32" OC Rafters in Garage . . .

[Doyle67]

I am looking for a little help on how to reinforce my garage and make the space more user friendly. My wife and I purchased our home about 9 years ago and it is a cape cod style home. The garage was bare, uninsulated, and not drywalled. This makes the master bedroom wall fairly chilly on cold winter nights as it shares a wall with part of the garage attic. I have insulated the vertical walls and drywalled them. However this doesn't really solve the chilly problem as the attic space of the garage is spacious and uninsulated. My issue is that the rafters as originally built are about 20/22 feet long and 32" OC apart. They are 2 x 6 beams. There are a handful of cross pieces fit in throughout the garage from beam to beam but not many. I have a few items stored up above but am leery about adding much more to it. I would like to ideally add in additional beams to reinforce the ceiling so that I can hang drywall and potentially add in a heater for the winter months so that I can work in the garage without freezing. And also have attic space to utilize for storage.

Also, we may explore creating an addition to the house over the garage at some point down the road. I was cleaning and organizing my garage the other day and feel that any overhead storage on the rafters as is is at capacity. Slightly tugging on them made the entire rafter structure bounce / sway. What suggestions are there for reinforcing the rafters properly? Is it as simple as fitting in new beams or more to it to reinforce the walls as well? I don't have any pictures at the moment but if I get to it later I will take some and attach to the post. Any help is welcomed. I had a builder look at it when we first moved in and he gave me a quote that wasn't in the budget at the time. I believe it is time I revisit this however.

 

[theoldwizard1]

There are a handful of cross pieces fit in throughout the garage from beam to beam but not many.

Those "cross pieces" are called joists. When you say "beam to beam" I assume you mean that the joist rest on the "top plate" of walls opposite of each other.

The primary purpose of a joist is to prevent the load from the rafter from spread the tops of the walls apart. (For interest, drop a plumb line (string with weight on the end) from one of the joists, about 6" out from the wall, down to the floor. Measure the distance from the line to the wall near the top and near the bottom.)

It sounds like you want to add some joist to support storage. Even if you can find lumber the proper length, you usually can not threaded it into the space. If the garage is say 20' wide, purchase 14' long 2by lumber. Swing each end up on top of the wall.

If your walls are bowed out by more than about 1" at the top, you may want to use a come-a-long to pull them in. Swing the centers up and glue and screw.
You will probably need some blocks on top of the walls to prevent the new lumver from twisting.

 

[Beemie]

I never recommend to try to pull framing back into precumed original shape.
Connections can loosen, finishes get messed up, etc.

 

[matt_i]

Imo you should probably combine this event with a re-roof (or plan accordingly).

Amongst others I can think of two ways to proceed, either strip the roofing materials and the lower decking on one side of the building, then feed in long timbers to span across the tops of the walls to create the new bottom chords. Or, alternatively, continue demo at that point to remove all rafters and ridge, and replace with trusses.