Attic Conversion Floor Joists

You might open up your attic and find bare joists with fiberglass or cellulose insulation between the joists.

Attic conversion floor joists.

New homes install i beam shaped joists. 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. This is part 2 in my series of loft conversion videos. Clearing the loft area of all debris insulation struts and temporary boards to expose the ceiling boards.

Fortunately this is a fairly easy fix. 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. 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.

A basic floor system is installed in about 10 stages from preparation to boarding the floor. In this video i show how i cut my my joists make packer plates get the joists from the garden up int. All meeting up on the load wall. The loft room will also have to be separated by a fire door either at the top or bottom of the new stairs.

This means that new floor joists are fitted alongside them slightly raised above the ceiling plasterboard to avoid contact with it. We currently have 2x6 floor joist that span 16 on one side and 18 on another. All our current 2x6 joist are spaced 16 on center. 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.

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. Most floor joists are typically spaced 2 by 8s 2 by 10s and 2 by 12s. When joists spacings are wider they should be deeper as well to limit stress and deflection under the load. If the attic joists are not adequate one way to strengthen the floor for live loads is to sister the old joists.

Sistering is the process of adding a new joist next to each existing joist.