Love this video ! Enjoyed watching it !

Good job! i wish everyone took time n DIY like this. Good for decades!

We have had a comment posted here concerning the boxing-in of the ceiling lights. I removed the comment to save the author any embarrassment but the gist of the criticism was that boxing-in the ceiling lights stopped the bulbs from getting adequate cooling and might present some kind of fire risk. There are several points to make here. First: the downstairs lights were installed in a similar fashion by the previous owners with no problems at all. These are installed on the underside of the upstairs floor hence there is no way that a hole can be drilled through the floor to cool the lightbulbs! Installing embedded lights into boxed-in ceiling spaces is quite normal and has no ill effects upon bulb or ceiling. There is plenty of flowing air inside the "box" for ventilation. Anyone who has watched embedded ceiling lights being installed on a TV DIY show will know that no extra ventilation is supplied behind/above the bulb. There is just an empty void. Secondly we use LEDs that require no extra cooling anyway. Thirdly: the idea that you should cut holes in the thermal envelope of your home, to keep items of electronic equipment cool, doesn't withstand any scrutiny. You don't knock a hole in your kitchen wall to cool your oven or in your lounge to cool the TV. Any such devices sit comfortably inside your home without need of extra localised cooling. We take that for granted. Embedded ceiling lightbulbs are not in physical contact with anything easily combustible. No lightbulb would ever get hot enough to cause any burning or ignition in conjunction with standard ceiling board. You might argue that the localised build up of heat might impact bulb performance but it would be insignificant in comparison to the cold draft you get from having holes in your roof. You would only rarely need such extra cooling on extremely hot summer days. For the rest of the year you gain benefit from boxing in your ceiling lights.

@nthlevel

6 жыл бұрын

Indeed, some old schoolers use plant pots but you can buy the light caps to fit over the top of them.

Really helpful. Thanks

All these attics look so nice and clean and bright mines like a rats nest

@Superhome59

6 жыл бұрын

Well I did tart it up a bit for the video as well as bring up so photography lights to brighten it up. Most days it is as disorderly as anyone else's! Thanks for watching.

Good video - nice to see someone else doing the job right besides us !

Insane that even all those years ago it took £1000 just to insulate your loft. It should be a massively subsidised project for all homeowners because its the ones that most need it that cant afford it. There is a reason my 120 year old terraced house has never been insulated and costs a fortune to heat.

@Superhome59

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching. I agree with everything you say. We always felt very privileged that we had the resources to get this work done and enjoyed it as a DIY project. But our hearts go out to those elderly, disabled or of limited resources when it comes to making their home warm. Successive UK Governments have continually under-delivered appropriate support packages and education. Let's hope this changes. Thanks for tuning in a dropping us a message.

Thanks for the video. Informative.

Thanks. You gave me a few ideas for my own loft insulation and boarding project.

@Superhome59

2 жыл бұрын

Thankyou! Good luck in your project. Best wishes.

Nice!

Cracking video I am going do just that.

Your like Brian May but with short hair. Good vid 👍

@MG63

4 жыл бұрын

I think he looks like Angus Deayton.

Great video. I plan on doing this myself, would you be able to tell me how far apart you spaced the new joists ? Thanks.

@Superhome59

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. Actually the joists are exactly the same width apart as the existing house joists which is the same as the width of the insulation. I recall this something like 60cm. If you stick to the existing standard spacing you should find that the loft boards you buy fit perfectly inbetween.

@willkndy

3 жыл бұрын

@@Superhome59 Thanks a lot

Why do you need to fit two levels of cross joists? is it purely to make room for the insulation? All videos I've seen add this extra height when boarding lofts but with no explanantion. My loft ceiling is very low as it's an old cottage - I need as much height as I can get in there so making the floor level 8 inches higher is not great for me! Any advice?

@Superhome59

8 жыл бұрын

+davisdavro . No you do not need two layers. I added two layers to boost the insulation by 200mm rather than just 100mm, but there is no reason for you to do two layers if you do not have the head space. I had plenty of head space and it was economically practical to do so. A subsequent layer would not have added much more insulation value yet added nearly 30% to the cost of the project, hence it was not economic. If you wish, you need only add one more layer using the method I show.

@davisdavro

8 жыл бұрын

Great Thanks

@supermankelly

5 жыл бұрын

No need for any extra layers. I have flooring on supporting joists and perfectly fine for storing my junk and walking on. Not like Im up there often or intend to break dance on it.

Thanks for the share, very constructive video. Can I ask how did you braced the joist against the wall, did you use wall brackets

@Superhome59

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching. There was no wall bracing used as there are no walls in the attic other than the gable-ends. The over-joisting was secured to the existing A-frames. Roofing L an I plates were used.

Great video! I'm having a friend to install attic door from the bathroom to my landing. My house is 1960s so the attic insulation might need replacing, especially when we had a leak on one side of the roof last year. I'm wondering do I need thick insulation for such a low roof that I have? Already updated my fascias for better ventilation.

@Superhome59

7 жыл бұрын

You should install as much installation as is practical. There is little economic sense in installing more than we did. 600 to 900mm is a good rule of thumb. Obviously less if you have too little headroom.

@pasangzompasherpa900

6 жыл бұрын

Richard james j

@pasangzompasherpa900

6 жыл бұрын

Richard james vgho

Sir thank you for the video. Can you clear up. You laid new joists at 90 ° on original house joists ? Or You laid 2 sets of joists. 1st on top of original house joists 2nd running like a lattice Once again thank you . Also for your details on website.

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

Yes your interpretation is exactly correct: first layer of new joists laid over original structural joists at 90 degrees. Second layer at 90 degrees to that - forming a lattice. Thanks for watching.

You've clearly done a very thorough job, and great to see sheep's wool used too. I notice that the loft boarding was done in 2008, and at that time, the only method available was to raise up the joists with more timber, as you've done. That's now (2015) quite old fashioned though, as it's heavy and slow and fortunately a suite of bespoke systems for raised loft flooring are now on the market. Several other Superhomers have used the LoftZone StoreFloor system for example, which is much easier and faster to install. I hope this helps. Cheers for posting! Dave (Superhomer No 156!) :)

Great video , well explained and yes Dave there are now specialist products on the market and we have been using LoftZone raised loft flooring products instead of using loads of heavy timber for over two years now. We have installed 100's of homes using this product and had 100% positive feedback. No need to add anymore weight than necessary by using wood. Wood works but its heavy and expensive and you need a lot of it. The store floor products are light weight and come in three parts, a tri, & uni support and a metal box section crossbeam. Standing at 270mm high when installed it avoid any insulation compression or the need to remove it as well. Also you can now buy sealed ceiling spotlights and also ones with a cover protecting them against heat. Its amazes me how things change so quickly. Superhome 59 what about a demo of the new products available for loft storage solutions? glad to help

You do realise that all that weight is being supported on roof trusses which only have a minimal safety factor above the weight of supporting the roof and plasterboard below. Your lattice work, unless it's sitting at either end on the walls, is not actually supporting any load - just distributing it.

@Superhome59

9 жыл бұрын

***** Yes, we were well aware of this. However the build of the house is 1980's and I spoke to those in the solar trade about the requirements for a survey beforehand. Their view is that the weight of anything inside the attic is simply not in the same order of magnitude as the roof covering hence the distributed load of attic flooring is well within the tolerances of Building Regulations. This is the rough rule of thumb applied to the application of Photovoltaic panels which seemed wholly appropriate to use it this way. The weight of the insulation is of course negligible and the floor-boarding itself is not significant if normal distributed over-boarding. The only excess weight hence is in the lattice of new non-load-bearing joists. These are distributed evenly over the entire area and screwed down to the load-bearing joists and roof A frames. During construction we monitored the upper floor room ceilings for any signs of flexing. We examined for hairline cracks in painted area where ceiling meets plasterboard walls. No signs of flexing of cracking appeared. Clearly there was no flexing outside of tolerance. We do not believe such roof structures built in the last 50 years have a "minimal Safety factor" as you state. We would be interested in any evidence you have to support such a statement. The additional weight is utterly insignificant in comparison to roof covering and water tank loads.

Any advice on a new house and I'm planing to floor the loft. Would you recommend 4x2 or 3x2 then frame on top of the loft trusses? For ventilation through the cavity void of insulation??

@Superhome59

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching! Probably 4x2 sounds better. I chose 4x2 because 4inches is about 100mm which was the depth of insulation so it fits in-between the rafters. My sections were laid on top of the load bearing rafters at right-angles as the video illustrates - and this has proven an effective solution. Not too sure what you wish to learn about ventilation though? My purpose was to add extra insulation and ventilation is not a consideration for us as we have fully-vented soffits. Depends upon what usage you wish to put the space to. If it is storage (as for us) then ventilation is not a problem. Indeed we didn't want too much ventilation. If you wish to use the attic space for anything other than storage then you will need professionals to lay down load-bearing joists obviously. That would be a different project. Best wishes in your project.

Hi, When you laid the first tier of joists on top of the ceiling joists, did you actually fix them at either ends of the timbers as well or just laid them on top and used the L brackets to fix them to the lower ones? Thanks

@Superhome59

3 жыл бұрын

All the over-joists were fixed along their lengths to the underlying joists using the metal L plate brackets. The ends of the timber may well have over-hung a little in places. There was nothing to fix them to. A gap was left around all of the over-joisting so no timber was laid end-to-end in such as fashion that the ends butted up against anything that they could be fixed to.

@metal666head

3 жыл бұрын

@@Superhome59 Thanks for the clarification

Great job, I enjoyed seeing the hard work pay off. Is there a particular method of deciding where to begin the over-joisting? I was wondering whether you started from the loft hatch to the walls, or from the walls to the hatch? Same for boarding.

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for visiting and watching. I am not sure there is any great science to it but in my example I started working on the back of the house then the front. These long sections are not interrupted by any hatch so I could go end-to-end easily. Then in the main centre section: one end could not be boarded because of the water tank. On the opposite end I worked from the wall to the centre & to the loft hatch last. This was only because boarding around the hatch was the most complicated. I had position the final top layer of joists offset one joist away from the hatch. (The final joists are screwed to the side of the A Frame so you have to choose which side.) This gave me maximum clearance around the hatch but I ended up with an uneven extra long space between final over-joists at the hatch. Hence standard size loft boards would not fit. I had to use leftover metal roofing plates under the boards to support them. Not ideal but it works. Thanks for your time. If you have further questions do not hesitate to ask.

@raminybhatti5740

4 жыл бұрын

@@Superhome59 Ah, I understand now. I too need to contend with loft tanks and associated pipework which are situated in the front / middle portion of the loft. I think beginning from the wall that divides mine and my neighbour's respective properties is possibly the best thing for me, because I don't want to immediately deal with the overflow pipes that trail from the loft tanks to the back wall of my house. Once I get a little confidence in laying down some over-joists and boards in a relatively unobscured area of the loft, then I'll scoot over to the slightly more complex section of the space. I'm anticipating I'll need to trim boards and timber when I begin to reach the area around the hatch, but that won't be too much of a concern I hope. Thanks so much for the speedy reply.

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

@@raminybhatti5740 No problem. Good luck. (Most of my attic pipework was concentrated over the DHWC and around the tank keeping things simple. The only complexity was a pipe that ran down to a bathroom at the other end of the house. Thankfully this was at the inverted apex of the A Frame hence I had no need to cover it with a board - just a bit of insulation.)

Can't you put a break down of what parts and name and store you brought things from I just worried about the pipes if they not metal and the heat involvimg the water tank to keep that part clear other them that good video like to know about the wood prices and bracket and the the ladder and the insulation I'm the attic and for the roof cover stop heat escaping

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. Please review the Project Page here: www.post-carbon-living.com/Post_Carbon_Homes_Insulation.htm for all the details you requested.

How much is it to do this? Do you need to layer it with wood first? How long does it take to do? Thanks :-)

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

The Sheep's Wool was £999 and the wood was £618. (There was also a new attic hatch door, some pipe insulation and some new lighting.) The sheep's wool was rolled out right on top of the mineral wool without separation. I did this as a DIY exercise and it took me about 8 to 12 weeks but I was only able to get about an hour's work done in the evening's after work. Thanks for watching. If you have any further questions let me know.

Great video. I didn't think you were supposed to screw into the trusses though (4min).

@Superhome59

4 жыл бұрын

I know of no prohibition against using screws into trusses. Indeed that would be odd given that recommended approaches to insulation and loft conversion all require screwing things into trusses and joists. Certainly don't saw through them but nails and screws are fine.

I had my Semi detached Bungalow Attic insulated by Green deal ,and it looked as if they just flung the insulation down , what a total mess.

@Superhome59

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry to hear about that. I do know that many people have found that some Builders will pay lip service to the insulation requirements of new homes. Owners have peaked into the loft to find the rolls of insulation just thrown into the attic and not even rolled out! So, yes, you will get a few cowboys out there who just don't care. However, since rolling out insulation is the easy bit it is easily rectified. Laying down storage areas and increasing insulation thickness is the difficult bit. Thanks for visiting and good luck with your DIY.

Not sure about sealing in the lighting in those boxes you need vent holes in to release heat from the unit itsself and bulb or downlighter even if it is LED

@Excel510

10 ай бұрын

correct

do you know all that weight is on the ceiling rafters

@Superhome59

8 жыл бұрын

+Mansdaz Please see our response to SLRist posted 5 months ago. Given the nature of the engineering of the A frame in a UK house structure we did not foresee any problems as long as the new joisting was evenly distributed. The weight of the flooring and insulation is pretty trivial. We estimate that most of the weight is actually in the items being stored. We monitored the wall to ceiling areas on the top floor and saw no cracking or movement suggesting that the A frame took the weigh on the outer brick walls.

I found it somewhere that there must be a gap between insulation and floor boards for ventilation. To avoid condensation ? Is that true ? TY

@Superhome59

8 жыл бұрын

Actually - no, not for the between the joists. After all I have never seen or heard of anyone trying to do this. The insulation is just laid on top of the top side of the ceiling boards. However I do know what you mean. You are talking about the rafters - the sloping part of the A frame under the roof itself. Yes, if you wish to insulate between the rafters with a solid board insulation then you will need to tack on 10mm square batons to stop the insulation board touching the underside of the roof. This is for ventilation as it prevents moisture build-up. This makes sense because your roof is subject to outside temperature extremes so condensation is likely. To maintain ventilation ensure that the top and the bottom of the insulation board is left clear so that air can flow through the 10mm gap. I looked into doing this a few years back but I never got round to it. It cuts down (again!) on available space in the attic. Given we had spent hundreds of pounds on the insulation already it simply would not have been economic to apply more insulation. You get diminishing returns. However it would help protect the attic from temperature extremes. It depends what you wish to store there. It is done when you convert it to living space of course. Thanks for watching. Let us know if you have any further questions. Happy to help.

You spent a grand on insulation that's boarded over? It's never going to be disturbed or touched in any notable amount of time. It's not even a big loft... Should cost 100s to do a loft out, not 1000s.

@Superhome59

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. These points are addressed in the video. You can do it cheaper but only by using spun glass insulation. As was explained in the video that was not the purpose of the exercise. The purpose was to get 300mm if insulation in a space where you could touch it and breath it with no ill effects. The point of boarding over 80% is to have storage and that we have aplenty. You cannot store without the boarding. We enter the attic to place or retrieve items on a regular/monthly basis. If you don't wish to ever go into your attic, and wish to do this cheaply, then choose Rockwool and be done with it. That would be a different solution only costing a few £100s.

@illmitchjax

5 жыл бұрын

@@Superhome59 I'm not disputing boarding the whole loft, I just don't think that you're going to breath anything of note that's under boards

Looks a bit bloody overkill to me like

Ok 🤣🤣

My roof is 12 feet tall and took 1 and 1/2 days to board out and fit 8ft strip lights. Jewsons scrap 7 ply 30 boards 5ft x 2ft £30. Do the job right. This chap has more money than sense.

@unsealedabsurdfiles

7 жыл бұрын

another keyboard "expert", modern houses don't have supporting walls inside the house, therefore the floor joists in the attic need additional support, hence the crossing of timbers to spread the load. If you merely placed plywood board onto your joists, you haven't distributed the weight properly.So, stop acting like a know it all

@martinborman4195

7 жыл бұрын

Yes, an expert. I built my own 8 bedroom house. You have a problem with that?

@alanh3081

5 жыл бұрын

Joists in loft are there merely to hold up the ceiling below and roof. Adding extra weight into a loft without strengthening the floor can cause movement and over load the joists.