Building An Attic Floor

In many cases ceiling joists for dead loads are designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot.

Building an attic floor. If your home was built with standard conventional lumber your risk of causing structural imbalance isn t nearly as high. How to build a subfloor in an attic. However you still need to be sensible when installing an attic floor. A subfloor is a stiff wood underlayment secured directly the the flooring joists.

Build a frame on 16 centers perpendicular to the attic floor joists. The headroom in the attic will determine how much usable floor space you have. The beams you ll be installing the subflooring on top of. Joist dimensions are only part of the equation.

While local codes vary many communities will not permit the ceiling in a finished. Full the spaces between the frame members with insulation. Considering usable floor space. An attic may also be called a sky parlor or a garret because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the top floor of a building and the slanted roof they are known for being awkwardly shaped spaces with exposed rafters and difficult to reach corners.

Attic joists that are made from 2x8s may be acceptable for building your attic floor but because every room is variable there are no absolutes. It provides a stable surface for finished flooring material such as laminate. Screw the frame to the joists to secure it in place making sure not to screw into electrical wires. An attic sometimes referred to as a loft is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building.

You ll have to construct a wooden frame or sub floor with boards 16 inches apart to provide extra support for the floor. First you ll need to measure the area you want to floor so you can calculate how much wood you ll require. You also need to ensure that the joist spacing is adequate.