too much loft insulation?

[seneca]

Hi,
Just had some new insulation put down in the loft and I'm pleased with the new warmth I have gained in the house. The only problem is I planned to put down some loft boards, so I could throw a few boxes up there for storage, but the insulation is 30cm high and running in the opposite dirction to the joists. How can I board the area without removing the insulation? I rang the chaps who fitted it and they said it will squash down when I put a board on top. Won't this reduce the effectiveness of the insulation, as it must use the air trapped inside it? By flattening it to a pancake, won't that be defeating the object? Also, I was told there should always be a bit of a gap between insulation and loft board, to allow air to circulate and prvent moisture build up. Is this so?

As, I mentioned I'm very happy with the insulation side of things, and it will no doubt reduce my bills, but how to floor place now? I don't mind losing a bit of height in the loft ( it wasn't great to begin with, but I'm only putting boxes up there!)
I think 30cm is too high to run a new set of beams to which I coud fix a floor. They would have to be 32cm high and would not doubt bring the ceiling down!

any advice would be most welcome.

 

[masona]

Won't this reduce the effectiveness of the insulation, as it must use the air trapped inside it? By flattening it to a pancake, won't that be defeating the object?

Yes!

I'm getting a loads of headache of boarding a loft for clients with 250mm insulation! You cannot use the gang nail roof trusses for boarding unless it's very very light storage. It's not impossible to do though but more timber work design.

 

[seneca]

right, excuse my lack of technical knowledge but,

there are 2 long horizontal beams at the edges of the roof (imagine where the houses walls end and the roof starts.) I have about 2 cm on each, before the rafters are attached. If I were to lay 2 light weight lengths on wood over the insulation I would then have 4 beams running the full length of the loft space. Only 2 inches of insulation would be squashed by the wood. Using my 4 beams I could board on top of them and still have an inch of airflow. My loft height would be greatly reduced, but hey it's only boxes of old books and cds. Out of sight and out of mind!

The only probem I now have is how to get my beams to be approx. 28cm high without weighing too much.
Maybe wickes has some 2x5 softwood that I could join together. Would that work?

 

[seneca]

just looked up what that gang nail stuff is. Wouldn't it be possible to make something similar out of lengths of 2x2 and putting some uprights in to boost the height a bit. Would that work out cheaper that the gang nail stuff. The reson I'm thinking low cost is because it's only for storage and my 11 stone body to crawl on occasionally.