Boarding and insulating our loft space!

This week we’ve been insulating and boarding our loft space ready to be used as storage space.

This is the first time we’ve ever done this so comments welcome - hoping this helps someone else save a few pennies by doing it yourself. It’s a relatively straightforward easy task, it just needs some hard work and protective clothing!!

Remember to head over to our Instagram to follow along on our renovation! :)

[MrKonquer]

I did a lot of loft storage work about 12 years ago, I was basically a labourer for this old school joiner, and the thing about loft storage spaces is that you don’t need to screw your new timbers to the old ceiling joists, you start by lining say three timbers across the old joists then you put one of your chip boards across those new timbers and screw the chipboard to the new timber to hold them in place, it’s called a floating floor. another problem with screwing into old ceiling joists is if they weren’t completely flat with each other and you screw joists on them you could damage your ceiling below, you wouldn’t notice them un even before hand because they used wooden lath ceilings which hid alot of uneven woodwork. But your job looks very clean well done!

[njonessy]

I’m honestly so inspired with your journey and how much you’ve been able to do yourself! ❤

I’ve been wanting to board our loft for so long and originally looked at prices and was quoted over £2k (including new loft hatch & stairs). But after watching your video, I feel like I want to take a stab at boarding it ourselves 😂 might regret it but with the cost of living crisis, you got to do what you got to do!

Couple of questions:
- Did you speak to a structural engineer before you started?
- Did you get quotes from other companies to do your loft? How much of a saving was it by doing it yourself and buying your own materials?
- Can you recommend the websites you used where to find the regulations? Because when searching, it’s quite overwhelming with all the different information you find.

Thank you so much! I can’t wait to carry on watching your reno journey 😀

[historian]

You needed timbers floating over the current joists, held by hangers on your brick wall going across. You will most likely get cracks on the ceiling if you screw the boards on existing joists.

[AdrianColes]

Ideally you need a gap between the insulation and the boards. Moisture will come up through the ceiling and insulation and it needs somewhere to go. An air gap avoids the boards from getting damp, which then makes the insulation damp, which then makes it less effective. The loft legs are great if you are just putting some boxes for storage as you don’t have all the extra weight of the timbers and you get the necessary gap between the insulation and the boards.

[alexib]

I think you trapped air there, which can lead to condensation will meet the floor and wet it (in winter), so issues like mold can appear. I would check if boards changed the color to darker if so it is wet.

[PDS-eo]

Nice weekend project...keep up the good work both..

[vickiodili]

I can highly recommend wood fibre insulation which deals with moisture better, and is fine to handle compared to the Knauf/Rockwool which irritates your skin and lungs

[deanwild]

Regarding the loft legs, your method is marginally superior IMO because now when you walk on the boards it's spreading the load across multiple ceiling joists instead of one. This is important because those ceiling joists are not really designed to take this additional load of storage and people walking around on it. In reality, the ceiling is usually over engineered just about adequately to ensure it will be fine. You may well get a bit of minor cracking in your ceiling below in future but it may well be fine.

[DavidSmith-fcgk]

This honestly looks like the easiest roof cavity i've ever seen to insulate. Not even one cross beam. crazy easy .

[paulfrost]

I wonder how foil insulation such as superfoil could change the specs or physical thickness recommended of 270mm compared to the same insulation / building regs ?

[solefreak]

What was the cost of timber, boards and insulation? And if you were to pay someone to do this, what sort of labour would I be looking at?

[tomrivans]

Hi, why didnt you use the loft stilts? These are 270mm high and means you can add more insulation in?

[stephenhiggins]

Hi, good vid - How did you check whether the old insulation contained asbestos

[kane]

Helpful video. Would you say standing on joists is fine or would you recommend leaning on boards ?

[pauldolman]

Hi Sophie I’ve just been through this video, can you confirm if you screwed the new 2x4 timber into the existing roof joists or just left them louse, great video by the way

[Jim-zeee]

Why is it recommended that you dont screw directly to the ceiling joists with chip board but you can screw plasterboard directly to the roof trusses?

[zooloo]

With the fibreglass in place and boards fixed down did you think of the electrical cables for lights and switches need a certain amount of air flow.

[Wild-Storm]

How did you manage to get these long pieces of timber through the hatch?

[deaosatori]

Thinking of doing similar but I think my ceiling joists are not load bearing "floor joists"? We're yours already load bearing floor joists?

[TheMak]

I insulated and boarded our loft, what they don't tell you is it pulls the drywall in the rooms below at ceiling level causing cracks throughout the house. regretted the boarding!