Laying loft floor boards

[AlanC]

Hi,

I am thinking about laying some loft floor boards in the loft space of our converted (into an extra bedroom) garage but am a bit unsure as to the best way forward.

The roof trusses are what I believe are called fink roof trusses. There is about 350-400mm of loft insulation up there. I was thinking of laying boa rds (from Wickes) which are 120cm x 32cm. five or six should give me enoug h of an area. The joists are 40cm so lengthways it will sit on 3 joists.

I know that its not designed to take lots of heavy things so wasn't plannin g on putting anything heavy up there. I think I have 3 options:

1) Screw some new joists (running parallel to the existing ones) to the bra ces about 20cm above the loft insulation (to leave an air gap underneath) a nd lay the boards on these. This would give me 3 new joists (about 2m in l ength), each would be screwed to 4 braces.

2) Use the ready made Loft Legs (sold by Wickes) which would be screwed to the existing joists and boards screwed to them. They only appear to come i n 1 size (175mm) which would mean removing some insulation.

3) Make my own Loft legs to the required height and screw the boards to the m.

Option 1 would be the easiest but I am not sure if its the right thing to d o. Option 2 would mean removing insulation and doesn't really allow for an air gap under the boards (unless I remove even more insulation). Option 3 would be a lot more work.

Any comments or alternatives that I haven't thought about?

Thanks

[Tricky Dicky]

I went for option (1) screwing 3" x 2"s to the trusses 30cm above ceiling l evel which cleared the 27cm of insulation leaving a 3cm air gap. This has c reated a very stable floor, the only downside was the spacing of the trusse s meant each floor panel had to have about 20cm cut off to match the joists . I believe the floor legs produce a very bouncy floor.

Richard

[thescullster]

Option 4

Lay some insulation slabs across the joists, put your boards on top and fix through to joists with long screws. You may have to remove a bit of existing (presume rockwool type) insulation down to top of joist level, or just compress it in the area to be boarded.

Phil