Got home early enough for banging and screwing, so I got up in t’Loft and started laying boards. There were already about 8 down though not screwed in, so I drilled about 5 holes, countersunk them, then discovered that when it says “4mm” on a packet of screws it means “don’t use a 4mm drill cos the screw will just fall down the hole and not screw into anything”. So I will go back to choosing drills by looking at the drill and at the screw. Re-drilled and re-countersunk the holes, and screwed a few boards down.
I got a few more boards laid into position and began to cut around some pipes but it got too late for making a din in the loft so I called it a night. “You”, I said, drawing myself up to as much of my full height as I could muster in the loft, “are a night.”
Initial progress was a little frustratingly slow, but I expect it to pick up somewhat, since much of the time was spent shuffling the various bits of junk already up there into places where I could (a) get to the floor panels (b) get to the place where the floor panels were going and (c) sit somewhere while banging and screwing.
I have pictures, but owing to my DEAD PC I haven’t had time to upload them yet. I have however got my Mac to take the piccies off my camera. (I’m still at the wide eyed mac user stage I think.)
5 comments so far...
Top Rantlink! ;-)
Ahhh. I fondly remember my attic boarding days….I needed some lights up there so I cleverly thought of a creating a big string of lights to light the place. I decided to work backwards. I wired the last light at the end of the string and turned it on so I could see what I was doing. I then counted back 6 feet and snipped the wire for the next light…..BANG! shocking to say the least. I could almost hear Darwin calling me from beyond the grave.
I’m surprised you didn’t just use nails for your loft-boards, y’know. Straight into the roof-joists, job done.
It took a matter of two hours to lug boards up into my loft and nail ‘em down neat as ninepence.
two reasons, both hearsay:
1) with nails you risk cracking the ceiling below due to the vibrations
2) screwing gives you slightly better load-bearing properties… but come to think of it, that’s probably “better” compared to not fixing them down at all!
Ah, I didn’t think of cracked ceilings! Good point :)
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