Flooring attic help

apeking

Hi,

i am going to start flooring the attic next weekend just for storage.

There are roof trusses in the attic, 4inchx1inch at 600 centers. (house is 20yrs old)

is it ok to lay the floor on that? At the moment there is loads of stuff scattered all over the place so i assume the loading isn't a problem (hasn't fell yet!)

i saw tongued and grooved loft boards in b&q which i reckon ill get.

Only thing is there is a few water pipes elec/alarm cables running over the trusses. The builder never notched the trusses so i assume its not the thing to do with a truss.

Was thinking of laying batons in opposite direction to trusses and then lay the floor on these in order to raise it up from services?

What you guys think?

gman2k

Yeah, go ahead and lay the battens and then your t&g loft boards on top of this.
No need to run the battens counter to the joists, run them on top of the joists, and leave gaps for your services.
However, I would price up the flooring from a few builders providers as well as B&Q.
whilst they might have the occasional bargain, generally items aimed at the diy market will be more expensive than a specialist builders providers.

I floored my house (new build timber frame) and had planned on screwing down the boards. It was way too much like hard work, so the gas nailer came out!
That won't be an option in an existing house!

bazzjazz

Woodies had (have?) a sale on T&G attic flooring (chipboard). I floored my attic with this after Christmas. I also put notches in the joists for plumbing and wiring with no problems (based on the advice of a builder).

Also, Goodwins Builders Providers in Lucan had a special offer on insulated attic flooring recently...

Joey the lips

I remember a structural engineer telling me that if your going to notch joists do it at intervals do not do it in line.

For my part what i done was use 2x4" battons. Stood the 4" high. I have since filled it with insulation. Then I screwed the flooring down with 35mm screws. You wont need many just 2 screws to every 2nd or 3rd sheet. Its just to steady it.

However word of caution. This is not a storage room for heavy goods,

apeking

There isnt joists as such up there,

they are all part of a truss as such with the bottom cord of the truss being where i am going to put the floor on.

Is this normal??

ART6

apeking wrote: »

There isnt joists as such up there,

they are all part of a truss as such with the bottom cord of the truss being where i am going to put the floor on.

Is this normal??

The problem with flooring at attic that way is that if the ceilings are fixed to the trusses and are plaster then walking about in the attic is likely to cause cracked ceilings as the trusses flex. This could be made worse if the trusses are only 4 in by 1 in. A more durable method is to run heavier beams that don't touch the ceilings, but that's a much bigger job.

I floored my attic by putting chipboard panels on the existing beams, taking the risk as it would only be used for storage. A few ceiling cracks were my reward for laziness:p

dromarka

hi
re your attic trusses these are enginnered to the bare minimum and should never be notched cut or altered in any way if you counter-batten (lay timbers across rather than in line with) with 3x2 on edge this will diffuse any point load such as a person walking on the flooring over 3 trusses and reduce the risk of any cracks or nail pops on the ceiling below.
screw all battens and flooring sheets (that way its easy to lift in the future if you need to get to services) and take photos of pipes and cables before you start to lay floor.
also mark the pipe and wire runs on the flooring as you lay the sheets and this will help you avoid driving a screw though anything
sorry for being preachy but i have been to work on so many houses where the owner has "floored the attic" and we have ended up putting it in the skip after having to rip it up
regards

apeking

Thanks All,

dromarka i think your idea is waht i had in my mind as being the way to do it.

3x2 90degrees to the way the trusses are running and then lay the floor 90degrees to the 3x2 if you get me?

I will try this out a the weekend and let you know how i get on.

thanks everyone for the tips, all very worthwhile

looksee

dromarka wrote: »

hi
re your attic trusses these are enginnered to the bare minimum and should never be notched cut or altered in any way if you counter-batten (lay timbers across rather than in line with) with 3x2 on edge this will diffuse any point load such as a person walking on the flooring over 3 trusses and reduce the risk of any cracks or nail pops on the ceiling below.
screw all battens and flooring sheets (that way its easy to lift in the future if you need to get to services) and take photos of pipes and cables before you start to lay floor.
also mark the pipe and wire runs on the flooring as you lay the sheets and this will help you avoid driving a screw though anything
sorry for being preachy but i have been to work on so many houses where the owner has "floored the attic" and we have ended up putting it in the skip after having to rip it up
regards

Can I add a question - if you are putting 3x2 battons on the existing beams (not trusses in my case) how do you fix them? 3" would have to be very big screws if they were put in straight down, do you put screws at an angle, or do you use some sort of 'tie'?

dromarka

hey looksee
you would use a 70mm x 4 or 5 screw and you would "stitch" them at an angle of about 70 degree about half way up the 3x2 on both sides ,this is a very strong fix .