Another Loft or Garage Shelf Question

[Trojan]

I've been reading and saw akapero's thread on the subject a couple days ago as well.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124186

I am planning a simple shelf above the my garage door for storage of extra wood or longer items that just take up too much room along a wall or on the floor. Not to mention it cleans up the garage a bit. The shelf will only be about 20" from the ceiling and I was planning two 5' wide by 4' deep shelves on either side of the garage door opener track. A sketchup drawing is provided below.

Plans are to anchor to the front wall of the garage using lag bolts into the 2x6s above the garage door frame. The suspended end will be supported by angle iron. The top will be lag bolted to the ceiling joists. The ceiling joists are supporting a second floor and I believe are 12" manufactured I beams. I'm not sure the gauge of the angle iron but it's about 1/10" thick. On the hanging end I was going to drill through the 2x4 and put a bolt through it rather than use a lag bolt into the 2x4.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

 

[shannonw]

seems fine to me. Before I did this:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1778778#post1778778

And others have done (bunch of threads on the topic on here where i found ideas too).

I had a couple of those garage ceiling storage things from lowes...like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002IGHKM/?tag=atomicindus08-20

on your front it was basically the same thing as that. As for the ceiling above being floor of 2nd story i have no idea on that topic myself...though the shelf size doesn't seem huge like it would be a lot of weight and a good bit will be supported by the backwall. My old racks were on 2by trusses and i shoved a ton of **** up there, never noticed anything.

I assume the top angle spanning 2 ibeams? i kinda liked doing that (which is how I did mine) so all the weight wouldn't be hanging from 1.

 

[Trojan]

Thanks shannonw.

The dimensions are actually more like 4'3" x 5' primarily so if I need to I can put a full 4x8 sheet of plywood or other material up there. I did consider the ceiling storage that you linked but they are a little small for what I want. I'm breaking it into 2 shelves so that I can lower the surface by about 5" (otherwise it would all have to go above the garage door opener track). And yes, the top angles will span 2 beams.

Cheers,
Karl

 

[shannonw]

yes those ceiling storage units get small quick, they always made me a bit nervous climbing up there to get something. DIY is the way to go on that. sounds like a good plan to me. I've got a 2 car garage (that i'll never actually put a car in with 2 kids bikes and all) but without a doubt it's been the biggest help to clearing the floor.

I still haven't figured out plywood storage though, i'm considering something like this:

http://www.japan-page.net/blog/archives/2007/09/plywood_storage_in_a_cramped_garage_shop.html

or something vertical along these lines

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=28685

instead of horizontal...but i'll probably wait and do a shed. I'm close to having it organized but there's only so much space i'll be able to squeeze in there.

 

[Trojan]

The plywood storage is a pain. Considering I don't do projects with it much at this point, I'll just put it at the bottom and unload the other wood when I need it.