Let this be a lesson. Loft issues.

The History Man

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Just spent a week decorating. Weight of tat in the loft brought down the bedroom ceiling.

Artex is a wonderful thing. Wallpaper too. Ikea delivered the wardrobes. Kill me now. Plenty of cardboard for packaging though!

At last a positive.
 
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Could be me soon
A neighbour told me he knew a guy who cleared his loft out then died the same month ! So don't go too crazy lol
 
A friend had similar issues with his vast record collection, suprising how much they weigh really. I struggled to lift a box of LPs, he had a house full! well he actually has 3 houses full, but the others are holding out so far.

I am looking to have my loft boarded out soon, just hoping whoever does it makes a good job as im sure lots of crap, i mean collectables, will find their way up there.
 
Took fifteen years for it to finally crack. We watched it spring back as I moved the weight around.
 
Lots of people make the mistake of using those thin flooring sheets. Construction grade wooden flooring is the ticket, because it adds structural strength, and prevents movement in the joists, that can cause problems with the ceilings.
 
Mate of mine went out drinking for the day (big gang of us) his teenage son turned up mid afternoon and announced that he was going home to "remodel his bedroom" while Mum and Dad were out. (We were already several drinks in at this point)

Only instruction was not to put his wardrobe in *that* corner of the room. (It's cantilevered out over the stairwell/open living room)

Mate came home late, post curry, brained himself on the now ~6" lower ceiling, realised he could see into No1 sons room, at floor level (the horrors!)

To be fair, the lad hadn't put his wardrobe in the corner, he'd moved his comic collection from the wardrobe to his chest of drawers. And put that in the corner instead. :facepalm:

Think it cost about 5 grand to put right, and reinforce. And redecorate.

(Apparently the comic collection weighed well north of half a tonne, which is a lot of comics)
 
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Typically, domestic floors are designed for an imposed load of 1.5kN/m2 (152kg/m2) whereas roof ceiling joists are designed for an imposed load of 0.25kN/m2 (25kg/m2). Therefore your typical roof joists have 5 times less load carrying capacity than a floor. Whilst loft flooring will strengthen/restrain the ceiling joists to a certain extent the load carrying capacity is still a fraction of a floor.
The other thing is that the ceiling joist imposed load used in structural design is simply an access loading (for maintenance etc.) and not really meant for long term storage.

As a comparison, buildings such as libraries or file storage areas in offices are designed for an imposed load in the range of 4-5kN/m2. Therefore folks, Christmas decorations and spare bedding only in the loft please! :LOL:
 
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