Flooring the loft

[JonC]

Hi All,

I've had a bit of a bodge floor strip in the loft for 20 years, which consists of a few leftover lengths of tongue and groove chipboard screwed to some 'risers' screwed to the joists. Nothing too fancy and has served well.
However this was just a strip to walk the length of the loft.

I'm now wanting something a bit more comprehensive and uniform across most of the loft space, and was thinking of using some slotted angle (Dexion type) shelf steel in strips on the floor, that I could then just lay the chipboard on to. No screws needed and allows easy access to the underneath, by simply pulling the board back up.

Has anyone tried doing this or similar? Also does anyone know where I can get slotted angle steel that's 2cm on a side rather than the 4cm that seems to be everywhere (2cm works with standard 2cm chip board, rather than the less common 4cm!)

Cheers

Jon

[Elminster]

Made stuff, like floor/shelf/mezzanine from dexion before but don’t recall seeing anything similar in a smaller width.

Currently doing my loft, on and off for 6 years, with plastic risers and chipboard, time taken is also as replacing insulation with rigid insulation, about half done, but always other things to do.

[daveejhitchins]

When I converted my garage to workshop I used the standard loft boarding for the loft floor, Workshop ceiling and walls - with insulation between. I've not any problems with the loft flooring - lots of 'stuff' stored on it

Dave H

[CMcDougall]

When I put new doors on every room in my house, used the old doors to put up loft.
Used a circular saw to make them fit up hatch (about 2inch off one side)
Leave gaps between doors so ceilings /insulation can still 'breathe'
Now can't get in loft , full of prams , toys , pools, non acorn hardware etc

[Elminster]

Whether it is a warm or cold lift, and how it is ventilated obviously has a bearing.

Mine is cold and vented at the sides so the board leave s gap there. The solid insulation is vapour seal on the floors below. Loft in nsulationcan get as complicated as designing PCBs!

[JonC]

The loft is insulated with one layer of fibreglass from 20 plus years ago and another layer of knaufwool over the top, which is more recent (about 5-10 years).

When you say 'breathe' do you mean the ventilation under the eaves? On our house, it's open to the elements in that respect, so gets freezing in winter and warmish in summer (apart from this summer when you could cook the dinner in there!).

How much space is needed (presumably between the top layer and the chip board) for the insulation to breath?

[Elminster]

Because you aren’t using a vapour proof insulation (fibre glass goes soggy, the wool based ones from memory insulate even if damp) you just need to let it escape, so need to make sure the vents in the loft are not obstructed, with either insulation or junk. Otherwise you end up with moisture dripping of the roof or soggy chipboard.

There are some good resources on the web will have to dig them up.

[JonC]

Ah brill, thanks for the info!

I should be ok then as I'm not boarding out to the edges of the loft, where it's then ventilated via the eaves.

I'm guessing that as long as I don't compress the insulation too much when boarding, that shouldn't be a problem either.

Made stuff, like floor/shelf/mezzanine from dexion before but don’t recall seeing anything similar in a smaller width.

Currently doing my loft, on and off for 6 years, with plastic risers and chipboard, time taken is also as replacing insulation with rigid insulation, about half done, but always other things to do.

Still can't find any 2cm slotted angle/dexion, I'll keep looking.

What plastic risers are you using? I was thinking of using wood risers around 5cm's high and then screwing the dexion onto it to create rails to put the boards on.

[Elminster]

Yes fibre glass insulation should not be compressed or it doesn’t work. I think all the ‘fluffy’ insulation’s work like that, one of the reasons I switched to solid insulation (plus I hate the dust that fibreglass puts up), the other being it will take a light load. In my mini loft the rigid insulation is a foot thick and double current building regs.

If you finish boarding your loft before me can I store stuff in it

Will keep an eye out for mini dexion. The only other thing I can think of is the light scaffolding poles and connections used for handrails. Was going to use that to build a climbing frame in the garden (on my todo list).