Adding Plywood To Attic

Attic flooring consists of materials as basic as sheets of plywood as well as more elaborate interlocking floor systems.

Adding plywood to attic.

Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. While this is not the optimal setup it is acceptable to have ceiling joists covered with plywood or osb to use for light attic storage of dead loads. Then you ll need to build a grid like structure that can hold up the plywood flooring. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

The solid base allows you to store items in the attic as well as to walk. Maneuvering heavy 4 x 8 sheets of plywood or osb oriented strand board up to an unfinished attic is sometimes like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Install two by four blocking between joists or wherever needed to support edges of the plywood that do not have support from the bottom. Adding a floor to an attic can increase storage space or create a new room.

It might seem impossible to haul it up to the attic. In attics built purely for storage purposes you may find 2x6 ceiling joists or in some cases even 2x4 joists. To eliminate any potential problems with wiring or insulation use two by four or two by six lengths to create a subfloor system for the new decking. Stop using your attic for storage.

Plywood comes in large sheets. Cut the plywood into manageable strips about 10 inches wide to make the job easier. Two shelves made of 1 x 4 lumber with plywood decking and leaving some open space below work out to be just about ideal for storing most household goods. Before you start creating a floor for your attic you must make sure that it can handle the additional load.

The decision regarding the thickness of plywood to use for the subfloor in the attic has a lot to do with how you intend to use the attic and it also depends on the spacing of the ceiling joists. Flooring your attic is the best way to add space to your home at a low cost. If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or. But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates.

Adding shelves around the perimeter of the room is a lot of work but can make it much easier to organize your things in the attic.