pink_flamingo_86/Our Loft and House Plan/?albumview=slideshow

Thanks

 

[tony1851]

Not easy to see the depth of the ceiling ties due to the quilt.
Only thing which seems feasible is to build a shallow platform of, say, 3x2 spanning across the steel ceiling ties, and cover with something light such as 1/2" ply or OSB.
Remember that these ceilings would not have been designed to carry any load so it is at your own risk and you need to use common sense as to what and how much you put up there.

Untitled

• tony1851
• 13 Jun 2012
• 1

 

[Celeste86]

Not easy to see the depth of the ceiling ties due to the quilt.
Only thing which seems feasible is to build a shallow platform of, say, 3x2 spanning across the steel ceiling ties, and cover with something light such as 1/2" ply or OSB.
Remember that these ceilings would not have been designed to carry any load so it is at your own risk and you need to use common sense as to what and how much you put up there.

Untitled

• tony1851
• 13 Jun 2012
• 1

Thanks the Diagram really helped, after seeing how much work is involved, I'm so glad i asked because i knew it wouldnt be as straight forward as soon as i looked up there. Ill have to take into account the weight of the wood as well before i even think about putting stuff up there. Will have to weigh it up as a ruined ceiling could cost a lot to repair if anything happened. I know someone whos good with the cutting and laying who can have a look at your plans and see if he can do it (but i dont think he would have known how to go about it)

Many thanks for the advice.

 

[ed110220]

Hi Celeste,

that does not look like a BISF roof at all to me as a BISF roof has trusses of tubular steel supporting angle-iron purlins, and there are none of those steel members running from eaves to apex or vertical supports directly under the apex. Also, the room layout is wrong for a BISF house.

Anyway, I expect the principle will be similar and unlike the previous poster's opinion it's not difficult at all, in fact probably easier than a traditionally-built house to work on.

I can't tell from your photos but I expect there are timber noggins of some sort that the ceiling boards are attached to. Instead of attaching to the steel you would make use of those for your additions.

In my house (BISF) there are steel I-section beams about 1m apart between which notched noggins are wedged about 40cm apart. The ceiling boards are nailed to these.

What I did was to put 100mm loft insulation down between the steels and noggins after removing the original 1940s glassfibre insulation that was crushed and fragmented. Because of the grid arrangement I cut them into individual rectangles rather than the usual strips. As the noggins are less than 100mm tall I screwed battens on top of them to avoid squashing the insulation. Then I put Knauf Spaceboards on top (a type of insulation board), then finished off with tongue and groove chipboard loft boards.

This was it after I'd stripped out the old insulation:-

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