Loft boarding - legs or timber?

Mark M

Mark M

Mark M

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2006
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Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Going to board my loft and wondering what’s the best option?

Loft legs look like they’ll be a faff trying to get them and the boards lined up?

Other option would be to use 6x2’s or similar to get enough height for the insulation and fix the boards on to that?

Any advice welcome thanks.
 
Most boarding companies use timber, however costs have risen quite a lot for building materials. I need to raise my loft floor really so I'm interested in views here.
 
FluffySheep said:
My loft joists are a little barrow and widely spaced so a bit of a mission for me to get something that I felt comfortable buying. Ended up buying from the company below through amazon. Put boards on top and they now feel absolutely solid and better insulation underneath and loads more storage.

https://www.loftzone.co.uk/shop-storefloor/storefloor/

FluffySheep
Click to expand...


Aye i bought these and pretty damn easy to use / together.

I imagine doing it with timber is a fair bit more expensive and takes more time.
 
I went with the doubling up the joists option. Bought lengths of 2 X 3 and glued and screwed them to the original hosts to get 2 X 6 in effect.
Filled the gaps with new insulation and then boarded it. Not only did it give me the space I needed but it's strengthened it up loads.
 
I used loft legs. It was a piece of cake and it means the 170mm top up layer covers absolutely every square inch. I have a few twisted joists and it didn't make much difference. I do use the larger 2.4m boards though. Glued and screwed it's solid - especially if it's just for storage.

c8avCfu.jpeg
 
I used loft legs as well to board out the center space of our attic.

At first I tried to line them all up across a few rafters but then noticed that the 'loft boards' from a well known distributor were not quite the dimensions they said they were and had to be shortened and everything moved. This gave a nice few offcuts which I then used to as a little spacer jig to then better space all the legs with.

Really easy to do once you get in the swing of it.

Used the XL to maintain the 400mm+ of insulation we have. Pre drilled the holes for attaching to the joists and installed easy.
 
I counter battened my trusses with 4x2 CLS and fixed with screws.

This was 8 years ago when building materials where a lot cheaper. Also insulated using celotex to minimise rhe depth of insulation required.
 
I didn't like using legs on mine as not all the joists were straight making it uneven and no opportunity to adjust the shape of them like you could with wood.
 
Used legs too. Absolutely fine, no reason to use wood really.

Don’t really get the argument about not being able to level it as well with legs:

A) you can use shims with legs or timber
B) for most people it’s just loft storage, so what if it’s not perfectly flat? Unless you plan to store your marble collection out openly on the boards who cares?
 
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