I moved into my house 4 months ago and have recently boarded out my attic. This involved moving the previous access hatch to a new location. I had to cut a couple of joists to fit the larger ‘drop down stairs’ type opening. I researched how to do this and relatively confident that this has not caused the cracks. Due to the previous owner insulating over the joists I used loft legs to raise the new T&G chipboard flooring above the extra insulation. I think that there may not be enough legs used and the pressure of the weight is not being spread over all the joists however I can’t be sure. Is there any way of finding out?
Would this cause cracks in the celling below. The cracks look like they are following the edges of the plasterboard as forming large rectangles in the celling. With 90degree joins.
To rectify this I plan to remove the legs and nail the boards directly to the joists.
The advice I am after is whether to remove the excess insulation (20cm) or compress it between the joists with the current insulation? – otherwise it will just be binned.
Also is there a chance the reason for the cracks is that there is too much weight in the celling, regardless of legs or not – the joists may not be strong enough to support the weight of the chipboard and stored boxes (nothing extraordinarily heavy)?
Would this cause cracks in the celling below. The cracks look like they are following the edges of the plasterboard as forming large rectangles in the celling. With 90degree joins.
To rectify this I plan to remove the legs and nail the boards directly to the joists.
The advice I am after is whether to remove the excess insulation (20cm) or compress it between the joists with the current insulation? – otherwise it will just be binned.
Also is there a chance the reason for the cracks is that there is too much weight in the celling, regardless of legs or not – the joists may not be strong enough to support the weight of the chipboard and stored boxes (nothing extraordinarily heavy)?
