Loft panels now available at Wickes

These loft panels have a number of great positive reviews from many previous buyers and as solution for boarding your loft, you cannot really go wrong with this product.

• Wickes Loft Panels
  • Comes in packs of 3 boards, with each board covering 0.39m
  • Pack coverage of 1.17 square metere.
  • Each pack costs £5.29 – just £4.53 per square meter (m2).

The boards are ideal  for lofts and other parts of the home except in damp and humid areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. The are tongued and grooved for ease of fit and have a Smooth finish.

To board a loft area 10m2, it will cost you just £45.30 + delivery charge. Because this is a bulky purchase, the delivery charge varies based on your location, but you can check this on the website before buy. For most of the UK it is £20 on orders under £300 and Free on orders over £300, however there are parts where it is more expensive. The delivery is for next working day, so you’ll be able to get started in no time.

Buy Loft Panels at Wickes

Currently the eBay seller Sterling Build are offering three loft conversion packs (small, medium and large) that consists of Skylights, Integral flashing, 10year guarantee, 3 section aluminum loft ladder, handrail, Opening pole to pull down and Chipboard T&G Flooring.

These packs are designed for the home owner to fit themselves, but only if you are competent at DIY. The package will be deliver direct to your door within 5 working days.

If your not able to fit it yourself they offer a nationwide fitting service as well.

Get more info on these loft conversion packs

However if you can get these large sheets up into your loft, then not only can it be cheaper to board your loft, it can also work out a lot quicker as you’ll have less boards to lay.

Tongued and Grooved Chipboard Flooring

Now Wickes have introduced a bulk item delivery offer, for the first time ever you are able to buy these large sheets of flooring online and have them delivered for a sensible price.

• Wickes Tongued and Grooved Chipboard Flooring
  • Depth: 18mm – Width: 600mm – Length: 2400mm
  • 1 sheet Covers 1.44 square meters
  • 1 sheet costs £6.49 – just £4.51 per square meter
  • Buy 10 or more sheets and price per sheet is just £5.19 each – Just  £3.60 per square meter

For most folks if you’ve never bought these large sheets of flooring at your DIY store it’s probably because you were not sure they would actually fit in your car. These sheets only just fit into a large estate car and even then it’s often a tight squeeze to get even the driver in safely. Now you don’t have to worry you can buy Wickes Tongued and Grooved Chipboard Flooring and have it delivered.

What they can offer you is the option to reserve and collect your Loft Panels at your local B&Q store, ensuring that you don’t waste your time going to store only to find out they have sold out or that yous local B&Q do not stock loft panels.

Loft Panels from B&Q

The Loft Panels that B&Q offer come in packs of 3 with each panel measuring 1220mm x 325mm x 18mm and currently cost £5.28 for the pack – That’s just £1.76 per panel.

Each pack covers 1.19 square meters, giving you a coverage cost of just £4.39 per square meter.

Reserve and Collect your Loft Panels at B&Q

To use reserve and collect simply visit B&Q and locate the loft panels (or link takes you right to them) – You’ll see that they are only available in store and you will also see on the left hand-side you are asked to select a store to check stock & reserve & collect – Simply click that link find you nearest store and then check that you store has the stock and then follow instructions to reserve and collect.

The surprising place to actually buy loft boards online and have them delivered to your home is on eBay

eBay have a number of sellers offering loft boards, including independent sellers – these are often for pick up only though. However there is at least one company, Bigdug who are offering loft boards for home delivery – You check delivery costs with the seller’s first – You can ask the seller questions even before you bid though.

Take a look on eBay for Loft Boards today.

You local Homebase store may stock loft panels,  though not all stores do – The one loft panel prodcut that Homebase carry is a 3 pack of Loft Panels measuring 1220mm by 320mm.

However if you are looking to buy online, Wickes have now introduced a special home delivery service for bulky items meaning you can now buy Loft Panels and other chipboard flooring online from Wickes.

• Buy Loft panels online at Wickes
• Buy Chipboard Flooring at Wickes

Another DIY Store that offer loft panels is B&Q, they also do not deliver this bulky item but they do offer you the ability to reserve and collect, meaning you want waste your time checking the individual stores for stock – You just simply check online and order there and then, the all you do is visit the store to collect your loft boards.

• Reserve and collect Loft Panel at B&Q

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.