Architects

According to Britain’s largest ever survey of how people use their attics, carried out by the Carbon Trust, 82% of people living in UK private and social houses use their attic for storage. Of these, 78% said their attic was “more than half full” and 65% had boarded their attic already. Of the total population, 76% said that using the attic for storage was either “very important” or “essential”. This has a massive implication on the real-life U-value of the attic in use. Tests by the National Physical Laboratory showed that compressing insulation from 270mm to joist height reduces its thermal resistance by 50-60%, thereby at least doubling the heat lost. In fact, compressed attic insulation accounts for a 28% In-Use Reduction factor in the U-value for deep attic insulation across the whole UK housing stock.

It has long been a legal requirement for architects to provide safe access pathways to equipment in the attic that will need maintenance. For example, CDM Regulations 2015 state that “designers must consider their designs and any potential risks which may affect those who may maintain or clean the building once it is built”. At the same time, the attic must be insulated adequately and the old method of using raised timber battens causes cold bridging, which changes the SAP score for the roof, and must be accounted for with a psi factor correction.

AtticZone StoreFloor uniquely solves this problem. The product forms a safe structure for a storage or access deck above up to 350mm of insulation without causing cold bridging, whilst being cheaper and faster to install than timber. For U-values requiring more than 350mm of conventional insulation, one layer of timber cross-battens can be laid to raise up the AtticZone supports, or insulation of a higher thermal resistance used. AtticZone StoreFloor has passed all required industry tests and is the only raised attic floor system that has BBA certification.