Boarding the loft - tradesman has left the edges?

youth_leader

 Hello, my son and girlfriend have just paid someone £2.5K to board the loft, I think the price also included installing a new loft ladder. 

He has just sent me photos and the tradesman hasn't boarded the edges, under the eaves, two photos for clarity, 

I've never had a loft boarded, is this usual?  I'm worried for them as it seems the boards have been placed directly on top of quite shabby looking insulation. EDIT - I doubt my son asked the tradesman to replace the insulation.

daveyjp

Not a bad thing and mine is the same, but I did it myself.  It ensures ventilation around the eaves is maintained.  Once its boarded fully it is tempting to store items right under the eaves leading to condensation problems.

youth_leader

How nice of you to reply so quickly daveyjp, I did wonder.  My son has also had a positive ventilation unit fitted as their rented property is so damp.  I will let him know, thank you.

flaneurs_lobster

Can only speak for my loft, it's not boarded right up to the edges.

Re the insulation, was the tradesman asked to inspect, comment or quote on it? 

youth_leader

Thank you @flaneurs_lobster, my son and his girlfriend are not very experienced yet with house renovation and I doubt they asked about the insulation.  Hopefully it is thick enough, I paid a lot to increase mine at this bungalow.  Hilarious memory of me trying to headbutt the 26 rolls up into the loft, I'd have never made a footballer! 

stuart45

You only need to leave around 8 inches at the eaves. He's probably stopped well short to save cutting round the truss, and banging your head when getting closer to the eaves. 
Did he cross batten the joists?

grumpy_codger

I boarded my loft with timber floorboards - edge to edde. I don't think this really affects ventilation - you have to pack your things really hard for this to happen.
And I can be missing something, but orientation of your boards seems to be odd - along the josts, not across them.

Section62

grumpy_codger said:

I boarded my loft with timber floorboards - edge to edde. I don't think this really affects ventilation - you have to pack your things really hard for this to happen.
And I can be missing something, but orientation of your boards seems to be odd - along the josts, not across them.

Difficult to tell from the pictures, but hopefully the answer to stuart45's question is positive and they have used cross battens or loft legs under the boards.

Personally I'd leave a decent gap along the eaves on both sides - partly to maintain ventilation, but also with next to no headroom it is a bit of a waste of materials to board an area which shouldn't have anything stored on it.

WIAWSNB

Even if the insulation thickness is now limited - squished down - to that of the joist height, it'll be considerably more effective than an equivalent thickness of 'open' loft insulation. It's almost SIP

Grandad2b

WIAWSNB said:

Even if the insulation thickness is now limited - squished down - to that of the joist height, it'll be considerably more effective than an equivalent thickness of 'open' loft insulation. It's almost SIP

I'm not sure I understand this comment

stuart45

Grandad2b said:

WIAWSNB said:

Even if the insulation thickness is now limited - squished down - to that of the joist height, it'll be considerably more effective than an equivalent thickness of 'open' loft insulation. It's almost SIP

I'm not sure I understand this comment

I think what he means is that a SIP panel is insulation sandwiched between 2 sheets of OSB, and this is insulation sandwiched between sheets of plasterboard and chipboard, so in theory the idea is similar. 
normally, if loft legs are not used, they often cross batten if headroom allows. Quite often use 3x2 CLS as this is cheap and gives an extra couple of inches and plenty of timber to screw down the ends of the loft boards.