Boarding Section of Loft - Does this sound right?

[paulheadbaker]

Hi All,

I've read some of the threads on here, but as a bit of a newbie, I thoughtI would spell out what I'm doing in my lay-man terms to see if it sounds ok.

Recently moved into our 1980's terraced house. Insulation was p*ss poor (4cm of blown fibre). I've laid out 150mm space blankets in the front and back section of the loft, running at right angles to the existing joists.

For the middle section, I want to insulate then board on top. I am planning to run 6x2 (150mm deep) at right angles to existing joists at a suitable distance apart so I can roll out space blanket in between. I was then going to put chip board on top of these new battens.

Main questions really are:

- does anything stand out as a hideous 'no-no' in what is described above?
- should the boarded section be sturdy enough to support a sensibly distrubuted amount of tat!
- Would drilling a few holes in the chip board be a good move to aid ventilation?
- Was also thinking about marking out on the chip board where light fittings etc are located underneath, just in case we ever need to get to them, which would hopefully save ripping up the whole thing!

Any thoughts or comments would be great!

Ta

 

[Deluks]

1) No.
2) 18mm chipboard T&G sheets onto crossjoists at 600mm centers maximum.
3) Not much point. Unless: Do you have downlights beneath?
4) V good idea. If possible cut boards down to the nearest joist and remove tongues from the boards closest the light fitting, they can then be unscrewed, removed and put back down without trashing the lot.

6x2 won't stand up on it's own without bracing. Try 4x2 and use less insulation (or squash what you have, slightly less effective) Screw the new timbers into the joists below at an angle using min. 50mm screws or use angle brackets where each one crosses over.