Using our loft effectively, but without a full conversion

[Beendonebeen]

Hi, we live in a newish house with trusses in the loft. We had a quote of 30k to fully convert it to an extra bedroom which is too much. We basically just want to use the loft for storage so I am not bothered about building regs but I don't want to just board it because I'm worried about it collapsing. Anyone any thoughts on what to do? I think I need to ge someone round to look at it, but who?

Thanks

Why do you think it would collapse if it was boarded?

Why would it collapse? Im currently having my roof floored to use for storage.

I might be being a bit silly! But I thought that lofts weren't designed to take extra weight?

Only if you don't board them.

We had a 'loft conversion' for £3000 about 5 years ago. It can't technically be classed as a room because it is only accessible via a ladder not stairs, but it is boarded, insulated and has electric points and a light, plus a velux window. The people who did it said that whilst they were designed for storage, many customers use it as a room. We do - we have the PCs and a couple of desks up there as well as lots of stuff stored. It gets a bit chilly up there in the middle of winter but otherwise is absolutely fine. Best £3K we ever spent. So if you're just using it for storage you don't need a full conversion at all.

If you literally just want to store stuff up there buy some loft boards and screw them in yourself. We just 'unboarded' our loft yesterday to add more insulation and the boards were specifically for boarding your loft as it said 'loft boards' on the stickers. They were reasonably light and sized to get through your loft hatch. Took us an hour tops to clear them all out - I imagine they are just as easy to get in.

I've just boarded out my loft myself. (Took me a few attempts to get up there as I'm frightened of them!)

I bought cheap loft boards from B&Q, that click into place. If I was doing it again I would pay more and get a better quality one, because the click and fix bits were chipping off.

Having said that, I screwed them down so I'm not relying on the click and fit to secure them.

It was really easy, and the boards were under £7 for a pack of three, so not expensive either.

The joists in a loft are around 4-5 inches (someone correct me if I am wrong here) floor joists are about 10 ish inches. Therefore if you want to convert a loft for living in you have to have the floor reinforced, usually with the larger floor joists.

Our last house was a 3 bed, we had as much stuff in the loft as we had in the rest of the house honestly, I know this because we had to get it all down for the removal men.

Just board out the loft and spread the weight around, ie don't have loads of heavy stuff at one end. Loft boards are available everywhere, and if my lovely rugby playing 6ft 4 inch 20 stone husband can walk round my 13 year old house loft, I can safely say it can take some weight

Many thanks, part of the loft is already boarded so I might just get the rest done if there is no risk of the roof collapsing!