We have a Victorian terrace which had lath and plaster ceilings, which unfortunately had to come down before they fell down! The joists are probably only 3" and we want to board up the loft to use as storage but we are worried that they joists might not be strong enough (although they seemed to hold my husband as he walked along them kicking down the ceiling!) I have read somewhere that you can screw lengths of wood onto the joists to strengthen them - is it really that simple? Also one day (when we have a spare £20k so quite a way in the future!) we want to have the loft converted properly - presumably that will involve strengthening joists so would we just have to undo whatever we do now? And finally a different question - now we have to put a plasterboard ceiling up this weekend - is there a problem if you don't get it skimmed immediately - we were hoping to use a plasterer who is coming in January anyway? Thanks for your help!
When you get around to doing a proper loft conversion the new floor will have to be completely independent of the old ceiling. Anything you do now that might increase the height of the existing ceiling joists could possibly get in the way of a future conversion and have to be removed. If it's just for storage asnd you already know it holds your husbands weight it should be ok to just board it. If it was my loft I would use plenty of screws when putting the boards down and this will help to spread the weight more evenly over all the joists. The new ceiling shouldn't be a problem if it's left for a couple of months before plastering.
you ceiling will be fine boarded for a couple of months as long as the room is dry. use 12.5mm boards and screw them up. dj.
Are the joists simply resting on the wall plates (timbers laid onto tops of wall to accept roof trusses)? If so, and the Building regs chap from the council would allow, why don't you simply replace the 3 inch joists with bigger ones before your ceiling goes up? This would save head height, and some work when the loft conversion becomes due. You would need to think about where your stairs will go, so that you can make that part of the ceiling easily removable, and lay trimming and trimmed joists in the proper way. Taking this one step further, you may like to think about laying a proper floor rather than just going for those loft floor packs. A simple choice is 18 or 22mm T and G flooring grade chipboard. This will leave your loft conversion half done, so possibly less money to spend later. You will have to contact the BCO at your local council though. Just a thought CC
I wouldn't go by the simple fact that they supported your hubby's weight as an indication that the joists are strong enough. The problem is not the joists break, but rather deflection. If they bend/deflect too much, they will crack your new ceiling,particularly at any joints in the plasterboard One solution is to add the same height joists on top of the existing ones i.e. 3" to make up the total height 6". You could use Screwfixes turbo coach screws and sink the head into the timber to allow you to put your floorboards on. Provided the two joists (old and new) don't slip relative to each other i.e. firmly jointed your joist will be as good as a 6" piece of timber. Note the new joist must be the same height (or as close as possible to the existing joist). It has to do with simply supported beams and neutral axis of a rectangular beam etc. but I don't think you want to know all those details. Anyway I've done this on my own loft boarded it up and have lots of storage space now
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