Workshop loft boarding and weight bearing.

[woodman-46]

I want to board the loft in my workshop. It is an old telephone exchange ,solidly built and the joist etc are in great condition. I was planning on using 18mm tongue and groove chipboard screwed at intervals. On an area about 32 x 12 is this going to be, in itself, a lot of weight or does it add to the structural strength?

Also, I am planning on storing quite a lot of boxes up there that are about 14 kg each would it seem safer to store them around the edge where presumably it is stronger because of closeness to the wall.
Any advice welcome

Thanks Jim

 

[Johnboy54]

Your main concern should be the size of the joists. It's like boarding a loft out over 4 x 2 joists. OK if it's just for light storage, but for storing the equivelent of loads of bags of cement? Depending on where you live, you'll need either 6 x 2 or 7 x 2 up there.