Loft Boarding: DIY or get a professional in?

Hoffnung

Hi,

I have been wanting to board our loft for a while and have pondered whether to DIY or get a professional in. 

We have been quoted by a loft company, for boarding only 30m2 (boards, loft leg, fitting etc) : £1690.. if I wanted new insulation, that added an extra £1600 to it (removal of old insulation  + new insulation) 

The thing is we were planning to DIY it ourselves originally and had already bought the boards to place down which are up there at the moment.

The loft company said the insulation we actually have is fine but they wouldn't be able to use the boards we purchased.

I'm not actually bothered about the whole loft being fully boarded, we were only planning on doing approx half of it ourselves or whichever our boarding allowed.

So far I have 6x 4ft by 2ft tongue and groove boards. Also it's a 1930s house.

What else would we need? And do you think it would be a easy job going ahead (with someone used to doing some DIY)

Thanks

McKneff

Have they said why they can't use your boards. My guess us that it a loss of the profit they would lose by bot buying boards and add ING a profit. 

My suggestion is get a quote from someone should will use them or do it yourself 

Hoffnung

If my calculations are correct, the 6 boards altogether (each single 4ft x 2ft) would equal 24ft x 12ft, that overall would mean approx 26 square meters. 

Well the loft company quote would have boarded maximum 30 square meters. I'll attach a picture of quote for boarding only.

So would we be best to work with what we've got but just need to buy additional supplies? 

Am I right in thinking it would be loft legs and screws? 

Thanks 

moneysaver1978

If you are able to, I would DIY it.

We did it with ours (also 1930s house) using nothing more than loft legs, Knauff rolls, new chipboards (from Wickes) and we decided to board only half.

It was hard, hot, and awkward - each loft leg requires like 8 screws but it was rewarding and we saved a ton of money.

Note: you only need loft legs + chipboards if you are planning to use it for storage or walkway.

Hoffnung

We only plan to use it for storage of maybe things like some broken down furniture, Christmas tree/decorations, bags of clothes etc. Just usual storage things, I guess I mean nothing overly heavy. 

I think we literally would need the loft legs (need to work out how many) and screws. 

If there is anything else, feel free to advise. 

I know it might be hard work but it would save a extra load of money. 

We already paid £100 for the 6 4ft x 2ft tongue and groove boards.

The loft insulation there is fine (that's what the loft company said).

The company who quoted us won't use our boards as then they wouldn't be able to provide guarantee/warranty. 


 

Brie

My OH doesn't do DIY like some blokes do and he managed to put a floor in our loft.  Lay them flat, nail them into place to keep them from sliding about.  Job done.  

fyi - he only did the middle section where the roof was fairly high and a bit out from that so that we had a bit of room to walk upright and space around to pile up boxes etc.

moneysaver1978

Hoffnung said:

We only plan to use it for storage of maybe things like some broken down furniture, Christmas tree/decorations, bags of clothes etc. Just usual storage things, I guess I mean nothing overly heavy. 

I think we literally would need the loft legs (need to work out how many) and screws. 

If there is anything else, feel free to advise. 

I know it might be hard work but it would save a extra load of money. 

We already paid £100 for the 6 4ft x 2ft tongue and groove boards.

The loft insulation there is fine (that's what the loft company said).

The company who quoted us won't use our boards as then they wouldn't be able to provide guarantee/warranty. 


 

What insulation do you currently have? When we moved, there were these old yellow-type scattering of 100mm insulation and we added new 200mm insulation (if memory serves me right) which is why we needed loft legs to ensure that the new insulation isn't squashed.

You do not have to use loft legs, you could use new wood battens but they are more complex. We did use PIRs in front of the hatch (so no need to replace the loft ladder) with similar u-values.

Hoffnung

I've got some of my measurements wrong but I'm happy with the amount of boards we had/for what I want to store. 

There is nothing wrong with the existing loft insulation, it just got a bit dirty when we had our full roof done. 

According to our house survey before we moved in there was 250mm- however unsure if this is accurate. As the guy who assessed today said it had been squished down. 

He would of just boarded over current loft insulation. 

I think we are going to give it a go. 

Mutton_Geoff

Brie said:

My OH doesn't do DIY like some blokes do and he managed to put a floor in our loft.  Lay them flat, nail them into place to keep them from sliding about.  Job done.  

fyi - he only did the middle section where the roof was fairly high and a bit out from that so that we had a bit of room to walk upright and space around to pile up boxes etc.

Don't nail the boards, you'll cause cracks & tonnes of dust. Use screws.

To the OP - I never knew there was such a thing as a "professional loft boarder". It's fairly basic DIY so use a local handy person if you don't have the skills.

FreeBear

moneysaver1978 said: We did it with ours (also 1930s house) using nothing more than loft legs, Knauff rolls, new chipboards (from Wickes) and we decided to board only half.

Couple of years older here. I used the XL legs (300mm) from Wickes, screwed to the 3x2 joists, and the boards on top. Due to the spacing of the joists, each board needed ~150mm trimmed off the end..

Got plenty of space to get the insulation levels up. An extra 100mm of insulation is being shoved up between the joists when each ceiling comes down - Very, very messy work (old lath & lime plaster), but it does mean I can get the insulation right up to the edge of the walls.

ashe

We planned to DIY it but in the end got a firm in. I was glad we did as they ended up doing such a better job than I'd have been able to do. 

They built a timber frame and put the boards on top of that as more stable. They said loft legs are ok for a quick and dirty solution but when chatting to one of the lads he said a big part of their work is going in after someone has given it a go and done it badly. 

They marked where all our water pipes are under the boards, and managed to box in all of our extractor fan ducting and marked everything off. They fitted a low voltage LED light and switch, which makes a huge difference up there.

if you are handy it is definitely DIYable,  it unlike to have a go at most things but I would have hated that job - it was roasting hot, I tried moving round the loft to get an ideas of what is involved and after 20 minutes of pulling myself around boards, I decided it wasn't something I was going to enjoy at all 😂

this shows the loft before hand, it was chaos. And had to use a head torch for light 

Mid job 

Finished job - massive improvement to visibility and usable space. Partial boarding covering access to above each bedroom which I didn't want to lose access to for lights etc . Enough neat storage for suitcases, electronics boxes and Christmas decs without it being a nightmare dragging them out & easy to get to the boiler