No, installing a Loft-Trac raised loft storage system does not invalidate your NHBC warranty. However, any issues resulting from installation, such as condensation or structural damage, would not be covered. Learn more here.

Loft-Trac is versatile and compatible with various types of lofts. Whether your loft space is new or old, including cut, purlin and truss-roofed designs — our system is the ideal choice for most commercial and residential properties. The only requirement is that your loft joists, spanning across the loft floor are made of wood and at least 32mm (1.25″) wide.

Your joists should ideally be spaced approximately 400mm or 600mm apart on average. This distance is measured from the centre of one joist to the centre of the next. These measurements align with the majority of UK loft configurations, so your loft should be suitable for the Loft-Trac system.

Loft-Trac is adaptable to joist heights. Most UK houses have joists around 100mm (4″) or 75mm (3″) in height, which is suitable for Loft-Trac.

If your joists are shorter, please contact our team of loft specialists, who can assist you with the right solution for you. You can contact us here.

Absolutely! Though we do offer an installation service all over the UK, thousands of people opt to install it themselves. Each part is lightweight and sized to perfectly fit into most loft hatches with ease. The loft boards to be placed on top of the system are usually heavier, coming up at around 5kg each — but handy DIY'ers are still able to do it themselves.

If you would like some help to install the system head over to our ‘find installers’ page. From there we can find the right approved installer for you.

Head over to our ‘find installers’ page and fill in your details, we'll get beck in touch with you with approved installers in your area.

Of course! Loft-Trac is designed and engineered with insulation, storage and strength in mind, so you will be able to access all of your extra storage. Loft-Trac has been tested to support weights in excess of the weight of an adult.

Most households do like their loft fully boarded, but it’s completely up to you—and your budget. Loft-Trac is fully modular so you can start in smaller sections and add more later as time progresses. On average, people choose a square deck or an L-shape near the hatch, for easy storage and access. Whereas some people may go for more than one deck, with one on either side of the hatch.

Always remember that you can’t board right up to the eaves, as you need a gap for ventilation.

With Loft-Trac, the system is modular, allowing you to build as you go along. You can assemble sections of the Loft-Trac flooring, gradually expanding your storage area. This means you can start with one section, transfer your belongings onto the newly built area, and then continue adding more sections as needed, making the process convenient and adaptable to you and your household needs.

Absolutely! Installing Loft-Trac flooring in your loft not only gives you far more storage options but also plays an important role in maintaining insulation effectiveness. By elevating your storage deck above the level of insulation, Loft-Trac prevents compression, ensuring that your insulation retains its full efficiency. This not only helps to keep your home warm and comfortable but also contributes to significant energy savings over time. So, yes—flooring your loft with Loft-Trac is a smart move for both practical storage solutions and money-saving choices.

We wouldn’t recommend it, as Loft-Trac is to prevent this. While it's possible to lay boards directly onto joists for loft flooring, it's important to consider the potential drawbacks of this approach. Directly laying boards can compress the insulation, reducing its effectiveness and leading to increased heat loss and higher energy bills—meaning more household bills. Loft-Trac offers a superior solution by raising your storage deck above the insulation level, ensuring optimal energy efficiency while maximising space in your loft.

We can always do it for you, once we have installed the Loft-Trac system, so feel free to reach out to our dedicated team. Laying loft flooring yourself can be an easy process with the right materials and preparation. You should start by assessing your loft space and ensuring it's suitable for flooring in the first place, and by this, check all of the measurements are in line with what the Loft-Trac system requires above.

Once the Loft-Trac flooring system is in place, you can then lay flooring boards or panels over the surface, ensuring they are spaced out and secured appropriately.

Absolutely. As long as you follow Loft-Trac’s guidelines, then it will work brilliantly. All we require is that your loft joists, spanning across the loft floor, should be made of wood and at least 32mm (1.25") wide.

Your joists should ideally be spaced approximately 400mm or 600mm apart on average, measured from the centre of one joist to the centre of the next. This aligns with the majority of loft configurations in the UK, so your loft should be suitable for the Loft-Trac solution.

Regarding joist height, Loft-Trac is actually fully adaptable. Most UK houses have joists around 100mm (4") or 75mm (3") in height, which is always suitable for Loft-Trac.

If your joists are shorter, we recommend reducing the load placed on the Loft-Trac storage deck.

We have experience fitting Loft-Trac in Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian properties—and we recommend the following questions when it comes to installation:

Are the joists evenly spaced out?

In most new houses, joists are usually spaced either 400mm or 600mm apart, ideal for our 1.2m cross-beams. In older houses, joists may be spaced 450mm apart. But some older houses have irregular joist spacings, requiring cutting of the beams to fit between each joist and always end on top of our plastic supports.

Are any of the joists not flat and twisted?

In older homes, joists may not lay flat on the loft floor, which makes them look warped or twisted. If there are only a few such joists, the simplest solution is to skip them and span over them, which is a big benefit of Loft-Trac. This design advantage allows for expert planning support and cross-beam placement, to avoid any problems from occurring.

Are any of your joists higher than the others?

In older houses, varying heights of joists cause potential challenges, which will result in movement over time—or inconsistent timber usage. If this occurs sporadically, it's best to skip these joists entirely by spanning over them.

Is the space cramped?

Finally, older roofs and attics can be small and cramped, which causes a problem when it comes to loft floorboard installation and storage.

Don’t be put off by any of this information, it is always best to get an expert installer to offer advice—as we can provide alternate solutions. Contact us here.

Unfortunately, though we may be experts, this is something we can’t answer through a screen. If we were to give you general guidance, and to be on the safe side, (unless you know your joists are stronger), we recommended loading your loft flooring with no more than a weight of 25kg of storage per square metre. Plus, the weight of the individual who would be accessing them. 

If you believe your loft is exceptionally weak, then you should opt for floorboards that are lighter than chipboards. We can discuss all of this in more detail and ensure that all the government regulations and The British Standard for modern truss-roof houses for loft loading are adhered to.

The Loft-Trac leg system is extremely strong and can support a weight of up to 500 kg. But—they do not change the load-bearing characteristics of a loft.

British Standards BS6399-1:1996 for newly built homes installed with a loft hatch require trusses to be designed to carry a 25kg per square metre storage load plus the temporary load of a person moving around in the loft.

Some homes may have been designed to exceed this limit but if you want to exceed 25kg per square metre—we recommend reaching out to a structural engineer who can help.

Of course! That’s the whole point. Along with being a brilliant insulator, and overall strong product, Loft-Trac is designed with storage in mind. You will be able to access all of your extra storage as Loft-Trac has been expertly designed and tested to support weights in excess of the weight of an adult.

Government Guidelines currently recommend insulating with 270mm of mineral wool/quilt insulation to achieve a U value of 0.16 W/m2K.

Loft-Trac has been created to work in conjunction with matting types of insulation —often called blanket or quilt insulation.

These can be:

Mineral wool, made from glass or rock fibre.

Natural materials such as sheep's wool. Natural and recycled insulations made from sheep wool, hemp, cellulose fibre and plastic bottles are more thermally efficient than mineral fibre and easier to handle.

For exact insulation information, read more here.

At the moment, no. There is currently no need for a raised loft floor to be BBA-certified.

We don’t recommend that you use Loft-Trac to support a water tank, for the following reasons:

A major consideration for water tanks is that they must not be allowed to freeze and burst. As such, it’s usual to not insulate underneath them, as you actually want the heat to rise from the room below, to keep the tank warm in the winter. So, in this case you don’t need Loft-Trac in this section of your loft as you don’t need the insulation there.

Loft-Trac is exceptionally strong but the joists it is screwed on to usually are not. Normally, standard loft joists are not designed to take the weight of a water tank and they usually have to be specially strengthened in the area of the tank. Moreover, the boarding used should be marine-grade wood (not chipboard), so that any leakage does not cause the timber to rot. 

Loft boards in the UK (including the ones we supply) are rectangular, with a tongue-and-groove along each long edge, so that you can slot one board into the one next to it, for added strength. In addition to this, before Loft-Trac was invented, people used to stagger the boards when they laid them so that each board ended halfway along the long edges of the two boards next to it.

The physics of this is that joists can be unevenly spaced in a loft, and if the short end of a board doesn’t rest on a joist, it doesn’t have a tongue-and-groove on that end, so could sag if someone stepped on it. The risk of this happening justifies the extra effort of cutting boards at the ends of each row.

You never need to worry about this happening with Loft-Trac. We always recommend placing our steel cross beam 610mm apart for lofts that exceed 1220mm in length, so that they are secure. That way, there is no risk of the ends of the board drooping.

There are actually no positives to staggering your loft boards when you use Loft-Trac, as it involves more effort and time for cutting and measuring.

Absolutely. Loft-Trac has been vigorously tested by accredited labs to be safe when used as instructed. Always read the instructions before use, and for any weight-related queries in your loft, contact a structural engineer.

Of course. We only sell P5 premium-grade loft boards that are always moisture-resistant. But if you have a damp issue in your loft then this could affect the whole timber structure so we would recommend that you solve the damp problem before fitting any boards.