Too Much Weight In Attic

Joists that are 2x8 or larger can likely support more weight.

Too much weight in attic.

I put down a very thick plywood floor and use the attic for storage. An uninhabitable attic designed for limited storage can handle 20 pounds per square foot live load. Joe 90 7 jan 2008. If they are 2x6 you can probably get away with some boxes filled with relatively light stuff.

But i also weight half as much as you. Think empty boxes and suitcases. A floor structure supported with 2 4 joists cannot bear much weight. 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.

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. 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. But there s no real way to know other than to test it. An uninhabitable attic not designed for storage can handle a 10 pounds per square foot live load.

The woodwork is designed to take the weight of the ceiling but not a lot else. I had two i did that way and moved em all over the attic as i worked. As a very general guide if the joists are only 2x4s don t plan on storing much in the attic other than very lightweight items. I wanted to put self standing shelves up in the attic but a few people have asked me if this will add too much weight up there by allowing more storage space plus the weight of the shelving units.

Just dont stand on the sheet rock itself. How much weight your attic will hold depends a lot on the floor structure. First adding weight to the top of the bottom 2 4 that makes up the truss is a big no no. The joists are what support the weight.

If you store stuff that s heavy the ceiling will bow underneath over a period of time. I want to know how much weight i can put in the attic. There are several reasons for this.