The StoreFloor is suitable for almost all lofts, new and old, including cut, purlin and truss-roofed types.
Our system is frequently fitted in both houses and commercial buildings and is the only product with official approval for use in new-build properties in the UK. To install StoreFloor in your loft, your joists (spanning across the loft floor) must be made of wood and be at least 32mm (1.25″) wide.
For our 1.2m metal Cross-Beams to fit, your joists should be either 400mm or 600mm apart on average, measured from the centre of each joist to the centre of the next one (not the distance between them), which covers the vast majority of UK lofts. Due to the Cross-Beams sliding along the top of the Tri-Supports, they have a tolerance of 75mm in either direction, which helps if your builder fitted the joists only roughly in the right place! In fact, this is one of the features that makes LoftZone so easy to fit and much faster than using timber or plastic supports alone.
However, a small percentage of UK houses have joists that are 450mm apart, so for these, we have a specially designed 1.8m Cross-Beam and associated kits, which can be purchased from this website.
From a StoreFloor perspective, the height of your joists doesn’t matter, and in most UK houses, they are approximately 100mm (4″) or 75mm (3″) tall, which is fine. If yours are shorter than that, we advise reducing the loading you put on StoreFloor. In the very unusual case that your joists are less than 50mm (2″) tall, then we would not advise using your loft for storage.
If you are still unsure whether your property is suitable, please contact us at sales@loftzone.com or 01483 600304, and we’ll be happy to advise you.
Yes, tens of thousands of people have fitted StoreFloor into their own homes. The parts are lightweight and sized to fit easily through most loft hatches. Our StoreFloor parts are simply screwed into each other and the joists. Loft boards to fit on top are a bit heavier, typically 5kg each, but are still an easy DIY job. You can see our installation guide or watch videos of other people’s installs.
Note: to fit StoreFloor, we recommend using an electric cordless screwdriver.
Yes – you can find your nearest LoftZone installers by entering your postcode in the section at the bottom of this page.
The StoreFloor Cross-Beams are 1150mm (about 45″) long. They span over 3 or 4 joists (depending on your building’s joist separation) and have an easy sliding adjustment in case your joists are not spaced regularly (most aren’t!). The Cross-Beams rest on top of the Tri-Supports, where they can butt up against each other or a few inches apart.
The StoreFloor Tri-Support and Uni-Support are both 279mm (about 11″) tall and rest on the top of the joists. This size allows the full depth of modern insulation levels, plus an air gap above the insulation and below the boards. This air gap allows for ventilation, removing any possible moisture build-up on the underside of the boards. Beware any products that don’t provide this essential air gap!
We sell a variety of tongue and groove chipboard flooring, all 1220mm long and 18mm thick, but of different widths to suit your needs. You can find all our products on online our shop.
StoreFloor parts are designed to be very strong but also very light. The 1.2m Cross-Beams weigh around 1.2kg, the Tri-Supports around 250g and the Uni-Supports around 100g. Hence, the structure to raise a floor of 13m2 (a Medium kit, our best seller) weighs only 33kg or 2.5kg per square metre.
The StoreFloor Compact is even lighter, the Compact-Supports are only 178g each, and the 1.2m Compact Cross-Beams are under 1kg.
Boards are heavier, with the weight of each type of board available on their listing in our shop. For example, a standard 18mm thick chipboard is about 13kg per square metre.
Most people would like to board their whole loft, but you don’t have to. StoreFloor is modular, so you can start small and build more later when your storage requirements increase.
Most people choose a square or rectangular deck or an L or T shape near the hatch. Some people have more than one deck on either side of the hatch. Don’t board right up to the eaves, as you’ll want to keep a gap there for ventilation.
No, you do not need to clear your loft before fitting, as the StoreFloor is built in sections, 1 square metre at a time.
For example, you can build part of your deck on one side of the hatch and then transfer your possessions onto your new deck before creating the next part of your StoreFloor.
We sell several standard-sized kits, from 3m2 (32 sq. ft.) to 52m2 (576 sq. ft.). If you’d like to build a floor that isn’t one of these sizes, then we have a handy configurator tool on our shop’s entries for StoreFloor and StoreFloor Compact, which you can use to work out the precise number of parts you need and buy those individually.
Note that we measure decks in multiples of 1.2m in each direction, as that is approximately the length of our regular Cross-Beams and standard loft boards. If you’d like to build a deck that isn’t an exact multiple of 1.2m, then that’s possible; we’d recommend you buy enough parts for the next 1.2m up and then cut the beams and/or boards to suit.
If you’re unsure what you need, contact us at sales@loftzone.co.uk or 01483 600304 with your measurements, and we will work it out for you.
The StoreFloor system (NOT StoreFloor Compact) consists of the industrial-grade recycled plastic Tri-Supports (the triangular parts), the galvanised steel Cross-Beams and the industrial-grade recycled plastic Uni-Supports (the vertical legs). The Uni-Supports spreads the load across more joists and provides extra stiffness to the whole deck.
We provide one Uni-Support for every two Cross-Beams in our StoreFloor kits, which is enough for most people. It’s usual to place the Uni-Supports evenly underneath the deck, or you can concentrate them in the area which is likely to get the most loading or footfall. For storage of up to 25kg per square metre and infrequent access by one person, this number of Uni-Supports is sufficient, and most of our customers do not order any more.
If you wish to have a higher load on the deck or walk upon it frequently, we advise one Uni-Support fixed under every Cross-Beam to provide additional stiffness and to spread the load. Additional Uni-Supports are available to buy from our website. You can see the installation instructions for StoreFloor here.
With StoreFloor Compact, there is only one plastic part: the industrial-grade recycled plastic Compact-Support. This can be used in the same way that both a Tri- and Uni-Support would be used in a StoreFloor kit by rotating them. You can see a photo of a rotated Compact-Support on our StoreFloor Compact installation instructions page.
Our shorter (159mm or 6″ tall) StoreFloor Compact system consists of the recycled plastic Compact-Supports (the triangular parts) and the galvanised steel Compact Cross-Beams. One Compact-Support holds up each end of every Cross-Beam.
Note that if you are buying our regular (279mm or 11″ tall) StoreFloor system, then this FAQ does not apply to you; there are no Compact-Supports in the regular StoreFloor kits.
We provide one additional Compact-Support for every second Cross-Beam in our StoreFloor Compact kits, to be fixed underneath the middle of the Cross-Beams. These stiffen up the deck and spread the load onto more joists. There is no fixed rule on where to put these, but it’s usual to place these extra Compact-Supports evenly underneath the deck, or you can concentrate them in the area likely to get the most loading. For storage of up to 25kg per square metre and infrequent access by one person, this number of Compact-Supports is sufficient, and most of our customers do not order any more.
If you wish to have a higher load on the deck or walk upon it frequently, we advise one Compact-Support fixed under every Cross-Beam to provide additional stiffness and to spread the load. Additional Compact-Supports are available to buy from our website.
You can see the installation instructions for StoreFloor Compact on our StoreFloor Compact installation instructions page.
If you buy a StoreFloor or StoreFloor Compact kit, then we provide enough screws in that kit for all the plastic and metal parts to be fixed together. They come in boxes of 200, so there are usually plenty left over!
However, if you buy the parts separately, then you will need to purchase the screws separately too. And if you buy loft boards, then the boards don’t come with screws either. We sell top-quality 4x40mm wood screws in boxes of 200, and they are suitable for both applications.
As a general rule of thumb:
You can find the screws we sell here.
The Tri-Supports, by their triangular design, overhang the joist in each direction. Sometimes, e.g. near the hatch or a wall, this isn’t wanted. In these cases, we’d recommend putting a Uni-Support at the end of the row of beams. But make sure that you put a Tri-Support on the next-nearest joist, as this is the main load-bearing part. There is a photo of this here.
Loft boards in the UK (including the ones we supply) are rectangular, with a tongue-and-groove along each long edge, meaning you can slot one board into the next for added strength. In addition, before LoftZone 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 spaced unevenly 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, meaning it 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.
But this is not an issue with StoreFloor, since we recommend that you place our steel Cross-Beams 610mm apart (for loft boards that are 1220mm long) so that they do indeed screw into a Cross-Beam and are supported by it, and there is no risk of the ends of the boards sagging.
Hence, there is no benefit in staggering loft boards when you use LoftZone StoreFloor, and most choose to avoid going to the extra effort of cutting boards in half and doing so unless you are using one of our kits, which are 1.8m wide, in which case you have to anyway since loft boards are only around 1.2m long.
The StoreFloor system is also sometimes used for access, e.g. to create walkways or crawling spaces above the insulation for people who need to maintain boilers, water tanks, solar inverters, MVHR or aircon units, etc.
You can see a photo of a very long access walkway being built in a school on our Flickr page, and builders also fit it into new houses. The usual minimum width of the walkway is 1.2m (the width of standard loft boards).
However, if your walkway is only one board-wide, please note: The LoftZone plastic supports provide super-strong vertical strength. One of the design requirements of StoreFloor was to minimise parts to speed up installation, and this was achieved by using the interlocking boards of a normal StoreFloor deck to provide lateral stability. For any deck that is at least two loft boards wide, then it is very rigid horizontally (laterally) too, but in the rare case (and only in this case) of if you’re only going to use one board’s width, then that board will not have another board to push up against, and so there may be a small amount of lateral instability. The deck won’t topple over unless the lateral force is strong enough to rip all the screws out (!), but it may have a little “wobble”. This is easily fixed, either by having a wider walkway or if you don’t want that, then we recommend you use extra timber sections to brace the deck to the joists from time to time.
We don’t recommend that you use StoreFloor to support a water tank for the following reasons:
The Supreme loft boards we sell are moisture-resistant, but the others are not. However, 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.
For more general information about loft boards, please see our page on which boards to choose.
LoftZone StoreFloor and StoreFloor Compact have been fitted into thousands of Victorian, Edwardian and even Georgian houses, and many of our reviews and case studies are from such homeowners. However, there are a few extra things that you should look out for when installing in an older house.
Firstly, are your joists evenly spaced? In most new houses, joists are 400mm or 600mm apart (measured from the centre of one joist to the centre of the next one – not the distance between the joists), and our Cross-Beams that span 1.2m are designed perfectly for them. In some older houses, the joists are 450mm apart, in which case our 1.8m Cross-Beams are ideal. But some older houses have inconsistent joist spacings, and for them, there is never going to be one Cross-Beam length that will fit perfectly between every joist, so sometimes you will have to cut the beams to size where needed so that they always end on top of our plastic supports. If your loft has lots of variably-spaced joists, then we’d recommend that you choose the 1.8m Cross-Beams to minimise cutting and that you have a saw available.
Secondly, are any of your joists warped or twisted? In some older houses, the joists don’t lie flat on the floor of the loft but can be warped or twisted. If you only have a few such joists, the easiest thing to do is to simply miss them out by spanning over them. That’s one of the benefits and design advantages of the StoreFloor products over any other system, as you can simply miss out on such joists by clever planning of where to place supports and Cross-Beams. An alternative is to create noggins alongside the problem joists; these are additional pieces of wood that you screw into the joist so that you have something flat to fix the supports onto.
Thirdly, are any of your joists higher than the others? Again, this is occasionally a problem in older houses as some joists are taller than others, either because they have moved over time or because the original timber used wasn’t the same for every joist. Again, if this only happens occasionally, the best thing to do is to miss out these joists altogether by spanning over them. If this isn’t practical, however, then you will need to use shims (small plastic shims are easy to buy online) to raise the deck so that everything is flat. You can either place the shims on to the joists, underneath the plastic supports, or on top of the plastic supports and underneath the metal Cross-Beams.
Fourthly, older lofts can sometimes be quite cramped, with low headroom. If that’s the case for you, you may want to consider using our smaller StoreFloor Compact product, which raises the deck 159mm above your joists. Also, if you don’t have the space to slide the metal Cross-Beams onto the plastic supports in a cramped loft, remember that it is also possible to create them as a sub-assembly with the parts inside the beams and then lift the whole set into position together.
If you do think that your older loft has any of these issues, then we recommend that you buy a few parts to start with to see how they will fit, to see if you need the 1.2m or 1.8m Cross-Beams, and to see whether you need to fit any noggins. Alternatively, if you are in a hurry to complete the job, then you may want to buy a bigger kit than you need so that you have all the parts to hand and then return those parts that you don’t use for a full refund (you just need to pay the return postage).
Finally, please don’t be put off by all of the above! This is a list of possible issues you might encounter in an older loft. Most people don’t have these issues, or if they do, it’s only occasionally, and you can usually find an easy fix, perhaps by simply spanning over a problem joist or two.
The StoreFloor system is extremely strong and capable of being used for reliable loft storage. Also, we are the only raised loft floor manufacturer to have put its products through robust accelerated lifetime tests in extremes of temperature beyond those normally found in the UK.
Even in these conditions, our StoreFloor deck survived loads of over 500kg per square metre without failure, making it far stronger than the joists it is screwed onto.
If you use Facebook, you can see photos and reviews posted by numerous LoftZone DIY installers here. We also have a Flickr site with images too.
If you’d like to see the work of our installers, then you can find photos on their websites. Check out our installers page to find your nearest one.
The TrussShelf is designed for truss-roofed lofts, with the truss timbers typically arranged in a V or W-shape pattern, as shown on the TrussShelf page. This is how most UK houses have been built since the 1990s.
It is possible to fit the Steel TrussShelf if one side of the V and W is vertical, but if you don’t have these shapes in your loft at all, then alas, this product isn’t for you.
Additionally, our product only works in houses where the spacing between each truss, measured from the centre of one truss to the centre of the next one, is about 600mm (or 24″), which covers the vast majority of newly built houses. Builders don’t often fit trusses accurately, so we allow for up to 30mm variance, e.g. your trusses can be up to 630mm apart. Due to each panel being designed to slide over the top of the one next to it, it doesn’t matter if your trusses are a little bit less than 600mm apart in places.
A minority of trussed roofs have a different spacing (usually 400mm) between the trusses. If that is the case in your home, then we don’t recommend using a Steel TrussShelf, as although it will work, each shelf panel will overlap more than half of the shelf next to it. The exact dimensions of the flat part of the TrussShelf panel are 660mm (between the trusses) and 610mm at right angles to that.
We are not aware of any regulations on the loading limits for truss shelves. The loading calculations published for trusses are for the weight that the trusses have to carry from above (such as the tiles) and are estimated at 68.5 kg per square metre, according to BS5268 (Part 3).
Although LoftZone’s shelves are very strong, we recommend storing no more than 12kg of items on each TrussShelf (the metal ones) and 25kg on each Wooden Shelf-Beam design of the Loft Shelf. If you are concerned that your truss roof construction is too weak to take these loadings, we recommend you consult a structural engineer before purchase.
The size of the ladder you should install will depend very much on the size of your property and the space available surrounding your loft hatch.
We have put together a video explaining how to determine which size ladder you should install.
Well, this is a question we can’t answer online, as every house is different! But we can give some general guidance to help you make your decision.
The British Standard for modern truss-roof houses requires that the loft floor be able to hold a permanent load of 25kg/m2 (e.g. for storage) and a temporary point load of 90kg without the joists bending and causing cracks in the ceiling below. Bear in mind that this is a minimum strength and only for modern truss-roof houses. Your house could be different, and many (especially older) houses are much stronger. Another regulation, for all buildings since 2015, is called CDM 2015 and mandates that a loft must be strong enough to safely carry person(s) walking around, e.g. for any maintenance that is needed in the future.
Also, in addition to being strong itself, StoreFloor ensures that any loading is shared across several joists in your loft by forming a lattice-beam type of structure. (In that respect, it’s similar to the old-fashioned way of strengthening a loft by cross-battening with timber, but it’s much less heavy than doing that). Therefore, this increases the loading that your joists would otherwise be able to take.
LoftZone parts are designed to be extremely strong but also very light, and you can choose boards of different weights (see the FAQ on the weight of the StoreFloor parts).
Nonetheless, StoreFloor is only intended for storage and occasional access, and we recommend that you don’t overload your joists. If you do, they may bend under the weight and cause cracks in the plasterboard ceiling below. (It’s very rare for a joist to completely snap – you’d have to put a lot of weight in your loft to make that happen).
To summarise, and to be on the safe side, unless you know that your joists are stronger, we recommend loading your loft flooring with no more than 25kg of stored items per square metre, plus the weight of one person accessing them. If you think your loft is particularly weak, then choose boards that are less heavy than chipboard (we discuss options for these here). We have provided this 25kg/m2 guidance since we first launched StoreFloor, and now, after over 100,000 installs, no one has come back to us to say that their ceiling has been damaged by loading it to this level.
Remember that all houses are different, and it is your responsibility to load your deck sensibly. If in doubt, please consult a structural engineer.
Most new-build houses now come with a 10-year warranty, underwritten by companies such as NHBC, Premier or LABC. If LoftZone products were fitted by your builder as a paid-for option, then they will usually be covered under this warranty because this typically covers the materials and the labour of the items fitted by the builder.
But if the LoftZone products were not fitted by your builder, then they won’t be covered by the warranty for the house. Neither will they affect the warranty – this is a common misconception – the warranty only affects items the builder put in, so anything you fit afterwards is irrelevant. You can see a letter that NHBC sent to one of our customers below, which explains this. A LoftZone customer also contacted Premier Guarantee, who told them, “Boarding your loft will not affect your warranty. Your warranty will only be affected if you were to make alterations which would damage the structure of the build and cause a claim.”
Sometimes builders of new houses tell the owner that nothing should be stored in the loft, or even sometimes that they should never even enter the loft (!). This is because they don’t want the occupier loading too much stuff in the loft, causing the joists to bend slightly and the plasterboard ceiling below to crack – and then to complain and ask the builder to fix it. Nor do they want people to fall through the loft and sue them (the space between the joists is not strong enough to support someone). In some ways, we agree with the builders – if you overload your joists and cause cracks, then it is not down to the builder to fix this, but trying to forbid householders from using part of the home they bought goes too far!
What builders often don’t say is that there is actually a British Standard for the strength of the floor of the loft and that they have to build their houses to meet this. So they have to be at least able to carry a load of 25kg per square metre plus the weight of one person walking around. Furthermore, what builders also often don’t say is that StoreFloor strengthens the joists by acting as a lattice beam.
Moreover, LoftZone has a BBA Certificate for StoreFloor. BBA is the UK construction industry standard and is required for all building products for new-build houses. So if your builder tells you that the loft should not be used for storage, another reason might be because, in the past, there were no BBA-approved products, and they don’t realise that now there are, and so StoreFloor can indeed be fitted to houses, including new-builds. You can download our BBA certificate via this page.
Of course, even with StoreFloor, you need to be sensible. If, for example, you overload your StoreFloor so much that it causes the ceiling below to bend slightly and crack, you can’t claim the damaged ceiling under your warranty. But if you use our products as designed, and something else goes wrong with your roof, loft or ceiling, then the builder will still need to fix anything they built wrongly in the first place.
It’s worth remembering that tens of thousands of new-build homeowners in the UK have had StoreFloor fitted. It’s a very common option in houses that often don’t have much storage space elsewhere.
We have written a whole post about this on our blog, and it is a bit long to put here, so please check out the blog entry directly via this link.
Our online store lets you pay via PayPal. Alternatively, you can pay by credit or debit card (Visa or Mastercard). If you want to pay via American Express, please select ‘pay via PayPal’, and then you can fund the transaction with your card.
Owing to changes in banking industry regulations to boost security, we are no longer allowed to take payment by card over the phone.
We do not offer credit, but you can pay online via Clearpay and use their credit options.
Several of our installers offer credit; please check with them directly. You can find your nearest one on our installers page.
All the prices shown on this website include UK Value Added Tax, at 20%. If you need a VAT receipt, please let us know in the comments box when you order.
If you are ordering from an EU country, including The Republic of Ireland, then we will dispatch the goods to you from Northern Ireland so that you will not be double charged with import VAT as well.
If you are from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, we can refund you the VAT; please contact us after placing your order.
If you are ordering from outside of Europe, then please buy via our other website, www.loftzone.com.
Our customers usually receive their items within one week of order and often faster. If your order is urgent, let us know, and we will do our best to speed things up.
We use DHL, UPS, DPD and the Royal Mail to deliver our parcels. We use Palletways (the UK’s largest pallet network) to deliver loft boards, as well as our XL and XXL kits without boards. All these companies are quality, reputable couriers and the vast majority of shipments are delivered rapidly and without any problems. DHL, UPS, DPD and the Royal Mail will deliver to your front door, whilst Palletways, in common with all pallet companies, will deliver to your kerbside / the front of your drive.
You can also collect from our warehouse in Leicestershire (postcode LE9). Contact us to book your collection.
We ship worldwide, and if you are outside of Europe, you can buy on our international website, www.loftzone.com.
Delivery of loft ladders is free of charge.
The delivery cost for Compact-Supports, Tri-Supports, Uni-Supports, and LED lights is £5, regardless of the number ordered.For all StoreFloor and StoreFloor Compact kits and all metal Cross-Beams, the delivery cost is a flat rate within the UK of £12 (Monday-Friday) or £25 (for the rest of Europe), regardless of how many kits or parts you buy.
Loft boards are heavy, with the delivery cost being £40. Moreover, boards bought online can only be sent to mainland England, Wales and southern Scotland, owing to their weight. Please contact us for a quote if you would like us to deliver boards elsewhere.
You only ever pay the highest of the above shipping bands, i.e. your total delivery charge will be £0, £5, £12 or £40; these aren’t added together.
If you are collecting your order from our warehouse in Leicestershire, there is no delivery cost. Please contact us to book your visit. We will also refund any delivery cost paid online via our website when you book your collection.
If you are from outside Europe, please use our international website, www.loftzone.com.
We have lots of customers in Northern Ireland, and we can ship directly to you from our warehouse in Leicestershire. Please allow extra time, of course.
Unfortunately, we are currently unable to ship to the EU, as the post-Brexit red tape and expense have made it impossible to provide the delivery service that our customers deserve. We keep watching the situation and hope to resume these deliveries if the circumstances change in the future.
You are welcome to collect your items from our warehouse in Leicestershire (postcode LE9).
Please select “Collection” during the checkout process on our website, then contact us to book your visit date and time (ideally, please allow at least 2 working days).
StoreFloor (and sometimes StoreFloor Compact) is held in stock by some builders merchants, including John A Stephens in Nottingham, Frank Key in the East Midlands and North, and a few branches of Jewsons. They may need to transfer stock between branches to the one nearest you.
Other merchants, such as Bradfords and Travis Perkins, can usually order in StoreFloor or other products from us to ship to them.
LoftZone parts are shipped in cardboard boxes. Cardboard is widely recycled via your local council, though you can also use these boxes time and time again before recycling them – maybe even for your loft storage!
If you order a kit with boards, it will usually be delivered on a wooden pallet. Pallets will have been used several times before in the courier network and can be reused time and time again within the transport industry; search online for your local pallet collection or recycling company. Local tradespeople will also often collect pallets via apps such as Olio, Nextdoor, Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree and may sometimes pay you for them.
Pallets can also be recycled, but only if the pallet cannot be reused and has reached the end of its lifecycle.
We offer all our customers a full, no-quibble refund for the value of any unused parts, so long as they are returned within 3 months of receipt.
If you would like to return anything, then please contact us at sales@loftzone.com and tell us exactly what you are returning so we can identify it when it arrives. Please also put a note in or on each box saying “Return from “, as this helps us expedite your refund faster.
You will need to send items back to our UK warehouse in Leicestershire (postcode LE9), details of which are provided with the goods when delivered. All refunds will be credited to your original form of payment.
Please note that the outbound delivery charge is not refundable, except in the unlikely case that there was a fault with the product. Please also be aware that customers need to pay the return delivery charge for any items sent back unless there is a fault with the product. Although we charge a flat outbound delivery fee, the actual cost can be much higher, as some items are large and heavy. Once the items leave our warehouse, the couriers will charge for both delivery and return, even if you cancel before the items arrive at your address.
If you’re not sure whether our StoreFloor and products are right for you, why not buy a small kit to try out? StoreFloor and StoreFloor Compact are both modular, so you can always build more later, and if you find it’s not for you, the return postage charge for a small kit will be lower.
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