Loft Boards and loadings

[Paul C]

Hi Have just moved into 1990's house with a 'W' truss roof, and it is a not a timber framed house (brick and breeze block). There is a water tank right in the middle and all the rest is open with just insulation between rafters. We want to store a lot of empty boxes (computers,TV's etc) so want to place them in the middle section but at the ends (8 ft by 7ft 6in area). I have a load of compressed chipboard 18mm loft panels (ex. Homebase). I read a lot about loft strengthening for habitation, but is my loft going to put up with these boards and the occasional step onto them? The rafters look like a lot of 2" x 1" connected with metal plates.

Any thoughts, hopefully someone here may have done the same - don't really want to get a structural engineer involved.

thanks

Paul

[Steve]

I hope it's OK. I did exactly the same thing in my house, of similar age and construction, a couple of years ago and I have seen no ill effects yet. I also did it in a large timberframed 1980's bungalow about 10 years ago without any problems.

I like to think the extra weight helps to keep the roof in place when it's windy :-)

Steve

Paul C wrote: