Loft Boards

Loft Boards (or Loft Panels) allow you to convert your loft space into a useful storage space with limited fuss and without extensive DIY knowledge or any sort of planning permission. Creating a basic loft storage solution is quite quick and easy.

Loft boards can be purchased very cheaply from DIY stores, like B and Q, Wickes or Homebase as either small panels or large (8’x2’) chipboard sheets. Smaller loft panels are obviously more convenient to work with as they are smaller, easier to manage, easier to get up to a loft and get home from the store. Though with most things in life larger sheets usually work out cheaper. Many of the DIY stores offer free cutting (normally 4 cuts) of sheet materials, so you could get larger sheets sliced up, saving money and allowing you to fit your loft boards into the back of a standard car.

Whichever material you decide to work with the cost of boarding your loft should not be that expensive, if the total cost is more than £150, then you must have a pretty big loft or you’re buying too much material or the wrong material.

The tools you will need are wood screws, a screwdriver, a saw and ideally a drill. If you only own a hand saw, then the cutting of sheets of wood could be hard physical work, a circular saw would be the best tool for cutting your loft panels, a circular saws can be quite expensive, top end ones will cost over a £100, though you could buy a budget one from about £30. You’ll need a drill for pilot holes when securing your loft boards, though in theory it is not essential, but will make it ten times easier, as would an electric screwdriver.

When you go to buy your loft boards the first thing to determine is the area of your roof space to see how many sheets you will need. Measure the width and length and then multiply to work out the area. If you are laying purely for storage then you may not need to board your whole loft, so it may just be a case of measuring the length and width of area you will be boarding. In fact not covering the whole loft area will make the process much easier as you will not need to reach into awkward spaces, especially close to the eaves.

Most likely your loft will have pipes and electrical wiring running along the joists – DO NOT CUT INTO THE JOISTS TO SINK / BURY THESE WIRES OR PIPES; this will likely weaken the joists too much and cause possible major damage. If you are covering an area with pipes or wiring use timber battens (minimum 2? by 1?) to raise the joists.

If you are planning to use the loft for anything other than light storage then you will have to consider adding extra strength, in other words adding extra ceiling joists. If you need to move any electrics or plumbing, it’s best to get qualified professionals into move these.

Once any extra joists have been added and any required battens attached simply butt the loft boarding against each other making sure they join in the middle of a joist, and then fix with a 1.5” to 3” screws. DO NOT USE NAILS. If using longer screws make sure they are not so long that they will go through the timber and into the ceiling and make sure you are not screwing on top of pipes / wiring. When placing boards over wiring / pipes it’s best to mark this on the boards. We don’t use nails, because screws allow for easier removal and hammering can cause the plastering on your ceiling below to shatter.

When working in your left, always remember to stick to walking on the joists and if you are not 100% fit, don’t try to tackle a job like this, you will be working in an enclosed space and will have minimal movement due to be restricted to the joists, it can be quite a balancing act. You should also wear suitable clothing, covering arms and legs as well as using standard safety equipment including, goggles, hat, mask and gloves. The fibres from loft insulation are horrendously irritating if they make contact with your skin and you will create a fair amount of dust.

You can fix a board usually with two screws, no more than 4 should be required, don’t go overboard on screws as this only mean more work if you ever have to take them up.

Simply using loft boarding in this manner will not require any planning permission, but if going any further, fitting a roof light for example, then you will need to contact your local council to confirm you don’t need to make any planning permission applications.