Putting Plywood In Attic

Carry a piece of plywood to one of the far corners of the attic and lay it on top of the installed boards.

Putting plywood in attic.

Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. Find or buy 1 2 inch plywood or particleboard sections. How to install plywood flooring in an attic. Measure the plywood and attic door.

Now in your particular part of the country you re going to want a lot more insulation than that. So you can put 8 inches of insulation down then put the plywood over that. In attics built purely for storage purposes you may find 2x6 ceiling joists or in some cases. 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.

Take the measurements for your subfloor and measure enough plywood so that you can cover the entire frame. You need 3 4 inch plywood. The previous homeowner may have simply covered the joists with plywood to use the space for storage. You ll need to make sure that the plywood can fit through your attic door.

Heat rises so the insulation in your attic is the most important part of your home s insulation. 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. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor. If you plan to finish the floor in the attic and turn the room into a living space however you.

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. 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. Installing plywood for example will create a smooth floor to lay carpet in the future. 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.

Before putting the flooring in take a look at your insulation. 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. The thinner plywood is acceptable when the joist spacing is 16 inches. The plywood should be perpendicular to the joists so that a signal sheet spans multiple.