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Just finished the start of my attempt at flooring the loft...I've very little patience so I'm doing this in stages...first one is to get a load of that loft flooring stuff down, then the next stage will be to screw it to the rafters...got it down but it looks like the builders have had a job lot of insulation stuff that they had to use - it appears to be about 8" thick and in 3 layers...each layer approx. 8" thick...it compresses but is so thick the flooring won't stay put...I've put some weight on the planks but it does need a row screwed down as a started so I can then mate up the rest of the wood and get that screwed down.
Anyway, question is, how many layers is normal in loft insulation? The upstairs of the house is always like an oven and I'm thinking 3 layers of this insulation is probably aiding the heat build up! Not only is it 3 thick but it's been laid in lattice so was definitely deliberate...a good job by the person who did it but christ it's a right pain to try get the wood lined up and stationery...
So as I'm doing this in stages and probably not doing it right anyway, what screws should I use for the flooring? I'm figuring each board will get screwed into any wooden 'joist' it sits across - plan was to drill a hole through the wood and start into the joist (as a kind of pilot) and then just screw a screw in...not planning on counter sinking or anything as it's chipboard-type flooring so I reckon when I give the screw a final turn it'll go flush...is that the sort of thing to do (screwing to each joist)?
Once done it's to be used for storage, but I suspect over time I'll end up having to floor the other spaces that you can't stand up in and use that for storage whilst the standing up space will be used as a 'room' of some sort.
i think 18" of insulation is currently reccomended so 3 layers doesn't seem too far off. If its pushed down it won't work so well, you'd be better off adding some extra height to the joists (screw extra beams along them) so the flooring sits above the joists.
Personally i'd screw the boards down as you go, its a lot easier to find the joists that way. I used loft flooring screws from b&q, was under a tenner for plenty of them. Didn't need to pilot them fully but did need to give each one a tap with a hammer to get thru the top finish on the boards. Countersunk fine just using a 24v drill driver.
If you're thinking about using the space as a room, there's a huge number of building regs around fire, reinforcing joists and so on. Bit of a minefield.
If you compress the insulation as much as you're suggesting you'll find it no longer works properly. The insulation needs the air pockets between the fibres to trap heat, stopping it escaping through the roof. Squashing it down obviously removes any air pockets & renders it fairly useless.
As 5lab recommends, I'd try to raise the height of the joists, but then you'll lose maybe 1' or more from the height of your room. It may be better to remove a couple of layers of insulation from the floor & layer up the roof instead. Again though care is needed as you'll need to maintain air gaps around the roof space or the whole house may start to become damp.
Why not get a loft conversion guy in & get advice or ideas from him?
dont want to sound like a know-it-all but,,,
just because you have put floorboards down does not mean that it is now usable as a bedroom etc, some joists are not strong enough to take all that weight, some joist even have a big part in keeping your roof up. i know of a chap who 'converted' his loft into another bedroom only to find it had collapsed into the room below a few weeks later and because it was a D.I.Y job the damage was not covered by the insurance.
if you compress it that much it is possible it will force your ceiling boards to crack/split or even come down as they are not that thick 1"1/8th. why do you not lay 2" timbers accross the insulation and fix your boards to that it will be a floating floor but by the time you have fitted all the deck boards to it it will not move
:ninja:
18" That's mental, lose some and cover it. But i'd only use it for light storage (prams/xmas decorations) unless you want gert big cracks in your ceilings.
I used bog standard wood gap screws (55mm) and they went flush fine.
Crikey didn't realise there was so much to consider - the 'use as a room' is going to be years down the line and at most it's going to be a room that gets used for storing things rather than stuff - think model trains or scalextric (not actually those but think things rather than just boxes of stuff that needs kept somewhere in case we need to send something back!) - not a room as in something that would be lived in...the shape of the space doesn't lend itself to being and actual usable room but it's likely to get turned into something that won't just have the door opened and boxes horsed into it.
I'm glad I asked about the insulation and also didn't screw the boards down...makes complete sense about trapping air and stuff. How would I be best to raise the joint levels? Some of the boards are close to the joints so the next board doesn't have a huge amount of surface to hold on to...is it possible to get something like 6" t-shaped things that can be added to the joist and the boards then sit on those? The t-shape would allow great coverage for edges to be screwed into?
Thanks for the pointers.
You'll find that most ceiling joists (or the bottom part of a trussed rafter depending on how your roof is built) are not designed to take the loads imposed on them by creating a room in the loft. If you board it out then stick some furniture up there as well as few people you will probably find that the whole thing gets a bit bouncy and you may even pop nails though the pasterboard ceilings in the bedrooms.
These days around 300mm of insulation above the ceilings is normal.
i just ran new joists across my floor at 90deg to the origonal ones. This raised my floor by 100mm (used 4 by 2) and I put them in more regularly to support the floor more - I space them every 600mm - which meant 3 per board (used tongue and groove B&Q loft boards). you're meant to have 400mm centers with 12mm chipboard but I've not had a problem.
HTH
Hugh
If its not too late, you could take the boards back and buy the insulated loft flooring. Then you can just remove the excess fibreglass, screw the insulated boards down direct to the joists and not loose to much of the insulation properties.
I stack heavy items over load bearing walls (the stairwell in my case) rather than in the middle of the bedroom ceilings as my joists are tiny.
600mm centres and 12mm chipboard? Surely you jest 😯
its 18mm, thinking about it 🙂
my bad!
its 18mm, thinking about it
Phew.
I could have lost sleep over that 😕