Attic Conversion Floor Joists

If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or.

Attic conversion floor joists.

You can sister the joists by cutting 2 x8 boards the same length as the joists applying construction adhesive and affixing each to a joist with nails. I m wanting to remodel our attic to add a few bedrooms. In the case of 2x6 joists you can pair them up with additional 2x6 joists by nailing them together side by side. Clearing the loft area of all debris insulation struts and temporary boards to expose the ceiling boards.

New homes install i beam shaped joists. If the attic joists are not adequate one way to strengthen the floor for live loads is to sister the old joists. Most floor joists are typically spaced 2 by 8s 2 by 10s and 2 by 12s. This is part 2 in my series of loft conversion videos.

A basic floor system is installed in about 10 stages from preparation to boarding the floor. Sistering is the process of adding a new joist next to each existing joist. In this video i show how i cut my my joists make packer plates get the joists from the garden up int. We were going to sister 2x8 to the existing 2x6 but are worried about the extra weight and the huge amount of pain it will be.

The new floor joists of your loft conversion will need to offer at least 30 minutes worth of fire protection which could mean replastering the ceilings in those first floor rooms below. The floor framework is mostly made of wood joints running parallel to one another at regular intervals. All meeting up on the load wall. A new floor system is installed using a frame trimmer joists to support the floor joists that span the width of the loft.

Fortunately this is a fairly easy fix. When joists spacings are wider they should be deeper as well to limit stress and deflection under the load. There are many ways of altering roof structures for loft conversions but they all have one common element the ceiling joists will almost certainly be inadequate as floor joists. This means that new floor joists are fitted alongside them slightly raised above the ceiling plasterboard to avoid contact with it.

The loft room will also have to be separated by a fire door either at the top or bottom of the new stairs.