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Hi all,
After some advice and experience around using my loft. Moved into a semi detached built in '69 (possibly in the summer by Bryan Adams) and want to use the loft for storage. As far as I can tell its a fairly standard build with thin looking rafters and very little insulation. The boiler has been moved up there and the mid section already boarded.
Is it safe to use for storage, nothing too heavy, and if so was planning on loft legs to get the height for insulation. Was also thinking of shelves on the walls. Sheets of osb screwed the the wall and shelf brackets into the osb. Walls are crappy breeze block, what's the best way to fix the osb? Worried that trying to fit brackets directly will be a problem as the screw holes will be too close together.
Cheers
Thread title promised so much.....
*burp*
Which Fall B-side was that lyric from again?
Argh too late to edit
Freddie Starr ate my hamster.
Is it safe to use for storage, nothing too heavy
That depends what you call "too heavy".
Much flex in the joists will show as cracked plaster on the ceiling - or worse!
We did up a house and the ceiling joists were so undersized that the ceiling sagged when we just put plasterboard on it!
With a house of that age spend half an hour on the internet educating yourself about the types of asbestos you might discover. Asbestos loose fill insulation is the worst kind.
Is this your house?
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Are they joists, or does it have trussed rafters? That is, does it have diagonals within the roof space? Roofs like that work very differently to those with joints.
I will have to investigate the joists and trusses, will take some measurements as well. The internal upstairs walls look and sound like stud walls, nothing solid so assuming the joists span the length of the house which doesn't bode well.
There is insulation up there that's looks like dust rather the fibreglass rolls. Does this like sound asbestos?
I feel a need to Google this.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/loosefill.htm
Get it tested if at all doubtful. Hopefully I've just sent you on a wild goose chase but your description sounds suspicious. The filaments are so fine it looks like dust.
From memory it's the more yellow fibre glass looking stuff. Have seen test kits that can be sent to labs for analysis. Will have a close but not too close look with mask and gloves later.
The internal upstairs walls look and sound like stud walls,
Which doesn't mean they're not structurally important
Have been up for a look around, took an old carpet beater a couple fans to help.
There are rolls of pink fibre glass sheets between the joists with the loosefill sat on top. It's granular of varying sizes and yellow grey mix of colours. There's also an installation certificate dated 1997 stapled to the truss, warmcel cellulose fibre.
Looks like it's not asbestos.
The images I've seen of Cellulose loose fill are the same. Thank god.
stapled to the truss
So that suggests it is a trussed rafter roof. Have a look at this:
https://www.localarchitectsdirect.co.uk/seven-deadly-sins-trussed-rafter-construction-part-1
PS - just spotted that your boiler has been moved up there. If it's a trussed rafter roof, I would be concerned at the weight of boiler being supported on it.
The boiler is fixed to the block work of the gable end.
An asbestos surveyor told me that is extremely rare to find asbestos loose fill in houses in the UK. The HSE reply to this FOI request seems to conform that
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/evidence_for_the_inclusion_of_lo
As it looks like the asbestos disaster has been skirted. What would be a sensible approach to storage? Vertical battens on the gable ends to screw shelf brackets to?
Loft legs to create strategically located storage platforms?