Loft stilts

[Longshanks]

Harbinger of doom indeed. Can't believe I'm the only bloke with 570mm wide joists and using 400mm wide stilts!!!

Also not going to store heavy machinery in loft.

 

[big-all]

do you already have stilts fitted in the loft ??

 

[JohnD]

cross-battens do at least spread your weight over two or three joists.

If screwed down, and ply screwed to the top, the deck is reasonably rigid.

IMO ply is much better than chipboard.

Also look up Knauf Space Board installation instructions. They have discontinued it in the UK now, but I expect other rigid foam slabs would work the same. Foam has about twice the insulation as the same thickness of mineral wool.

 

[big-all]

Harbinger of doom indeed. Can't believe I'm the only bloke with 570mm wide joists and using 400mm wide stilts!!!

Also not going to store heavy machinery in loft.

ok you think i am being allarmist
the flooring is designed to be supported by timbers off around 400 to perhaps 450 centres in parallel lines
you will have to ask the manufacturer about this
now you are talking about supporting a 50% greater load[600mm apart] on fewer points
assuming a leg is 50mm square and at 400mm centres that's 100mm supported and 300mm not supported so a 400% increase on load along that edge spread to each support
think off a tank track with all the wheels removed except at each end

 

[Longshanks]

Hi again

Not accusing you of being alarmist at all. However, it does get difficult with the tendency to go native and quantify everything in terms of percentages etc etc. I'm waiting for differential calculus next but can address that with ease.

In short, maybe I am the only person with 600mm joists intending to use stilts speced at 400mm etc etc.

Such is life.

Thanks

L

 

[big-all]

if you have around 10 bricks try it out on a flat surface first

 

[Longshanks]

Reducing everything to numbers again. Bit of an obsession innit??

 

[big-all]

allows you to experiment and find out if i am being over cautious
or you are pushing the boundaries to far

 

[Longshanks]

Could be pushing boundaries "too" far

 

[Longshanks]

Hi
Update:
Bought stilts and Turbo Gold wood screws. Also using cordless drill driver.
The problem is that the screws simply won’t go into joists despite moderate pressure on drill. This isn’t the issue about screws not going through plastic stilts-they only go about am into joist then nothing.
I must admit, I thought these screws would be sharp enough to go in without drilling pilot holes which will dramatically slow down job.
Anyone else tried using these screws to attach things to joists?
Thanks

 

[big-all]

turbo gold should work a treat with the odd one taking its time when it hits a hard bit off wood do the screws go through the holes in the stilts freely ??

 

[Longshanks]

Hi again

Yes, they go through hole in stilts no prob. They seem to go in about a cm then drill starts shuddering and they go no further. I've even tried driving one straight into joist to test and that's the same!

My drill is 14.4 v and I've even tried fiddling with torque but no joy.

Cheers

 

[big-all]

are you using a pz2 bit ??
is the hammer action off??
are you in low gear [1]??
does the drill just stall ??

 

[Longshanks]

Thanks. All fine now. Was using wrong screwdriver bit.