Flooring Your Attic For Storage

Access to attic storage.

Flooring your attic for storage.

Then you ll need to build a grid like structure that. 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. Easy to install the only storage system designed specifically for the unfinished areas over a garage or under a roof. If you want to use your attic on a regular basis or to store large items you may need to enlarge the access opening and install an access ladder or drop down stairs.

Attics with existing flooring. The previous homeowner may have simply covered the joists with plywood to use the space for storage. If the attic has the potential to become a regular living space talk with a contractor about adding a fixed stairway. Just have to be sure not to block the air flow in the attic and realize that it may get very hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

We show you how to lay out tongue and groove loft boards in your loft supporting them on joists for a secure storage floor. Fortunately there are attic flooring solutions that work well in the often harsh and unheated. Flooring in the loft or attic how to lay tongue and groove board panel loft flooring. The best way to lay a floor in your loft for storage is to lay floor board panels.

Alternatively your attic may already have some sort of floor but this doesn t necessarily mean you can build rooms. Adding a floor to an attic can increase storage space or create a new room. Doing so the wrong way means that you could weaken your structure squash your insulation or find yourself with one foot planted firmly through the sheetrock ceiling below. Design live loads will vary based on a number of factors but at a minimum 10 psf live load for attics without storage 20 psf live load with limited storage and 30 psf for habitable attics served with fixed stairs international residential code 2009 older or local codes may be different.

Before you start creating a floor for your attic you must make sure that it can handle the additional load.