Too Much Weight In Attic

The joists are what support the weight.

Too much weight in attic.

I m guessing you don t have the plans and don t know what live load the attic was designed for. If you store stuff that s heavy the ceiling will bow underneath over a period of time. I had two i did that way and moved em all over the attic as i worked. A floor structure that is not solid enough cannot hold up much weight and the floor structure can only be sturdy enough if strong and large joists support it.

Joe 90 7 jan 2008. If they are 2x6 you can probably get away with some boxes filled with relatively light stuff. Not sure how accessible getting plywood would be for you i only had a 2 foot x 2 foot access hole but you can just get a 2x4 and lay it as a walking path across the rafters. Joists that are 2x8 or larger can likely support more weight.

A floor structure supported with 2 4 joists cannot bear much weight. An uninhabitable attic not designed for storage can handle a 10 pounds per square foot live load. First adding weight to the top of the bottom 2 4 that makes up the truss is a big no no. How much weight your attic will hold depends a lot on the floor structure.

But there s no real way to know other than to test it. The woodwork is designed to take the weight of the ceiling but not a lot else. An uninhabitable attic designed for limited storage can handle 20 pounds per square foot live load. But i also weight half as much as you.

Just dont stand on the sheet rock itself. 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. Think empty boxes and suitcases. I assume if your attic has a full floor as opposed to a bunch of beams of wood running across it then it should hold a decent weight amount.

I want to know how much weight i can put in the attic. There are several reasons for this. If the roof structure of your home was designed with prefabricated trusses your attic was definitely not designed for any storage.