How to put a floor in the attic.?

Question

I have a newly construted home with blown in insulation and a pull-down ladder. My objective is to have usable storage space up there. My limitation is the small access of the pull down door.

Answer 1

just to add to the above answer. if it is an engineered truss you will most likely not overload the bottom chord of the truss because the amount of space between the webs of the truss are too small to get really heavy things up there. if you put down 1/2 inch plywood you can easily put 200 lbs/sqft up there.

Answer 2

Many newly constructed homes have trusses in the roof. They are engineered cross braces that support the roof. As a result of the engineering, they may be only 2x4 and they could be further apart than 16 inches, the standard separation between supporting timbers.

You might ask you builder if the engineering is such that the bottom member of the truss is capable of holding a floor, items to be stored on the floor, and person(s) walking on the floor.

I personally would like to see 2x6 bottom members to support the floor and a 3/4 inch plywood or planks. The 2x6 would permit extra insulation that impedes the flow of warm air out of the climate controlled portion of the house.

Many builders do not build the attic as strong as they build the rest of the house. They figure it won't get much use. The fact that there is no plywood at all could indicate that your builder didn't want to encourage use of the attic.

So, your builder may disagree, but I would use 3/4-inch plywood or flooring on the floor. If the trusses are two-feet apart and only 2x6, you'd have some piece of mind.

Answer 3

U CAN USE A 4X8 SHEET OF PLYWOOD RIPPED IN HALF THE 8' LENGTH SO U CAN GET IT INTO THE ATTIC. OH, I NEED TO BACK UP. GO TO THE ATTIC AND SEE WHAT SIZE U NEED FOR WHAT SPACE U HAVE TO USE. IF U DONT WANT TO USE PLYWOOD U CAN USE 1X12 #3 COMMON WOOD WHICH YOU CAN GET IN LENGTH OF 8,10,12,14, AND 16' FROM LUMBER YARDS

Answer 4

You might consider using boards: (1x4's 1x6's). You can use plywood but you will have to rip it down the middle to be able to get it through the opening.