AtticZone (LoftZone) Attic Decking Kit for a Storage Floor Above Deep Attic Insulation (8ft X 8ft Kit) (Without Boards)

I purchased several of these kits ten years ago under the previous name (LoftZone), so this review won't register as a "Verified Purchase" (but you can check my verified review under the LoftZone listing). In any case, I'm posting a new review here to share my experiences after ten years of living with the product. This decking kit is the easiest solution I've found to installing a raised floor in the attic. In the old days we could just throw down sheets of plywood on top of the joists, but these days most of us are adding insulation above the tops of the joists, which makes moving around the attic really tricky. That was a big problem for me, because we had a lot of mechanical in the attic that required periodic maintenance (HVAC dampers, solar panel wiring, exhaust fans, etc.). This decking kit let us install raised walkways around the attic above the layers of insulation. Installation was very easy. Just make sure to lay out the whole system first to make sure everything is in the right place before screwing in the supports. After the supports and rails were in place, I topped them with OBS sub-flooring. The finished walkways are super sturdy and have help up well in a hot attic for ten years. This was the simplest, cheapest, sturdiest, and easiest solution I found when planning raised flooring in the attic ten years ago, and it still looks like the best solution.

Summary is I got my first test 8'x8' installed in the attic in a single day and I'm happy with it. I really like that if you watch the detailed youtube install video while writing out your plan, you can make it so that you can start with a smaller area and leave it setup so that you can choose to fill in the sides later if you want. The sides on my attic are much more difficult and not sure I want to spend the time later to fill them in, but by installing it at recommended, that expansion is possible. My local lumber yard had some nice OSB boards finished on one side cut to the 2'x4' size for $115 so I could save the time on making those cuts so I ordered those and picked them up the day after the kit arrived. I did have an issue where the screws got all out of their box in shipping and were about half there. However, I strongly recommend spending $10 to get a box of Torx drive screws like you use for a deck since these don't strip the head versus a phillips head like is included. I used LIONMAX Wood Screws 1-1/2 Inch, Deck Screws #8 x 1-1/2", 500 PCS, Rust Resistant, Epoxy Coated, Exterior Wood Screw, Outdoor Decking Screws, Torx/Star Drive Head. It helped to do a sketch with some measurements to plan out the 8'x8' space before starting. The only issues I had during the install were that my attic joists aren't level, so at one point the boards wanted to jump up an inch at a connection. I switched to using the tongue and groove connection for the 2 boards connecting at that spot so there is no step up gap and then when the boards are screwed down, it's a more continuous seam. Overall the install took 1 day and was quicker than I expected including pulling out the existing insulation and putting it back. I do wish I had purchased some more insulation before this first test to fill in the gaps created to work around the brackets. I'll unscrew the boards and do that when I move on to the larger install next.

Since we didn’t end up using this product I can’t say much about it. It did appear fairly easy to install but wasn’t going to work in our situation. Went to return it naively thinking all Amazon purchases had free shipping. Not so. Returning this flooring was going to cost me 50% of its purchase price. Emailed the company in the UK. Received a prompt reply saying that shipping cost is mentioned in the listing along with the caution to be careful about only buying what you’ll need. I’m sure that is true but we somehow missed it. Right about now we aren’t very happy. Long story short the very polite and responsive customer service lady in the UK comes up with a solution. Seems they have contracted installers, one of whom is in a town we were traveling to anyhow. We arranged to meet and I gave the product to him. We had our refund within a day or two. I can’t fault the company one bit . I’m sure those “warnings” were there.

Fantastic idea, and easy install dont give it a thought & get it won't be disappointed