Greetings!
As you can probably tell from my post count, I am a brandy-new member to this wonderful community. I am knee deep in my garage renovation and hit a wall as far as ideas go, so I am hoping you gents could help me out a bit. Before I get to posting all the photos, let me give you some background about me, the garage and my area.
The Area:
I live in Central/North New Jersey. A short bike ride to the bay and a short car ride to the ocean. We get some significant snow in the winter and get some significant heat in the summer.
The Garage:
The house that's attached to my garage was built in the 50's. The garage has not been renovated or really maintained since then. As far as I can tell the last time someone was doing work in the garage was in the mid 1960s (when ripping down drywall I found a newspaper from 1967 up there). There's no significant damage to the garage other than some very old terminate damage that was apparently treated and is no longer an issue (wood is still in good shape).
The Renovator (me)
I'm no Bob Villa, but I know my way around tools; some more so than others. I've worked as an auto mechanic for many years and in recent years have done some renovating with my friend in his rental properties (drywall, cabinets, painting, etc...).
Ok, now that we have that over with, let's get to the 'goods.' Below you will see real photos of my garage and images of the model I created (which makes it a lot easier to 'show' people over the net!). Apologies for the mess!
The garage originally had some haphazardly put together loft, that had sheet rock on it. I removed this loft with the intention of putting a better one up, without sagging joists and properly secure everything.
Here's an image of the garage with the loft:
And here is the garage now, after ripping down most of the sheetrock (saving the stuff with insulation for a little).
(again, it's a mess, I'm embarrassed)
Now, although I have some experience, I lack much experience with adapting the structural integrity of a structure. Once I ripped down the loft and drywall, seeing that big tall ceiling was something I really like, and I was hoping my new garage could have high ceilings.
When looking, I figured I could just take out those trusses (not sure the proper term for the joists thing that is attached to the collar tie [see pic below]). and sheetrock up to the collar ties.
After talking to a few people, they said that might not be possible, since we get some decent snow in the area, and those 'trusses' help keep the garage from splitting apart.
So now I am left, a bit idea-less. If any of you with building experience could chime in on what my options are as far as keeping the ceiling as high as possible, I would be forever grateful. I don't actually need high ceiling (not putting a lift in or anything) but it just feels so much nicer. Just sitting in the empty garage with that 'open' feel is just amazing!
Here is a pic of the space I have right now (if i opened up the ceiling I would relocated that garage door opener
)
Since I know the photos aren't the best here are some images of my garage, modeled, with rough dimensions:
A couple notes about the above images - there's a little 'cubby' area in the garage as you can see to the right of the garage door (if you face it) and then the long wall to the front of it connects to the house. It might seems like I have a little room to the back right of my garage (when facing it), but that is part of my house.
So, I guess what I am after is some idea of how to open up the garage a bit. Can I remove those trusses? What are my options?
If worse comes to worse, I will just loft the entire garage, drywall it, paint it and make it look nice, but I was just wondering if any of you could generously share some of your brilliant ideas (I know I do not have a lot to work with).
Thanks for your time and I apologize for being so verbose.
As you can probably tell from my post count, I am a brandy-new member to this wonderful community. I am knee deep in my garage renovation and hit a wall as far as ideas go, so I am hoping you gents could help me out a bit. Before I get to posting all the photos, let me give you some background about me, the garage and my area.
The Area:
I live in Central/North New Jersey. A short bike ride to the bay and a short car ride to the ocean. We get some significant snow in the winter and get some significant heat in the summer.
The Garage:
The house that's attached to my garage was built in the 50's. The garage has not been renovated or really maintained since then. As far as I can tell the last time someone was doing work in the garage was in the mid 1960s (when ripping down drywall I found a newspaper from 1967 up there). There's no significant damage to the garage other than some very old terminate damage that was apparently treated and is no longer an issue (wood is still in good shape).
The Renovator (me)
I'm no Bob Villa, but I know my way around tools; some more so than others. I've worked as an auto mechanic for many years and in recent years have done some renovating with my friend in his rental properties (drywall, cabinets, painting, etc...).
Ok, now that we have that over with, let's get to the 'goods.' Below you will see real photos of my garage and images of the model I created (which makes it a lot easier to 'show' people over the net!). Apologies for the mess!
The garage originally had some haphazardly put together loft, that had sheet rock on it. I removed this loft with the intention of putting a better one up, without sagging joists and properly secure everything.
Here's an image of the garage with the loft:
And here is the garage now, after ripping down most of the sheetrock (saving the stuff with insulation for a little).
(again, it's a mess, I'm embarrassed)
Now, although I have some experience, I lack much experience with adapting the structural integrity of a structure. Once I ripped down the loft and drywall, seeing that big tall ceiling was something I really like, and I was hoping my new garage could have high ceilings.
When looking, I figured I could just take out those trusses (not sure the proper term for the joists thing that is attached to the collar tie [see pic below]). and sheetrock up to the collar ties.
After talking to a few people, they said that might not be possible, since we get some decent snow in the area, and those 'trusses' help keep the garage from splitting apart.
So now I am left, a bit idea-less. If any of you with building experience could chime in on what my options are as far as keeping the ceiling as high as possible, I would be forever grateful. I don't actually need high ceiling (not putting a lift in or anything) but it just feels so much nicer. Just sitting in the empty garage with that 'open' feel is just amazing!
Here is a pic of the space I have right now (if i opened up the ceiling I would relocated that garage door opener
)
Since I know the photos aren't the best here are some images of my garage, modeled, with rough dimensions:
A couple notes about the above images - there's a little 'cubby' area in the garage as you can see to the right of the garage door (if you face it) and then the long wall to the front of it connects to the house. It might seems like I have a little room to the back right of my garage (when facing it), but that is part of my house.
So, I guess what I am after is some idea of how to open up the garage a bit. Can I remove those trusses? What are my options?
If worse comes to worse, I will just loft the entire garage, drywall it, paint it and make it look nice, but I was just wondering if any of you could generously share some of your brilliant ideas (I know I do not have a lot to work with).
Thanks for your time and I apologize for being so verbose.
.