Loft insulation / boarding

duncan32

Sorry, do you mean postponing it and looking into the whole thing a bit more carefully when you say that?

Thanks.

Duncan

guy999

Hi
Was in a similar postion to you last year.
The insulation they now use is about 1 foot thick so mine is layed across the beams, inside the beams is the old few inches thick.
Decided to board out part, then got insulation company to fit.

They left a roll or 2 incase i decide to take up boards at a leter date.

if i decided to board the rest would be a pain since would have to roll up the stuff they put down u couldnt over board it as its so thick.

maid020279

27col wrote: »

You will always be able to feel where the joists are. Whoever told you different is talking out of the top of his hat. It is not necessary to build up the joists with wood. TOOLSTATION sell plastic spacers that can be screwed to the top of the joist. Mind you, they might be a bit fiddly to fit. I do not have personal experience of using them. Maybe, someone who has, will be along shortly.

Loft Flooring Legs 175mm

27col

Yes Andrew, I thought that the legs were a bit expensive for what they are. I would not be surprised if someone came along with a better and cheaper design soon.
I only mentioned them because I had never seen anything similar before. They were the first time I had ever seen the problem addressed by a manufacturer. I would have thought that would be a ready market for something that would do the same job a bit more cheaply.

GlynD

duncan32 wrote: »

Sorry, do you mean postponing it and looking into the whole thing a bit more carefully when you say that?

Thanks.

Duncan

What I'm almost positive of is that there is a thinner but equally efficient insulation material but it will be more expensive. You should look into that in my opinion. That's what I would do.

moneydontgrowontrees

I did exactly what you did, thought £17 for a box was a bit pricey but then did the sums.

If you use 22mm chipboard then you only need these leg things at 600mm centres, also the legs at the edges of the chipboard sheetings overlap onto the next sheet so the more sheets you're putting down the more 'efficient' it becomes. I also did a cost comparison with other products and for the seven or so square metres that I did it worked on quite a bit cheaper than the other insulation stuff.
One word of warning, I was initially tempted to put extra joist on top of my ceiling joists, it worked out i needed 7"x2", a builder mate of mine looked at my ceiling joists and said the extra weight of the timbers alone could cause problems...
TOP TIP:- don't do this job on a hot day.....

sludgeguts

I had the same problem but chose to make a set of wooden I beams to act as cross battens. - simply - 2 lengths of 38 x 47mm treated timber, each length centrally grooved to accept a strip of 9mm Oriented Strand Board (osb). (I clamped my circular saw into my workmate to do this). The timbers can be bought in 2.4m lengths. The osb I cut into 10 x 11.4cmwide strips (I bought this in B&Q as they offer a free cutting service - make sure the last strip is also cut to 11.4cm as it would otherwise be 1mm wider due to the width of the saw blade.
This raised the floor by 16cm. I also glued 4 uprights to each side and screwed these together through the osb - to give added rigidity
Each 2.4m 'I' beam cost less than £3 plus my labour, the whole loft cost less than £50 (I already had the flooring). I reckon at today's prices you could still make the beams for less than £70.

martinp79

sludgeguts wrote: »

I had the same problem but chose to make a set of wooden I beams to act as cross battens. - simply - 2 lengths of 38 x 47mm treated timber, each length centrally grooved to accept a strip of 9mm Oriented Strand Board (osb). (I clamped my circular saw into my workmate to do this). The timbers can be bought in 2.4m lengths. The osb I cut into 10 x 11.4cmwide strips (I bought this in B&Q as they offer a free cutting service - make sure the last strip is also cut to 11.4cm as it would otherwise be 1mm wider due to the width of the saw blade.
This raised the floor by 16cm. I also glued 4 uprights to each side and screwed these together through the osb - to give added rigidity
Each 2.4m 'I' beam cost less than £3 plus my labour, the whole loft cost less than £50 (I already had the flooring). I reckon at today's prices you could still make the beams for less than £70.

Hi Sludgeguts - I was very interested to read your idea. Please can you explain in a bit more detail how you made the 9mm grooves in the 38x47mm timber? I'm trying to imagine how you would rig this and can't quite figure it out.

Thanks