I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it.. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard

Tricky Dicky wrote:

I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the
short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent
boards will provide the support.

With "weetabix" loft boards? Not a chance.

On Thursday, 27 June 2019 15:01:42 UTC+1, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard

T&G has very flimsy tongues & grooves.


NT

On 27/06/2019 15:01, Tricky Dicky wrote:

I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of
trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot
stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the
trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation.
I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the
floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards
short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and
cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time.
This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of
staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end
up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide
the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get
some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide
adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around
and work in?

You could just glue the T&G at the ends of the board.

Alternatively, rather than mess about cutting the boards to length, just
slap a nogging in between any pair of joists where you have an
unsupported end. A bit of 4x2 on its side would give plenty of extra
support to the cut ends even though it would not be full width.


--
Cheers,

John.

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On 27/06/2019 15:58, wrote:
On Thursday, 27 June 2019 15:01:42 UTC+1, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard

T&G has very flimsy tongues & grooves.

Interestingly, AIUI, the word Lesbian is no longer politically
correct and such ladies must now be referred to as Floorboard Merchants


All tongued and grooved!

On 27/06/2019 15:01, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard


I've done exactly the same, but used 2*2 rails, 3.6 metres long,
at 90 degrees to the trusses and elevated above them with home-made
extenders cut from scrap 1 inch plywood, 6 inches wide and a 2*2
notch that the rail sits in, while the bottom of the extenders are
glued and screwed to the trusses.

I managed to get a whole load of scrap 15mm MDF from a B&Q refurb
each 900 * 600 mm. (used to have heating components screwed onto
them for display). Cutting around the zig-zag truss components
was tricky and time consuming but possible with various
packers.

As long as the edges of every flooring section are supported and
fixed, theer should be no problem.

If I was doing it again I would use 15mm OSB because that is
not as heavy as MDF.

You ought to consider the illumination up there. If you extend off
an RCD extended lighting circuit and manage to trip the thing while
up there, while in an awkward position, how will you extricate
yourself ?.

On 27/06/2019 15:58, wrote:
On Thursday, 27 June 2019 15:01:42 UTC+1, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard

T&G has very flimsy tongues & grooves.


NT


Loftboards are particularly nasty and fragile. Use proper
8*2 t&g flooring, which I managed to get up into my 1976
loft with trusses and a 37 degree pitch to have a storage
section around the loft hatch, then years later used
2nd hand 18mm mdf panels on support rails to allow a
300mm insulation depth.

On Thu, 27 Jun 2019 15:06:19 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Tricky Dicky wrote:

I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the
short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent
boards will provide the support.

With "weetabix" loft boards? Not a chance.

I used P5 chipboard. It has a very hard top face (blue, green? - CBA to
check). It's quite water resistant (got an unexpected shower on a 'fine'
day, enough to trickle of the stack, but not only was the top face OK but
also the exposed T&Gs.
I tried an off-cut, about foot wide IIRC across a 16" gap and it took my
85kg or so quite happily.
Also cut off the bottom of the groove and all of the thinnest part of the
tongue so that it's fairly easy to lift a sheet.
It's solid to walk on, even carrying a heavy item.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

I'm using OSB which I get up full size (4x8) through a long narrow hole in the ceiling
[george]

On Thursday, June 27, 2019 at 3:01:42 PM UTC+1, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I need to extend the floored area of my loft. The loft consists of trusses supporting the roof which is quite a low pitch so you cannot stand up in it. Previously I attached 3 X 2 cross members to the trusses 300mm above ceiling height so not to compress the insulation. I then used loft boards screwed to the cross members to form the floor. Owing to the variable spacing of the trusses to get the boards short edges to rest on the cross members meant a lot of measuring and cutting wasting a lot of material in the process not to mention time. This time I am thinking of avoiding the cutting so I am thinking of staggering the boards which will mean most of the short ends will end up in space and hoping the T&G of the adjacent boards will provide the support. The flooring is only to provide crawl space whilst I get some wiring done. Anyone done something similar and does it provide adequate support for an overweight not so agile OAP to crawl around and work in?

Richard

Just to clarify, the roof pitch is a mere 22° so with the floor in place there is barely room to kneel at the apex. As I mentioned before the flooring is merely to make it safe to work in the loft and only a strip down the centre less than 2m wide is to be floored. Once the wiring is done I have no intention of using the loft for storage having a 40sqm garage which is more than adequate.

Richard