Loft Boards

About

What are Loft Boards? Loft boards (sometimes called loft flooring or loft boarding) are rigid panels fixed across the joists or trusses in a roof space to create a floor. Once properly fitted, they give you a safe surface to walk and stand on, so the answer to "can I walk on loft boards?" is yes, provided the boards, or the raised platform beneath them, cover the full area you need to cross rather than a couple of loose sheets. Beyond safe access, they create storage space and stop a misplaced foot going through the ceiling below. They come in sizes designed to get through a loft hatch , which is why 1200mm x 600mm and 1220mm x 320mm are more common than full 2400mm sheets. Materials range from chipboard and OSB through to insulated composite decks. Can You Lay Loft Boards Straight Onto the Joists? Only if the insulation between the joists is shallower than the joists themselves, and in most UK homes it is not. Current guidance points to around 270mm of mineral wool in a loft. Typical ceiling joists are nowhere near that deep, so boarding straight across them squashes the insulation, and mineral wool that has been compressed no longer performs at its rated depth. Timber also conducts heat far more readily than wool insulation, so resting boards flat across bare joists gives heat an easy path out through the wood as well as through the compressed patch. You end up with storage and a colder house. There are two ways round it, and this range covers both. Types of Loft Board Insulated Loft Deck The Tekwarm Insulated Loft Deck bonds PIR insulation to an OSB deck, so the insulated loft board is the insulation and the floor at the same time. With a thermal conductivity of 0.022 W/mK, it adds insulation as you board rather than compromising what is already there, and it does it without needing a raised loft boarding frame underneath. Available in 83mm and 108mm at 1200mm x 600mm, as single boards or on a bulk pallet of 24. This is the route to take when headroom is tight, o