Loft boarded

[Cheeks4970]

Has anyone recently had their loft boarded - I'm wondering what a realistic budget it - I know it depends on how much you have done (insulation, window etc) but am hoping I've got a realistic price in my head :)

I can't remember how much mine was but it's honestly the best money I've spent on the house. Genuinely improved my life massively to have all that extra storage space!

Have had experience of two recently:

Mother in law had loft boarded in her house last year - new hatch created, drop down ladder and light installed. Loft boarded space of probably 10 metres by 10 metres, easy to do as they were able to stand up in loft - cost £5,000 (in South East England) - took three days, lots of mess.

Us in August this year - new hatch created, drop down ladder installed. Loft boarded but only 2 metres by 10 metres as high up in the house, harder to complete as not much space, took two days- cost £3000 (again SE England)

Both great additions to the houses. Bank on the fact that you will probably have to repaint the area around the loft too - there is so much mess and dust and black stuff that seems to come down and stick to everything, even when covered with cloths

Its easy enough to do and the materials are readily available in B&Q and other builers merchants etc so a good general builder/handyman should be able to complete it. Ask about their experience in this area - we were reassured that our builder had done a similar house nearby recently so knew the layout/ likely problems.

£450 two years ago - sooooo worth the money. We've moved so much stuff up there and we're only a new build so potentially more room still in an older build.

Only niggle is due to configuration of loft hatch, landing and stairs we didn't have room for a retractable stairs which wound pull down, a la National Lampoon's.
That would have been do good to have but I'm still really glad we did it.

We've just moved into our new house where the previous owners did this- I can't thank them enough- we've got two rooms worth of stuff stored there that I need to sort through. It can't be more that 1k I suspect.

Oh and that figure includes additional insulation which had to be put down as previous occupant pulled done up apparently it can't just be reused as it looses its insulation properties?

It was the middle of summer when the chap did it, reckon he lost a stone in weight

About £750 for loft ladders, hatch and lighting up there too- life changing.

Does the floor need strengthening? Or is there a limit to the weight that it'll hold?

Is this just for storage, or could you potentially use them as an office?

Had our quite big loft space boarded last year. Maybe 50 square meters. We had it boarded, new loft ladder and some insulation for £1000. Two guys did it all in one long day - 8am-7pm. I absolutely love the extra space and the fact we can organise all our stuff up there better. We are in London

who did you use nightmanagerfan? X

It isn't that hard to board it yourself, just dusty and messy.

The issue is these days they normally recommend more insulation that comes over the joists, so the boards really have to be raised up on special stalks as they can't lie on the joists directly. If you are having this done it can be quite expensive.

If you are just looking for a bit of extra (non often accessed storage) it is easy to just buy some of the boards and rest them on the joists. Then you can stick your stuff on top. Of course when you are up there you have to be really careful to make sure you only ever have any load on the joists.

I paid £2100 for 15sq m, hatch enlargement, loft ladder and 73 Sq m earth wool insulation in December East Midlands Which trusted trader

I bought the stuff from loftzone as it allows you to put extra insulation in. Then dud it myself but you could probably pay a daily rate to a joiner or handyman as it's very straightforward.
Cost of materials was maybe £300. Day rate for labour near me could start at £120 and go up depending on who you get in to do it - skilled or unskilled

Ours was already boarded but we had a partition put in, electric points, roofing, new ladder, bigger hatch and carpet in 2020 and it came to about £4k. DH needed a home office! We did plan to turn it into a break out zone for DD10 once lock down was over but DH is still up there!

In one of our btl houses they asked for loft storage. We bought loft boards from B&Q on a day there just happened to be 10 percent off.
There was already a hatch and an electric light but no ladder or boards. DS went up a ladder to do it for me. DH passed him up the boards one at a time and DS screwed them to the joist. It took about half of one day. The cost of boards was about £250. We got a carpenter maintenance man who does quite a few jobs for us to go back about a week later to fix a ladder that pulls down but tucks back up out of sight.

Just been quoted £4.5k. Includes lights and new hatch. Plus removing old insulation and laying new plus boarding.