A few questions regarding garage ceiling storage racks

[Don Nguyen]

Is it just me or do most garage ceiling rack vendors only offer white or grey/hammertone finishes? I am looking for a rack in black and it seems like there may only be 1 vendor (fleximounts) out there that offers their racks in a black finish?

Any thoughts on 4 legs vs 6 legs. Mentally, I would think 6 legs would offer more support, but it looks like both 4 leg and 6 leg racks are advertised as being able to support roughly the same weight loads, which is ~600 lbs, for the 4'x8' sized racks.

Lastly, I am trying to figure out the safest/best possible way of installing multiple ceiling racks. Looking at possibly putting up four 4'x8' racks on the ceiling. The garage ceiling has joists that runs from the garage door opening to the back wall and a bedroom above it. I figure the best way to install the racks would be to do it perpendicular to the direction that the joists are running. Doing this, I will end up with two 4'x8' racks on the same sets of joists.

 

[Formerjeeper]

I believe the NewAge products are black.

 

[Innovate1]

Not familiar with these types of racks but running the 6 leg racks perpendicular to the joists would put 3 joists supporting the load vs 2 for the 4 leg I think. For the 4 leg at 600 lbs IF EVENLY LOADED is 150 lbs per support leg. Seems like not a lot of load so should be safe.

However, with two sets of 6 legs perpendicular you would end up with 100 lbs per leg and 400 lbs per joist if both sets of legs used the same joists. You could offset them so they don't use the same joists but it wouldn't look as good.

Running 2 units parallel to the joists would give 300 lbs total load per joist. If you want things to line up and minimally load the joists this is the best I think.

Without knowing more about the structure it's hard to say more. Are the above supports attic trusses?

 

[jbwilkins]

In my case I installed 2x4''s on the ceiling (attaching those to multiple joists) and attached the racks to the 2x4's.......Distributing the load across multiple joists rather than just 2 or 3....also allows for some adjustment in the placement....

 

[Chuckster in NJ]

In my case I installed 2x4''s on the ceiling (attaching those to multiple joists) and attached the racks to the 2x4's.......Distributing the load across multiple joists rather than just 2 or 3....also allows for some adjustment in the placement....

This ^^ is what I did BUT, I used 3/4” plywood and cut some 8” strips.

BTW! MOST modern "attached" garages should have 2 layers of 5/8” sheet rock on the ceiling so make sure the screws you are planning to use are long enough.

 

[MerlinsBeard]

The ideal mounting situation from a structural perspective is to mount perpendicular to the direction of the joists as that will distribute the load across multiple joists. However, unless you're really maxing out the weight, it's not likely to be an issue.

The problem with going perpendicular is that you're relying on your builder to evenly space the joists 12" apart. If you have drywall covering your ceiling and you don't know for sure, I recommend taking the effort to stud find them. I did this in my garage and found that while most joist spacing was 12", there were two areas that were not! That can really mess your plans up. There's usually some lee-way where you can shift things around, but if you're looking for a uniform look, I'd spend the effort to locate all your joists.

To do this, I measured the width of my joists in my unfinished basement ceiling, and made 1 7/8" strips of painters tape and mapped out where all my joists were. I found an area where the joist spacing was 16" on the left side of the garage, and another where the spacing was like 6" near the center. I actually used two different stud finders to confirm since I didn't trust the one that I had because the spacing was off.

You can always fall back and mount parallel along the joist; you're guaranteed to have that work out. But if you're planning on maxing the weight out, I'd be sure to stagger which joists are supporting which racks.

In my garage (a 20'x20'x12'), I mounted overhead storage above the area that the garage door covers when it's open, but I still wanted an open area on the ceiling to be able to upgrade lighting (I currently have 2 incandescents, and I want transition to LED strip lights). You may want to consider mounting a 2x8' or 4x8' wall mounted shelves along the perimeter in the area opposite of the garage doors so that you're not blocking your lighting if you plan to do any sort of hobby craft in there.

If you consider wall shelves, also mark the studs in the wall if your room is drywalled, you may find that you may not have the ideal 16" (or less common 24") spacing between studs everywhere. This caused me to resort to getting a 2x4' instead of a 2x8' shelf on one side because the stud spacing didn't work out in two spots, and I didn't want to work around it (I still needed a place to put the 9ft step ladder).

Also, when your garage door goes up, there is a point where it goes up higher before flattening out. You don't want to inadvertently have the garage door hit the overhead shelf as it open.

I'd definitely check out New Age for wall shelves, they come in black and I've been very happy with the install. For overhead storage, I really liked the Kobalt 4x6' overhead storage from Lowe's since it uses ceiling rails instead of posts, but that's been discontinued since Lowe's picked up Craftsman from Sears. You can still find the same kind of overhead in black in a 4x4' from Summitland on Amazon, but that's probably too small for what you're looking for. Onrax is another vendor that doesn't always come up in searches, but their racks are more expensive and only come in silver/white.

Hope it helps.

 

[Don Nguyen]

I believe the NewAge products are black.

I noticed them after I made the post. If I decide to go with a 6 leg rack, I would probably end up going with them. I just don't like their design that only attaches the mounting legs to one joist instead of being able to span the load over 2 joists.

Not familiar with these types of racks but running the 6 leg racks perpendicular to the joists would put 3 joists supporting the load vs 2 for the 4 leg I think. For the 4 leg at 600 lbs IF EVENLY LOADED is 150 lbs per support leg. Seems like not a lot of load so should be safe.

However, with two sets of 6 legs perpendicular you would end up with 100 lbs per leg and 400 lbs per joist if both sets of legs used the same joists. You could offset them so they don't use the same joists but it wouldn't look as good.

Running 2 units parallel to the joists would give 300 lbs total load per joist. If you want things to line up and minimally load the joists this is the best I think.

Without knowing more about the structure it's hard to say more. Are the above supports attic trusses?

I think by the way you were calculating it, if you actually run two 4x8 racks parallel with the joists, you would end up with 600 lbs per joist. It would be 300 lbs per joist if it was only one rack (150 lbs per leg x 2 legs = 300 lbs per rack). I have a room above the garage, so no attic/trusses.

In my case I installed 2x4''s on the ceiling (attaching those to multiple joists) and attached the racks to the 2x4's.......Distributing the load across multiple joists rather than just 2 or 3....also allows for some adjustment in the placement....

That's a solid idea actually. I do remember seeing someone post a picture of doing something similar, but I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it again.

This ^^ is what I did BUT, I used 3/4” plywood and cut some 8” strips.

BTW! MOST modern "attached" garages should have 2 layers of 5/8” sheet rock on the ceiling so make sure the screws you are planning to use are long enough.

Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely be drilling some pilot holes for each of the mounts before doing everything. Interesting idea on using 3/4" plywood over 2x4s.

 

[nadogail]

Given enough time and money almost any problem can be overcome.

Don't like the color?, paint it. Don't like paint?, consider powder coating.

Don't like somebody else's work? Do it better your self.

 

[Don Nguyen]

The ideal mounting situation from a structural perspective is to mount perpendicular to the direction of the joists as that will distribute the load across multiple joists. However, unless you're really maxing out the weight, it's not likely to be an issue.

The problem with going perpendicular is that you're relying on your builder to evenly space the joists 12" apart. If you have drywall covering your ceiling and you don't know for sure, I recommend taking the effort to stud find them. I did this in my garage and found that while most joist spacing was 12", there were two areas that were not! That can really mess your plans up. There's usually some lee-way where you can shift things around, but if you're looking for a uniform look, I'd spend the effort to locate all your joists.

To do this, I measured the width of my joists in my unfinished basement ceiling, and made 1 7/8" strips of painters tape and mapped out where all my joists were. I found an area where the joist spacing was 16" on the left side of the garage, and another where the spacing was like 6" near the center. I actually used two different stud finders to confirm since I didn't trust the one that I had because the spacing was off.

You can always fall back and mount parallel along the joist; you're guaranteed to have that work out. But if you're planning on maxing the weight out, I'd be sure to stagger which joists are supporting which racks.

In my garage (a 20'x20'x12'), I mounted overhead storage above the area that the garage door covers when it's open, but I still wanted an open area on the ceiling to be able to upgrade lighting (I currently have 2 incandescents, and I want transition to LED strip lights). You may want to consider mounting a 2x8' or 4x8' wall mounted shelves along the perimeter in the area opposite of the garage doors so that you're not blocking your lighting if you plan to do any sort of hobby craft in there.

If you consider wall shelves, also mark the studs in the wall if your room is drywalled, you may find that you may not have the ideal 16" (or less common 24") spacing between studs everywhere. This caused me to resort to getting a 2x4' instead of a 2x8' shelf on one side because the stud spacing didn't work out in two spots, and I didn't want to work around it (I still needed a place to put the 9ft step ladder).

Also, when your garage door goes up, there is a point where it goes up higher before flattening out. You don't want to inadvertently have the garage door hit the overhead shelf as it open.

I'd definitely check out New Age for wall shelves, they come in black and I've been very happy with the install. For overhead storage, I really liked the Kobalt 4x6' overhead storage from Lowe's since it uses ceiling rails instead of posts, but that's been discontinued since Lowe's picked up Craftsman from Sears. You can still find the same kind of overhead in black in a 4x4' from Summitland on Amazon, but that's probably too small for what you're looking for. Onrax is another vendor that doesn't always come up in searches, but their racks are more expensive and only come in silver/white.

Hope it helps.

I definitely ran into the issue of uneven spacing on studs in the garage before. I was putting up some slat wall and about 90% of the studs were 16" evenly spaced out, but then 10% of the studs were placed closer/further than the expected 16" spacing. I actually won't need it to have a uniform spacing, since the entire ceiling area is going to be painted black, which is in part of helping hide all the other already ugly bumps/misc/random items that are attached or hanging from the ceiling.

I probably won't be maxing out the weight loads of the racks, but I just wanted to double check what the expected weight capacity of the a garage ceiling joist is typically, just for peace of mind I suppose.

For lighting, I actually plan on mounting the light housings to the bottom of the racks. I think this should be possible. I haven't seen the racks in person yet, so things may change once I actually have them in front of me. However, if it works out, then I want to mount lighting to the bottoms of the racks, using it almost as like a drop ceiling.

 

[Don Nguyen]

Going to be picking up some saferacks today. Ultimately decided that 4 legs will give be more uninterrupted storage space and I like that the ceiling attachments span across two joists per leg.

I have been reading that a lot of people replace the lag screws that are provided with the racks with some actual ones from home depot/lowes. However, I was wondering what size/brand lag screws I should be looking at for the ceiling racks? I think I read someone suggesting GRK RSS 5/16" x 3"?