loft boarding

[teresahaveago]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible for me, a 56 year old female, to board my loft on my own?
Typical 4 bedroom house, detached. How much am I looking at, moneywise? Only want to use it for long-term storage. What materials do I have to buy and where? Budget very tight but desperate! Thank you all!

 

[Adam_151]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible for me, a 56 year old female, to board my loft on my own?

I don't know, whats your DIY like? are you physically able to get up there and move about the place?

What materials do I have to buy and where? Budget very tight but desperate!

Loft boarding panels, £3.99 for a pack of three ... B&Q, and some wood screws, I'd probably use 1.5" And of course you'll need the tools to drill and screw boards, along with a saw to cut them when required

 

[teresahaveago]

Thank you - that was very helpful. I can get up there and move about and am fairly fit and have a 26 year old daughter, who is very fit, to help me! How do I work out how many boards I need? Where do I measure?

 

[Deluks]

...am fairly fit and have a 26 year old daughter, who is very fit

WAHEYYYYY!


(sorry )

 

[Deluks]

How do I work out how many boards I need? Where do I measure?

Measure the area you wish to have covered with the boards.

Measure the loft end to end and side to side, then times the measurements by each other.

ie: if the distance between the side walls is 5 metres, and the distance between the front and back is 6 metres, 5 x6 = 30 square metres. Just mention this to the shop where you buy the boards from and they'll work out how much you need.

Make sure they will let you return any unused, in case they work it out wrong, or try to sell you too many. Get them to confirm.

The loft panels sold in B&Q are ok, but they also sell 8x2ft lengths of chipboard, specifically for flooring. These are much more economical but slightly trickier to work with, due to their length. Expect to pay about £5 per board...and pick up a couple of dust masks while you're there, but not the thin papery ones.

If budget is tight, you may just want to board off just a section of the area. Under the eaves (the edges where the roof meets the walls) can be tricky to fix down do to lack of height to work in. So you may wish to leave these as they are.

Hope this helps, let us know when you've got the stuff and are ready to continue.

 

[teresahaveago]

Thank you. Will let you know when I get the materials. Not this week as no time off work, but soon. Once again, thank you for your help and I will even forgive the comment! - it was funny and I walked into that one!

 

[clairesmith58]

Sorry to butt in on this post but I'm thinking of flooring my loft too. My problem is that I have cables, pipes and wires sitting on top of the joists. Will I have to raise the level of the joists so that the flooring sits stable and if so how?

Also is it possible to lay laminate or hardwood flooring on top of these chipboard panels once they're down.

Lastly, how would I go about fitting a window in the loft? Do I need planning permission?

Thanks
Claire

 

[masona]

Sorry to butt in on this post but I'm thinking of flooring my loft too. My problem is that I have cables, pipes and wires sitting on top of the joists. Will I have to raise the level of the joists so that the flooring sits stable and if so how?

The easiest way is use use 3"x1" timber flat way in the opposite direction of the ceiling joists, make sure the the centre of the 3"x1" is where the boards join together. You won't have to notch out the ceiling joists and will give you a cross air-flow under the boards.

Also is it possible to lay laminate or hardwood flooring on top of these chipboard panels once they're down.

If you want to but the danger would be the laminated flooring may slide off unless it's fixed somehow using something like carpet edger which will allow for expansion as well.

Lastly, how would I go about fitting a window in the loft? Do I need planning permission?

Not normally unless you're altering the size of the roof but best to check with the BCO for their free advice. The most popular are Velux windows, check with their website for more info.

 

[Odd Job]

Hi teresahave a go ( fair play )

Im a 40 year old mum on my own and fingers crossed I am laying floor panels in the loft this week, how are you getting on with yours?

I have measured up but just ordered 10 packs of 3ft boards to do main centre so i can walk round safely and then will get more if needed to go round the edges.however I have 2x 4inch supports running through the loft which gives the boards a bit more to be held in place with.

Sorry to butt in on this post but I'm thinking of flooring my loft too. My problem is that I have cables, pipes and wires sitting on top of the joists.
Claire

HI Claire
i had wires over my joists and have just had the electrician run them round the edge of the roof to be on the safe side, as we wont be going into the far edges.

not sure what to suggest for the pipes are there a lot are you converting the loft? or is it for basic storage?

IF its basic storage is there any way of blocking off where most of the pipes are

 

[eggplant]

Sorry to butt in on this post but I'm thinking of flooring my loft too. My problem is that I have cables, pipes and wires sitting on top of the joists. Will I have to raise the level of the joists so that the flooring sits stable and if so how?

The easiest way is use use 3"x1" timber flat way in the opposite direction of the ceiling joists, make sure the the centre of the 3"x1" is where the boards join together. You won't have to notch out the ceiling joists and will give you a cross air-flow under the boards.

Would it not be easier just to cut a slot in the joist for the cables/pipes to sit in? Just wondering because I'm doing my loft next week and thats what I plan to do.

 

[JohnD]

Would it not be easier just to cut a slot in the joist for the cables/pipes to sit in? Just wondering because I'm doing my loft next week and thats what I plan to do.

modern roofs are calculated to be as flimsy and cheap as possible while being just strong enough to hold up the ceilings, tiles, and a very little snow. They bend and sag when a fat builder walks across them.

If you cut them they will be weakened. The counterbattening spreads the load as well as giving room for cables, pipes and air circulation.

 

[eggplant]

I see, thanks.

I think in my case I'll go ahead and cut them, theres only a few and would mean about 1" x 1" cuts, the loft will be boarded and used for light storage only - and the house is pretty old and they are thick joists, I recall now not long ago I was in my sisters loft and they were very thin indeed.


Thanks

 

[clairesmith58]

Think I'm going to run some more joists over the existing ones. How would I go about fixing them to the existing joists? I heard on another post that you should use 3x1 - what way up do you fix it?

 

[JohnD]

If you're using 3 x 1 lie it flat. It won't add much strength that way but is too narrow to fix on edge.

I use a long screw, preferably one third of it's length in the top timber, two thirds in the lower. So the screw wants to be three times as long as the batten is thick. It must not be long enough to penetrate to the ceiling below. If you use very thick battens, two inches penetration to the lower timber will do. Size 8 or 10. You can lay out the counterbattens so that there is half its width under one floorboard, and half under the next one. Plus another batten in the middle of the board to stop it bouncing. This will be about 60cm centres.

Fix the counterbattens before the boarding.

Use screws in a loft, not nails, as hammering tends to crack the plaster in the ceiling below. Drill a pilot hole or it will be very hard to screw in. Look carefully for cables, wires or steel plates and avoid them.

While you're up there, give the loft a bit of a hoover and top up the insulation if it's thin.

The counterbattens haven't got to be 3x1, see what's handy at your timber merchant (or DIY shed if you like paying high prices).

My timber merchant was clearing a stock of 37mm x 70mm construction timber, so I used that.

 

[Odd Job]

Well with most of the loft done, i just wanted to add tips.

PLEASE note this is not a conversion but a basic flooring for storage.

IM a 40 year old lady and once discovered these tips it became very clear.

I now know some structure lengths of wood in my loft are not straight and it was these i was placing the loft boards against so was a bad ideal.

So if it doesn't seem to be working right try when starting out try laying a plank with short end against the far wall, then follow with other planks short end to short end,making sure they meet half way on each rafter, that way you know you are working straight, fro the security of the boards, then work out each side from this row. Staggering joins as you go.
We only placed 2 screws in each board, and as a precaution to causeless damage to rafters we also kept form screwing 2 consecutive boards into the same rafter.

We now have 8 inches down by the frame work which will not be walked on as much as the centre but the pieces to go in these edges can now be cut to angles to get a perfect fit. and supported by the rafters more so than they where before.

When we where cutting the boards we made a note of the measurements of the last end pieces on each row as you will find that they duplicate in most of the rows. So allowing for the fact we have 2 spare packs we cut the boards in advance and it worked a treat.

Hope this makes sense as once we had dicoverd all these tips, it took us no time at all. to have the boards laid.
OJ