Unfinished Attic Thick Board Support Weight

Attic design includes ceiling joists that are typically designed to hold up the roof.

Unfinished attic thick board support weight. You also need to ensure that the joist spacing is adequate. Now that you have boards lined up across the trusses you can cap off each end of the subfloor with boards on each end. 13 2 you show 11 in photo but it is unclear if there is support at that point. Bearing the weight for a 20 lb dead load is 9 10 and for 10 lb dead load.

The bending moment is the length of the span times the weight to be supported divided by 8. Since the boards are sold in 4 foot by 8 foot sheets you may need to cut them into 2 foot wide strips to get them into the attic space. Thick plywood sheets are durable but they re also heavy and it may be safer to use 1 2 inch plywood which is actually 15 32 inch thick to avoid loading the ceiling joists with extra weight. To make the job easier use a circular saw to cut the plywood sheet first into 2 2 8 strips which will be much easier to handle.

Attic joists that are made from 2x8s may be acceptable for building your attic floor but because every room is variable there are no absolutes. For a beam spanning a 12 foot room and supporting a weight of 600 lbs the maximum bending moment would be 12 x 600 8 900 foot pounds. Be sure to trim the boards lengthwise so the ends land in the middle of a truss before you screw them in place. The joists should support your weight but the space between them almost certainly will not.

Attic joists for live loads. Once you have boards screwed into the entirety of the floor the attic should look like a grid. 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. Calculate the maximum bending moment for the wooden beams.

I would like to use the attic space above my 2 car garage for storage of items around the house and garage and if possible utilize some of the space as a small work area. 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. Check with a builder or engineer to ensure your attic can support the extra weight. If your attic is properly insulated it s likely that the insulation extends up past the ceiling joists.

Another issue involves insulation. The wood should be at least 5 8 inch thick to handle a heavy load.