chipper

Hi all ,i am hoping to fit new loft hatch with ladder for better access .And then thinking of boarding out and insolating in the rafters Someone said i will have to strenthen the joists witch i know .One way is to double up the joists witch i also knew.secondly to have a hangger from rafter to joist ,any help on this matter to help me, thanks in advance

nickbetsy

Hi Chipper,

We have a useful tool which may help you in deciding the best course of action. On our site there are links to the building regs for loft conversions. The are presented in a nice simple 3D viewer where you can click on the parts of the buildings you want information about. http://ahbroofsandlofts.co.uk/planning/

chipper

Spot on thanks a lot.

verne

if all you want to do is create some extra storage space rather than make an extra room it would be wise to take a pinch of salt with what some of the professionals say. i have found a fashionable school of thought that says no to boarding loft space and no to calling it an attic where things are stored.
clearly a sensible approach must be made, especially if you live in a modernish house that is roofed with trusses. an older house with proper rafters and purlins is a different matter. my house has almost four well grown trees as purlins as well as good sized rafters so i felt confident fitting ceiling ties from every rafter to every joist in order to provide extra strength as well as glueing and screwing 3 by 2's on top of the existing joists. i did this mainly to provide room under the floor boards for 6 inches of insulation. the ceilings under have been overboarded with an extra 2 inch of insulation and the areas of the loft that are not floorboarded i have further doubled the insulation thickness. i also avoided using mdf and chipboard for the floor because they are as heavy as lead...
i think your biggest challenge will be finding enough room under any flooring you lay for the 10 inch or so of insulation that is currently recommended but using a semi rigid insulation it is permissible to place these on your floorboards under your stored items to make up the required thickness. before you lay your insulation i suggest treating all the timberwork (old and new) with a good woodworm treatment. the new water based products are not as expensive or as smelly as the solvent ones of the past.
incidentally, thinking about the coming of digital television, the loft is a good place to have the tv aerial cable routed into from the roof, because the 4 or 6 way signal amplifier works so much better when the input lead is as short as possible.

DIY Guy

Hey Verne

You say you avoided chipboard or MDF, but what exactly did you use in the end for the boarding?

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verne

flooring was where i had a bit of luck. local air training corps hut had some alterations and there was a skip full of offcuts of external cladding. looks like a patchwork quilt but came ready treated. am hopeless with names - can hardly remember my own - wood was ????? - smelly wood used in wardrobes cos moths dont like it. lovely stuff; strong and as light as a feather!
i had been collecting odds and sods of floorboarding and miscellaneous timber for the project for a long time; partly because i am always on a tight budget and partly because i hate the waste our uncivilisation generates, but mainly due to the design of our roof and upstairs rooms i felt unhappy about adding the dead weight of composition board.
our top bedrooms intrude into the roof space which means the ceiling joists do not rest on the outer walls but are nailed/intersect with the rafters. quite a job i had wriggling into the gap to screw the ends of my new timbers to the rafters...
i will no doubt find a use for my collection of odds and sods...