Lofty aspiraitons

So here is the starting position - insulation removed prior to the electrical works. The bits of white tube are linked the AV sockets throught the house, this makes it quite easy to poke some tv co-ax or network cable down to where needed. The joists are 4x1.75" - above these running across are 4x2" nailed at each intersection with a 4" ring shank nail. Where the 2 4x2" overlap there's little if anything holding them together. My first job was to secure these joints as a crack had formed in the master bedroom ceiling where the joist had moved slightly (compounded by joints in the original plasterboard).

The long lengths of 2x4" were drilled and bolted together with 5 sets of M10 nut & bolts, each joint with the joists had a 6" deck screw put into it. This reduced the movement of the joists nicely, though in tightening up some of the joints a few joists lifted, putting cracks around the wall-ceiling corners of the room below, nothing that can't be fixed with filler.

A jolly evening was then spent replacing the fibreglass insulation.urg.

I managed to secure about a dozen 8x4' sheets of 18mm MDF for little cost, though transporting them was to be my own problem. I cut them to more manageble sized boards (4x2') and routed out a 6mm slot on all edges to allow a tongue & groove joint between adjacent boards. It took 2 runs to get the 50-odd boards back home in our surprisingly practical 3door hatchback..

Above each joist I fixed some 18x38mm rough sawn timber to lift the boards off the joist - strategic gaps in the timber allowed the unimpeded passage of wiring. Then it was simply a case of laying the boards.

On reaching the 'near' end of the loft I had to stop with the boards and establish the new position of the loft hatch.