Using Plywood For Attic Floor

Cut the plywood into manageable strips about 10 inches wide to make the job easier.

Using plywood for attic floor.

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. These lightweight easy to manage panels can be installed by even the most inexperienced homeowner in about 15 minutes. 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. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

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. 1 x 6 3 spruce is a step up from pallet quality wood but makes a fine usable floor in an unfinished attic space. More product details close. Installing plywood for example will create a smooth floor to lay carpet in the future.

Before putting the flooring in take a look at your insulation. Attic flooring panels are easy to install with their interlocking edges. How to install plywood flooring in an attic. Even before you start working on your attic flooring ideas check to see whether the ceiling will be able to handle the weight of the new floor along with storage and people walking around.

Plywood comes in large sheets. 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. A single 4 pack covers approximately 10 sq.

But you know i would rather see you just sort of map out the area in the center of the attic that you re going to use for storage and fill up the rest with insulation because that. Stop using your attic for storage. Heat rises so the insulation in your attic is the most important part of your home s insulation. The cost savings is insignificant compared to the extra support offered by the thicker material.

Here are the steps to consider when flooring an attic. What you could do is you could put insulation down in the floor joist first then plywood over it and then you could add another layer of unfaced on top of that. Another option is to skip the plywood flooring altogether and use dimensional lumber. But there s no real reason to use plywood thinner than 3 4 inch.

Determine limitations of what finish materials you can use for plywood subfloors. 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.