Loft Storage

[tw1ggy5]

Now, I understand to some of you this may seem a stupid question, maybe it's not, that's why I thought it was best to ask before anything got done.

Recently we had the loft insulation redone, everything is currently out and the new 270mm insulation goes well over the height of the beams, previously there were 3/4 inch sheets of MDF going across for storage. I don't have budget to buy anything new, I have some that and limited amounts of timber and now a pile of stuff with nowhere to put it. Is there a reason I cannot position the boards as shown to hold stuff along this edge? I had planned to put an additional vertical support in the centre as shown in the picture.

 

[omega015]

My personal opinion without any regulations/calculations etc... I wouldn't do that. First your going to be directing the load downwards onto those and not evenly spreading the load. Chipboard bends far too easily and could eventually snap at which point the load would slip and potentially coming through the ceiling. OK, maybe slight worse case scenario but you never know. But depending on what your storing you could very well put too much stress on certain parts of the ceiling/joists etc..

If you can find £10 in the budget get these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/Loftleg-175mm-Loft-Legs-Pack-12/p/100412 pretty cheap and just screw to the existing joists, that way you can board over the top of the insulation without squashing it and you spread the load across the ceiling joists (what size are your joists?) If you have some timber you could make your own loft legs but you need to find out what your joists/ceiling could support.

 

[tw1ggy5]

Thanks for replying.

The boards were those already in use before across the joists that are now covered but 1/3 the span between supports, so it would be for stuff like Xmas decorations and empty suitcases, not any real load on any of it. My question was more related to whether it was safe from the roof's perspective. Tho it is certainly something to consider.

My original plan was to make loft legs out of wood but the joists were covered and I saw the cross beams and wondered what if. The joists are 2 inchs width, 3 inches deep, 18 inches apart centre to centre. The gap between cross beams is 54 inches.

 

[tw1ggy5]

OK, potentially new plan, I have managed to get a two planks from a guy down the road whose basically ripped his house inside out and started again. 4.3m x 100mm x 1/2 inch.

Plan is to use them to make extended loft legs to raise the level of the joists above the insulation for an area. So assuming I need a 10mm gap above the insulation at minimum I shall make 200mm height x 100mm long x 1/2 inch wide legs to screw into the joist. Allowing for a fair bit of waste I can make at least 40 of these. My chipboard covers the width of 3 joists, so I need 4 legs per span. Putting these every 50cm (centred) gives me 12 for the first metre, with 8 per additional. So i can do 3 metres x 1.37 metres of boarded area with 28 legs which should be more than enough.