Laying a loft floor

[Dandoherty 1]

I am now on day 3 of my loft floor and have a few questions please?

Right firstly I am not making a proper loft conversion its purley for extra storage but I am going to be fitting a window after christmas.

Now that I have a square to stand on I am starting to think I could box the walls off to make a kind of room. Can I do this safely and what are the regulations on this?

I have kids in the house so I want it fire safe etc, but I dont want it to get expensive.

any hints or things I need to aware of:confused:

[Rich 2]

Hi Dan

When you say box the walls off, could you elaborate a little?

Funny thing as I'm doing exactly the same thing at the moment, finishing the insulation, and putting down chipboard loft boards for storage..

On the walls, you will need to make sure anything you put on them can breath.

[Dandoherty 1]

Hi

Well I just want to be able to walk about in the taller part down the middle! I dont want to floor right to each corner as its a bit pointless.

I did not consider the walls being able to breathe I was just thinking of boarding it up all the way round to make a rectangle, I am also going to insulate the roof and put up a plaster board cieling, I never intended it to go this far I just wanted a floor at first. Can I use mdf for my walls? if I build brackets behind it with 2x2

All my floor is down and Im quite happy with how straight it is, lol I guess all the hard work was done for me as the main beams are quite straight!

[Rich 2]

No, I wouldnt use MDF at all, its far heavier than needs be and absorbs water/moisture like a sponge if it gets wet (Leak in the roof)???

Why not just line the walls with foil backed bubble wrap which will be 100x easier to put up, breathes, and is a far better insulation barrier too.

You can apply it to the walls with spots of "No-more-nails" and be done fairly quickly, and only need a stanley knife.

[verne 1]

ive not seen foil backed bubble wrap yet. can we have a bit more of a description please? i am surprised that it is breathable. does it have a brand name or just a generic name and where is it available? is it a rigid or semi-rigid sandwich or is it still in roll form?

ta-muchly.

[Rich 2]

Hiya Verne

Its readily available in most DIY stores, I use it to make wing bags for model RC planes to prevent my wings getting popped when moving them from garage>car>airfield and back again...

It comes in roll form and is completely flexible, you can bend it, fold it, duck-tape it together, its great stuff...

Comes in breathable and non-breathable formats, with the breathable stuff costing a bit more..

My local Focus sell it in rolls costing

[verne 1]

thanks for that. i will look out for some. it sounds like the sort of stuff to make the wife a new winter coat from and help save the planet... the staples would probably hurt though!

[Dandoherty 1]

I am now on day 3 of my loft floor and have a few questions please?

Right firstly I am not making a proper loft conversion its purley for extra storage but I am going to be fitting a window after christmas.

Now that I have a square to stand on I am starting to think I could box the walls off to make a kind of room. Can I do this safely and what are the regulations on this?

I have kids in the house so I want it fire safe etc, but I dont want it to get expensive.

any hints or things I need to aware of:confused:

I have decided to use plasterboard for the walls and have started to build the frame work to hold it, all is going quite well so far. I have removed the old strip light in favor of 2 smaller regular light sockets.

I have a sky light in the roof! Can I just put my velux window into that? if the size is correct?

[Dandoherty 1]

No, I wouldnt use MDF at all, its far heavier than needs be and absorbs ater like a sponge if it gets wet (Leak in the roof)???

Why not just line the walls with foil backed bubble wrap which will be 100x easier to put up, breathes, and is a far better insulation barrier too.

You can apply it to the walls with spots of "No-more-nails" and be done fairly quickly, and only need a stanley knife.

Yes oddly I figured that out, it is quite heavy sorry im such a tight ass sometimes I had loads of mdf in the garage thought I could do some skimping but when I got there most of it has absorbed water from the floor.

Ive never seen the bubble wrap foil before can I put this between my brick wall and plasterboard?

[Rich 2]

Yes oddly I figured that out, it is quite heavy sorry im such a tight ass sometimes I had loads of mdf in the garage thought I could do some skimping but when I got there most of it has absorbed water from the floor.

Ive never seen the bubble wrap foil before can I put this between my brick wall and plasterboard?

If your using your loft just for storage, then I wouldnt even waste money on plasterboard at all, and if you do put the foil bubble wrap on your walls, make sure you get the breathable stuff, NOT the normal stuff if your going to stick it straight onto the walls.

The normal stuff is for stapling to the underside of your rafters where there is already plenty of ventilation between the tiles/slates.

Remember, its only plastic and foil, so if it cant breathe, then neither can whatever you stick it to if its solid (Like a brick wall) and you wouldnt want any condensation on the back of the plasterboard on those warm days when its cold/damp at night...

This stuff is nice and light, easy to work with, clean, and installs in minutes, and if you only have 1 striplight in your loft like I do, it really brightens the loft space when you switch on the light so you can see what your doing.

Again, if its only for storage, why even bother with a roof-window, thats just 1 more thing that can leak/fail. As its only for storage, a velux is a waste of money especially if you already have a skylight, and a skylight will have less seals/fixings to go wrong or leak

I just had a pukka loft ladder installed that opens in seconds and thats it, insultated the loft, boarded it all over with chipboard loft boards, polystyrene rafter boards and foil wrap over that..

Nice and toasty, easy access, and doesnt weight 2 tons sitting on my ceilings, so no ceilings getting bowed or plaster cracking

[Dandoherty 1]

If your using your loft just for storage, then I wouldnt even waste money on plasterboard at all, and if you do put the foil bubble wrap on your walls, make sure you get the breathable stuff, NOT the normal stuff if your going to stick it straight onto the walls.

The normal stuff is for stapling to the underside of your rafters where there is already plenty of ventilation between the tiles/slates.

Remember, its only plastic and foil, so if it cant breathe, then neither can whatever you stick it to if its solid (Like a brick wall) and you wouldnt want any condensation on the back of the plasterboard on those warm days when its cold/damp at night...

This stuff is nice and light, easy to work with, clean, and installs in minutes, and if you only have 1 striplight in your loft like I do, it really brightens the loft space when you switch on the light so you can see what your doing.

Again, if its only for storage, why even bother with a roof-window, thats just 1 more thing that can leak/fail. As its only for storage, a velux is a waste of money especially if you already have a skylight, and a skylight will have less seals/fixings to go wrong or leak

I just had a pukka loft ladder installed that opens in seconds and thats it, insultated the loft, boarded it all over with chipboard loft boards, polystyrene rafter boards and foil wrap over that..

Nice and toasty, easy access, and doesnt weight 2 tons sitting on my ceilings, so no ceilings getting bowed or plaster cracking

Hi thanks for that, I guess your right Im over complicating it.

I am only taking the sky light out because it is about 50 yrs old and made of plate glass, you can here the wind coming through the sides of it. So I really must take this out.

Where did you get the loft ladder?

[Rich 2]

Hi thanks for that, I guess your right Im over complicating it.

I am only taking the sky light out because it is about 50 yrs old and made of plate glass, you can here the wind coming through the sides of it. So I really must take this out.

Where did you get the loft ladder?

My loft ladder was from a builders merchants for £89.00 and had a local builder fit it.