Cross bracing for loft flooring?

milkybars

In the loft we have joists 75x50mm at 350mm spacing. We're looking to strengthen the floor and maintain the thickness of insulation. We'd like to use this for storage space not a full loft conversion... yet! Would cross bracing of the same dimension and spacing be suitable for this?

27col

A word of warning, 75mm joists are not very strong, even if they are part of a truss. The truss is designed to take the weight of the roof covering, not to support heavy weights on the lower member of the truss. I would be very wary of using them to store much weight. Adding new timbers at right angles to the bottom of the truss will not really strengthen them. The additional timbers will help stiffen them a bit, and obviously will spread the weight. They will however, add more weight to the lower member of the truss. This is before you add the weight of the flooring and the additional weight of the stored items. However I would have thought that it would be all right as long as you do not go mad with the stored load. What sort of span are these trusses.

beaker141

Yet !!

If you are thinking that one day you will convert it properly, then anything you put in now will have to all come out and be completely redone !