Boarding a loft - How much?

JodyBPM

We've just spend the last week emptying out the loft of clutter, and we're almost there!

We want to get the loft boarded. We also have a fairly thin level of insulation up there, so I guess that will need to be topped up, and we will then need to raise the joists and put boards across. We also need a light installed.

DH probably *could* do it himself, but tbh we don't want all his annual leave used up on DIY jobs, and are prepared to pay someone to do it as long as the cost is reasonable.

The house is a bog standard 2 bed plus 1 box room 1930s house, the loft space isn't *that* big to be honest, especially since we have a huge water tank (still in use) up there.

How much do you think we should expect to pay for raising the joists (cross hatching I think I've seen it referred to as, where you put the battens down at 90 degrees), topping up insulation and putting a light in?
Is it worth taking up one of the energy companies free insulation offers, and then get someone in to cross hatch and board?

Mainly we want to use the space for storage, and presumably the joists are fairly strong given how much stuff we've managed to store up there so far, even without it being boarded. We would also like to let the children (sensible 6 &7 year olds) sometimes play up there with bigger toys that need setting up and leaving set up (eg big zhu zhu pets kits or scaletrix). Would this be safe? (we will put a safety balustrade round the hatch with a bolted gate so they can't step back and fall down the loft hatch etc). I know they can't jump around etc up there, but would you be comfortable letting your children sit in loft space playing with their toys? I'm still debating this one...

keyfob

Really the existing ceiling joists are only there for access purposes, that is with very careful loading.

If you want to use it for anything other, the joists should be strengthened.

However, if you go to B&Q, you can get packs of flooring grade Weyrock. With this you can floor it out and if that is screwed down into place it will have the effect of strengthening the existing structure.

Insulation would then have to be fitted between or under the rafters, leaving a minimum of 40 mm gap above for ventilation and then finishing on the underside with plaster board and taped joints that can be decorated.

The overall cost of this would be in the region of £2000 for an average loft space. That's what a builder would charge, thereabouts anyway.


If you did it, it would cost less than half that.

JodyBPM

Thanks for the reply. £2k seems very expensive, presumably because of the grade of the materials etc to give it better strength. I googled a few loft companies, and they seemed to be suggesting around £500 for flooring (but no mention of whether they were cross hatching to strengthen, which I think we would like) plus around £100 to have the light fitted (I estimated the loft was around 35m2, but tbh that's just a guess) This wasn't including insulation, which tbh I'm still umming and ahhing about a bit, as although I know our existing isn't up to current standards, we haven't actually had any concerns about coldness upstairs etc, or excessively high fuel bills. Maybe all the clutter we used to have up there was acting as pretty good insulation!

Is the difference in price from what I've seen and what you've suggested the cross hatching and the grade of the flooring materials do you think? Up to £1k, I think we'd be happy to pay someone to do it for us, more than that I think we need to work out whether its worth doing/whether DH should do it himself.

Ruski

Difference is that Keyfob is on about the floor AND the walls/ceilling.
Flooring only would be in the region of about the £500 that you've already discovered.

HTH

Russ

JodyBPM

Ah, that makes sense.

We're not looking to get the walls done. We don't want to convert into into a habitable room, or even anything close, just to be able to use as storage plus possibly an open area for setting up larger toys sometimes.

So £500 ish would seem right to get it floored sufficiently strongly for storage etc? And anyone know what approach we should take with insulation? I was wondering whether to empty the loft, take up one of the energy companies free insulation offers, then get someone in to cross hatch and board, thereby not paying for the insulation part of the job. Alternatively we have a couple of rolls of insulation already in the loft, which we could ust roughly lay before we got someone in to board. The joists will need raising anyway, as we seem to have some really chunky ones, and then smaller ones in between, which presumably need to be raised.

Ruski

I'd cross hatch it first - then get the insulation laid - then board it. (If the energy companies as they'll do it!)

Doing the work AFTER the insulation was laid is a complete pain in the preverbial and you'll find prices go UP when things have to be cleared out of the was before work can start.


But TBH for the thirty quid or so it'd cost you from a local DIY place, it would probably be more expediant to get it done as part of the 'flooring' project anyway.
HTH

Russ

keyfob

Ruski, you can't do that because when you ut the floor down on the existing joists, you wont be able to get anywhere near sufficient thickness of insulation under it.

The only solution would be to fit insulation in between and under the rafter as I suggested originally and that's why I did.

You can chose to finish the underside of it or not, but at least the house would be warm.

JodyBPM

Keyfob, are you suggesting that if we want the loft boarded, then we need to have insulation on the roof/rafters rather than under the boarding? My understanding was that as long as you raised the joists by cross hatching, then you could lay insulation under the boards, as long as you raise them high enough so that the insulation isn't compressed. I'm not necessarily thinking we need the full recommended amount according to today's guidelines, but I think we could certainly do with more than we currently have, as we only seem to have an inch or two up there currently.

keyfob

O, gotcha, by cross hatching you mean counter battening. Sorry, I didn't quite understand and now the penny has dropped. Doh.

Yes, you can lift the existing joist and put extra insulation under the boarding.

Sorry again fort the misunderstanding.