Loft insulation

[B'stard Child]

LocoBlade said:

I also thought individual legs could be a bit fiddly to line up and lay boards across especially given our joists aren't particularly evenly spaced, so as mentioned above I used the Loftzone system.

I've never used individual legs to compare but this was really easy to install, just run a plumb/laser line to get the triangular legs aligned then screw into place every 2-3 joists at roughly 1.2m gaps. Once in place the steel rails slot into place and they're held with a screw into the top of the leg with the straight legs then slotted in as additional support between the spans.

The good thing about with rails is other than working in straight lines you don't need to worry too much where the legs themselves go, the only dimension between rails you need to be accurate with is the distance between the two rails that will support the ends of your 1.2m or 2.4m long loft board so you can support the edge of another board next to it. Rails can also bridge obstructions and oddly spaced joists more easily so if there's an electrical junction box or wiring in the way you just put the legs on the joists either side and bridge over it. The only real faff is when the joists are significantly under or over 40cm/60cm spacing and you need to cut the rails down to fit which I had to do in about 3 places (meaning 18 rails to cut). A multi material mitre saw blade made short work of that job but would have been a nause to hacksaw them all! Once that's in you obviously lay the extra insulation in the same orientation then slide boards across the rails and screw straight down into the steel.

The end result is a really stable and strong platform that can probably take more weight than the 4" joists it's sitting on is designed to take.

Looks fantastic - how would you get to that junction box??

[LocoBlade]

B'stard Child said:

Looks fantastic - how would you get to that junction box??

Thats another nice thing about the rails, because they offer a continuous line of support you can cut sections of board along the rail lines and make little access doors for stuff like that

[OMITN]

+1 for lift legs. Put enough in for the random 8x4 chipboard sheet I found in my loft - which must have gone in when the house was built in the 60s….

Plenty of rolled out wool insulation and it served a purpose to store light, bulky items like suitcases and boxes.

Sadly that’s gone now - loft conversion being done right now means I have very little storage space. So we’ll just have to clear out all the old crap..!

[B'stard Child]

LocoBlade said:

B'stard Child said:

Looks fantastic - how would you get to that junction box??

Thats another nice thing about the rails, because they offer a continuous line of support you can cut sections of board along the rail lines and make little access doors for stuff like that

Good Plan - I knew you'd have it covered

Did a bit concerned by the bottle of wood glue in shot - and though no he wouldn't have glued it all surely

[LocoBlade]

B'stard Child said:

Good Plan - I knew you'd have it covered

Did a bit concerned by the bottle of wood glue in shot - and though no he wouldn't have glued it all surely

Haha no, the glue was for the tiny little half moon shaped fillet around the soil stack that just happened to sit on a board join

[langy]

I've just done a good proportion of our loft. 5 rolls of insulation (170mm thick) with a couple of areas where i raised existing boarded sections using Loft Legs..

Existing insulation was between the joists and we had 11 spotlights that i put covers over, then laid the extra insulation perpendicular to the joists.

Pain of a job, but done methodically OK. Probably took 7/8 hours (most of that was faffing with the boarded sections). Cost me just under £200.

Has it made a difference, i think so, but it's been fairly warm since.

[Alias218]

I’ve been considering loft legs. My current insulation consists of old thin wool between the joists, with newer thicker wool on top of that, and some of that has been soundly ruined by the guys that installed my new bathrooms earlier in the year.

My question is: what’s the best way to get shot of a st ton of glass fibre wool without getting it everywhere? I’d like to replace most of it and put legs up with boards.

[LocoBlade]

Alias218 said:

I’ve been considering loft legs. My current insulation consists of old thin wool between the joists, with newer thicker wool on top of that, and some of that has been soundly ruined by the guys that installed my new bathrooms earlier in the year.

My question is: what’s the best way to get shot of a st ton of glass fibre wool without getting it everywhere? I’d like to replace most of it and put legs up with boards.

Double bag it to get it out of the house and offer it for free on Facebook Marketplace worked for me, I got rid of about 12 x 300L wheelie bin liner's worth of it like that despite mostly being the nasty dusty 1980's vintage stuff. I bought a pack of 30 wheelie bin liners off Amazon for under a tenner and although they were a bit flimsy and easily snagged/torn on the slightest of sharp corner or edge, they did the job. Rubble sacks are better for strength and you can stuff the wool in tighter but the bags are a lot smaller.

Edited by LocoBlade on Monday 24th October 22:20

[B'stard Child]

Alias218 said:

My question is: what’s the best way to get shot of a st ton of glass fibre wool without getting it everywhere? I’d like to replace most of it and put legs up with boards.

Just be glad it's not loose fill or blown glass fibre wool - that was what I had to remove to replace with roll material

It all went in bin liners - compressed to remove the air and then added to the wheelie bin over the course of 3 months

[Jakg]

Evanivitch said:

RizzoTheRat said:

In my parents loft we used the usual rockwool between the existing joists, then laid new joists at 90 degrees in the area they wanted to use as storage, with rockwool laid between those, and the boarded over the top. Quite an easy job.

That's my intention. Don't fancy the legs solutions often recommended. We put too much crap for storage in the loft.

Rockwool is (probably) a good UK made product in South Wales and has decent fire resistance (so say all their logistics trucks, unsurprisingly).

Unless the new joists are properly tied into the walls and not attached to the ceiling, your just making the problem worse - loft legs are more than strong enough and the loading limit for a ceiling is really low, so adding more wood for it to support is just making the problem worse.

[Evoluzione]

Jakg said:

Evanivitch said:

RizzoTheRat said:

In my parents loft we used the usual rockwool between the existing joists, then laid new joists at 90 degrees in the area they wanted to use as storage, with rockwool laid between those, and the boarded over the top. Quite an easy job.

That's my intention. Don't fancy the legs solutions often recommended. We put too much crap for storage in the loft.

Rockwool is (probably) a good UK made product in South Wales and has decent fire resistance (so say all their logistics trucks, unsurprisingly).

Unless the new joists are properly tied into the walls and not attached to the ceiling, your just making the problem worse - loft legs are more than strong enough and the loading limit for a ceiling is really low, so adding more wood for it to support is just making the problem worse.

No that's incorrect.
If it's a simple wall to wall ceiling joist then what you are doing is tying them all together. You've shifted from point load, to uniform load which is much stronger
Before you would have walked on one or two joists, afterwards you're now walking on many at once.

Edited by Evoluzione on Tuesday 25th October 12:04

[Trustmeimadoctor]

i think what he is getting at is the joists wont have been put on wall hangers or anything they are just sat on the existing joists

[Evoluzione]

You're right, I was half asleep.
He's still incorrect, just in a different way, see edit.