Wall Plate: Loft floor General problems, solutions, information and advice on fixing to walls of all kinds

[Valley Boy]

Hello all - I'm about to start laying a new loft floor and I am going to lay new joists so that I can safely put loads of stuff up there - storage only.

I am having problems seeing the wall plate. The joists sit on supporting walls but they are sitting on lath and plaster and are nailed to the rafters at this point. the rafter continues on and I can see a horizontal timber beam about 0.25m down from the joist/ceiling level.

Can I just place some 4x1" over the laths next to the existing joists and put my new joists on that???

The span is about 5.5m with a central supporting wall where the exisiting joists meet.

Cheers - I've ordered timbers so I am gonna be mighty miffed if I cant do it.

[neil shorter]

Hi there

Sounds like you need to be bolting your joists to the rafters. You may need to bolt through the existing joist, rafter and then the new joist, but you should not be trying to support them off the lathe and plaster or it may join you in bed one dark night.