How To Install Plywood Flooring In Attic
The average home today doesn't have enough closet space for the things we own. Ane way many people like to brand up for this is using their domicile's cranium to provide a piddling actress storage space, especially if the home doesn't take a basement that can be used for storage. While attics actually aren't designed to exist used for storage, with a little bit of work, many attics tin be transformed into a useful storage infinite. The trick is to do information technology without causing whatsoever impairment to the home.
How can this harm the home? There are ii means you might damage your habitation. The first is by overloading the ceiling of the flooring below, causing it to sag; the 2nd is by compressing the insulation, reducing your cranium insulation value and causing an increment in your home energy cost. Manifestly we don't desire to practice either of these, so the method we are going to discuss will avert those problems.
Calculation floor to your attic is a relatively depression-cost project, running about $5.12 per square pes, about $190 for a 10'ten x' expanse, if you practise information technology yourself. Hiring a contractor to do the job will roughly triple the cost, as you lot have to pay for their time and labor.
Extreme care should be used when working in an unfloored attic. While the joists are able to support your weight, the infinite betwixt them cannot. That space is just ½" drywall, covered with insulation and mounted to exist the ceiling below. Accidentally stepping into the space between the joists will pretty much guarantee that your foot is going to go through the drywall, calculation a ceiling repair to your projection.
Tin you put that stuff in a higher place your ceiling?
Before doing annihilation, you have to determine if you can flooring your cranium. Non all attics can be floored easily; it depends on how the habitation'due south roof and roof structure is constructed. If the supporting structure is constructed out of trusses, it's much harder to floor it. The 2″x 4″ structural members used for the ceiling joist part of the truss aren't normally considered strong enough to support the weight of a flooring, the weight of any is going to be stored in the attic and people walking around up there.
On the other hand, if the roof structure consists of a ridge board with rafters, it is ideal for flooring over, providing extra storage infinite in the dwelling. Typically, the ceiling joists for the floor beneath, which volition be the floor joists in your attic, are made of 2"x 8" or 2" ten 10" dimensional lumber, depending on how great a distance it has to span.
If the flooring underneath the attic has a load-bearing dividing wall that runs perpendicular to the direction of the ceiling joists, as most houses do, then much the better. That wall will assistance back up the weight in the attic. If you have this, information technology volition well-nigh likely be i of the walls for the hallway, which will run the length of the house, including doorways and archways. The doorways and archways volition have headers hidden inside the wall, and then that they can support the weight of the ceiling and whatsoever is in the attic.
Other considerations
Most people only floor the central part of an attic, as at that place isn't plenty headroom to make it worth flooring all the way to the eaves. Sculptured ceilings, with inset areas, located in the floor below may also limit the expanse that is able to exist floored, every bit information technology is impractical to floor over those insets, since they are in a higher place the floor height in the attic area.
Even so, those areas tin can still be used for storage, if platforms or shelves are built above them. Any time y'all are going to put shelves around the floored expanse, such as creating a perimeter for the floored-over expanse, exist sure to make the flooring extend under those shelves.
Depending on the blueprint of the business firm, the HVAC unit may be installed in the attic, frequently off to one side, and then it doesn't make it the mode of flooring the attic. In that case, always be sure to leave admission to it for maintenance and repair.
How to install plywood floor in an attic
Before putting the floor in, have a look at your insulation. Estrus rises, and then the insulation in your attic is the most important role of your home's insulation. According to the US Department of Energy, your dwelling's attic should have an R-38 insulation valued for homes in the Southern part of the state and an to R-49 insulation value for homes in the North. That'due south somewhere between 12" and 15" of fiberglass cellulose insulation. Those who talk almost energy efficient homes will up this to R-60, which is even thicker.
When y'all inspect your attic, compare the current insulation to the ceiling joists for the floor below (floor joists for the attic). Those joists are probably 2"x eight", which are actually 7.5" high. If the top of the insulation is flush with the tops of the joists, you have R-21, which is what most homes are built with. Merely if your abode has been effectually for a while, chances are that there's only iv" to v" of insulation, because it has crushed down. In that case, you only have R-xv coverage. In either case, you demand more insulation.
Since you're going to be putting in a floor, you won't exist able to insulate your entire attic to R-49; well-nigh the all-time you're going to manage under the floor is about R-38.
Insulating your attic
Now that you've inspected your attic's current insulation and adamant how much it has, you lot desire to do what you can, to bring it upwardly to par. This is especially important in the surface area that you lot want to install the new flooring, as you won't be able to add whatsoever further insulation later on.
To start with, add insulation, as needed, to bring the level of the existing insulation up affluent with the top of the joists. This can either be done with unfaced batts or blown-in insulation. In either example, the idea is to brand up for the crushing of the existing insulation, before adding more.
If you are doing this with blown-in insulation, you lot will probably want to accept the opportunity to add additional insulation around the perimeter of the attic, in the areas which are not going to be covered by the new flooring. In order to ensure that you have enough to make information technology fifty-fifty, once the floor is installed, pile upward some extra diddled-in insulation around the edges, which can later exist smoothed out, to the level of the new flooring. You have to buy at least 10 bags of the insulation anyhow, in order to get free use of the motorcar for bravado it in, so you may likewise get to town with it.
One precaution though; your attic should have soffit vents installed around the edges. These are necessary to prevent moisture from building upwards in the attic, also every bit provide proper ventilation to forbid excess oestrus from building up in your attic area. Therefore, you want to make certain you don't encompass these vents. If necessary, block around them with plywood or corrugated cardboard, to prevent the insulation from piling upwards on the vent.
Ensuring adequate insulation under the flooring
To give yourself enough space to ensure adequate insulation under the flooring, construct a riser of ii″x four″s in the cranium, over the existing joists. The joists for this riser should run perpendicular to the existing ceiling joists. This will make the installation of these new joists easier, while spreading the weight across several joists. The riser should be built on sixteen″ centers and the ends capped with a single cap later. Some people put in a flooring without this step and end up crushing their insulation, but that's non a good idea.
When building and installing the riser, don't apply nails, utilise screws. The daze and vibration of nailing the joists can cause smashing in the drywall ceiling and the texture to fall off. By using screws, you eliminate this stupor and vibration.
With the riser secured in place, install a layer of unfaced R-thirteen fiberglass insulation. This layer will aid bargain with the crushing of the existing insulation, as well as adding additional insulation to your attic, helping reduce your heating bills. This is your only opportunity to practice this, as having a flooring in identify volition eliminate any futurity opportunity to add insulation in this role of the attic.
It may exist that you lot end upward with too much insulation under your flooring. This is not actually a problem, other than information technology means that yous are paying for insulation that isn't doing you whatsoever expert. When the floor goes down, information technology will crush that insulation, making information technology effectively equal in R-value to any space you have. Then, you are amend off moving the excess insulation out of that area and applying information technology to someplace you are not flooring, allowing information technology to add together to the overall insulation value of your abode.
Floor the attic
An attic can be floored with 1/two″ CDX plywood, if information technology is beingness used only for storage. All the same, the same can't be said if you lot are planning on using the space as a living space. In that case, you volition need to use 3/4″ thick plywood. As an alternative, iii/4" OSB can be used. Don't utilize vii/16" OSB, as information technology is intended for external sheathing and isn't potent enough to be used as a flooring. The building code allows for the use of OSB in place of plywood for subflooring.
At that place may exist some risk in using OSB, which you should consider. Due to the mode it is manufactured, information technology is much more susceptible to the effects of moisture, specifically absorbing moisture. And then if y'all take wet problems or rainwater leaking into your cranium, you should not employ OSB, every bit it won't final and could actually be unsafe if information technology got wet enough.
Regardless of whether y'all use softwood plywood or OSB, the sheets should be lain perpendicular to the joists; either the original joists or the 2"x 4" joists that constitute your riser. Ever make certain to cut the sheets to length, and so that both ends of each sheet land on joists, and aren't hanging off in the air somewhere. The materials we are using, particularly the OSB, need that support.
Few attics have access that makes it possible to carry a four'x8′ canvas of plywood up the stairs or ladder, but if you rip information technology the long way, making the sheet into 2 2′ wide by 8' long strips, it is easy to behave upward.
There is also a product called "loft panel flooring" fabricated specifically for floor attic spaces. This is a particle lath plywood, already cutting into two pes panels, for ease in getting the material into your attic. The panels are made with tongue-in-groove long sides, so that it is easy to join them together.
Similar the riser, the plywood decking should exist screwed down, rather than nailed, for the same reason. While nailing would be safety for the floor you are laying, it could crusade problems for the drywall and texture on the ceiling of the room below.
Some other option are plastic decking panels, a new addition for attic storage. These look like grating, allowing for ventilation of the infinite underneath the floor. They are engineered to hold up to 250 pounds per panel and come up in sixteen and 24 inch widths, fabricated to fit your existing joists. These panels interlock and are attached to your existing joists with two" screws.
The existent advantage to attic decking is the ease of installation. It is designed as tiles, built to go right onto the existing joists. Their low-cal weight and size makes them easier to carry up into the attic. Simply they exercise have one drawback; they don't let for adding additional insulation, above the height of the joists.
What about trussed roof attics?
More often than not speaking, information technology is not considered possible to put flooring into a trussed roof attic and utilise the attic space for storage. Not only is it difficult to negotiate a rubber path through the cranium, there is likewise the problem that the bottom stringer of the truss is only a ii"x four" and not a two"x 8". Plain, that's non as strong.
Okay, and then why is a 2"10 4" used for the joist, rather than a ii"10 8"? The answer is in the design of the truss. All trusses are a series of triangles, with the occasional pentagon thrown in. That increases the forcefulness profoundly, as any weight that is put on the joist is going to pull down on the webbing, transferring some of the weight to the rafters. While that will flex the rafters slightly, mostly it will push the ends of them tighter together, reinforcing the strength of the truss. In that location are limits to this, and so don't try parking an armored personnel carrier in your attic; but if y'all floor information technology over, you can walk on it and store things upward in that location.
At present that nosotros've got the weight outcome out of the way, the next big issue is insulation. If you try to put the plywood floor directly on the joists, it volition crush the insulation down and y'all'll end up with the equivalent of R-15, regardless of what you started out with.
To solve this problem, add another course of 2"x iv" or even 2" x 6" stringers, either on pinnacle of the existing joists or attached to the sides of the truss. This will give the infinite to non simply preclude crushing your existing insulation, only also add more on height of it, increasing the R-value of your roof. To hold the new 2"x 4"due south in place, cutting pieces of plywood that will bridge the ii pieces and use them to screw the two together.
With the structure in place, y'all'll need to cut your floor decking to match the spacing betwixt the trusses, ordinarily 24". In improver, you'll need to notch the pieces of decking to go around the truss webbing. Then merely lay them in place and screw them downwards. It's non ideal, just it can be walked on and used for storage.
In addition, shelves can easily be added between the rafters, spanning the supporting members from the roof rafters to the webbing. Add 1/2" plywood or OSB to make a shelf.
Additional storage space in the cranium
While flooring over an cranium will provide a considerable amount of storage space, you lot tin actually consider that just the start of getting the about out of your attic. Every nook and cranny in your attic can be used for storage, if you tin can find a way to get to information technology.
Insets for sculptured ceilings are a common expanse that goes to waste in well-nigh attics, even after flooring is added. Only if you lot program it out right, you can install your flooring right upward to the border of those spaces, and and so build a long, deep shelf over the inset area. I did this over several of the insets in the attic of my former dwelling house, creating good storage areas for Christmas decorations, suitcases and other lightweight items.
Another area that can be treated the same is over ductwork. Often, the existing ducts will limit the area that you can floor over. But that area can yet be used for storage, if y'all build a light platform over the ducts. Don't just lay things on the ducts themselves, as they are not very stiff. Fifty-fifty though they may not crush immediately, they probably will over time, reducing the airflow through your home's HVAC arrangement and increasing your heating and cooling costs.
Adding shelves around the perimeter of the room is a lot of work, but can go far much easier to organize your things in the cranium. Two shelves, made of one"x 4" lumber, with plywood decking and leaving some open space below, work out to be only about ideal for storing well-nigh household goods.
Then you tin do specialty storage for items that don't fit neatly into boxes. Line-fishing rods can be hung on hooks, mounted into the ceiling joists. Other long, thin items tin can exist stored in the eaves, behind the shelving, where nil else volition fit easily. Backpacks and other camping gear can be hung on the studs of the end walls. It's just a matter of looking at the problem creatively and seeing what will fit into the space you have available.
Regardless of what you store or how you shop it, exist sure that information technology is non sitting straight on the insulation, as the weight will crush down the insulation, reducing its insulating value. Left long enough, it will stay crushed down, even subsequently the item is removed.
Using attic space as living space
Some people turn their attics into boosted living infinite, rather than into storage space. This is a much different prospect and requires considerably more work. Since the insulation is in the floor of the cranium, you will need to add insulation to the rafters every bit well, then every bit to make the attic space into usable living space. That will and so have to be covered over with drywall or paneling and finished.
Building code will also require that you accept an bodily staircase into the attic room, rather than a drop-down ladder. You will also have to add together boosted oestrus registers and electrical outlets to meet edifice code requirements. That shouldn't be difficult, every bit you will probably already have existing ductwork and wiring that y'all can tap into to add together the additional registers.
When adding in those registers, keep in mind that any branch of your ductwork y'all are calculation them to will probably need to be augmented, in its overall cross-department, to be able to prove the boosted airflow needed.
While I don't desire to get into item about this, the idea is that the cantankerous-department of the duct should equal the area of all the registers attached to it, combined. So, your all-time bet is to discover a duct which is full-size, notwithstanding merely has a couple of registers. That volition allow you lot to add additional registers, without having to exercise major redesign to the system.
Source: http://theplywood.com/attic-flooring
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