Putting Plywood In Attic

You ll need to make sure that the plywood can fit through your attic door.

Putting plywood in attic.

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. Find or buy 1 2 inch plywood or particleboard sections. Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. Installing attic flooring for light storage only 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.

Heat rises so the insulation in your attic is the most important part of your home s insulation. If you plan to finish the floor in the attic and turn the room into a living space however you. 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. Carry a piece of plywood to one of the far corners of the attic and lay it on top of the installed boards.

It s possible to use other materials but plywood or particleboard on sale is likely to be less expensive than other wood materials or products. Before putting the flooring in take a look at your insulation. So you can put 8 inches of insulation down then put the plywood over that. 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.

You need 3 4 inch plywood. In attics built purely for storage purposes you may find 2x6 ceiling joists or in some cases. The plywood should be perpendicular to the joists so that a signal sheet spans multiple. The thinner plywood is acceptable when the joist spacing is 16 inches.

Measure the plywood and attic door. How to install plywood flooring in an attic. Installing plywood for example will create a smooth floor to lay carpet in the future. According to the us department of energy your home s attic should have an r 38 insulation valued for homes in the southern part of the.

The previous homeowner may have simply covered the joists with plywood to use the space for storage. Now in your particular part of the country you re going to want a lot more insulation than that. You put the insulation down first and let s say you have 2x8s for your floor joists in the attic. Take the measurements for your subfloor and measure enough plywood so that you can cover the entire frame.