Big dreams small pockets

[meatness]

I just purchased my first home, feels good! Decent size lot with a good starter shop on the back 24' x 30'. Something of a dream of mine. I have been visiting here for some time and registered a while ago. This place is my go to for ideas and inspiration and I would like to thank all of the contributors for that.

Today I started planning out some storage in the shop for a few household items, holiday decorations and the like. I took a drive to a couple of local lumber /hardware stores for advice on building what I have in mind. I don't think I found anyone with enough real knowledge to go forward so I am hoping that I can get some advice from this group.

The plan is to span 14' and create some loft storage for right now. Just to get the things we only use once or twice a year out of the way and off the floor. The ultimate goal is to start a cool garage thread on here and completely finish the shop but that will be too far down the road to start one quite yet.

My concern is that the 14' span will be hanging from the only truss in the shop and the truss doesn't seem to me like it would be up to the task. I won't be storing any engine block up there or anything but I would like to be able to safely climb around up there and organize things.

One idea - Build another truss in the middle of the span (most expensive)
Another idea - Strengthen the existing truss by walling it off with plywood (feels kinda gimicky)
And the last idea - Put a large beam across the garage midway through the span (also expensive)

I don't want to put any posts in the middle of the shop obviously.

Here are some images to better illustrate my layout. Yeah, I am amazing with ms paint.



























Please let me know if I have missed any information that would be helpful. I can take more pictures and make more measurements. Thanks.

 

[38Chevy454]

Why not add a 24 ft beam out around 8 ft from the end wall that is supported on each end. Think of it being a big U shape upside down, no center supports. This way you will have and extra support that is not an extra truss to block the storage. The beam can be a fabricated beam, it does not have to be solid wood. Fabricated is actually stronger, you should be able to buy one premade. A 4x4 or 4x6 is plenty to support it on the ends, just lag screw to hold tight against the walls. Frame in between the new beam and the wall, and in between the new beam and the one existing truss. Use the metal joist hangers so you can get the floor lower and have a bit more space instead of being on top like the current 2x4's are. 14 ft span on the 2x4 is too much and they appear to be sagging as it is. The 8 ft distance is nice because you can put plywood at the length dimension.

I would remove that existing storage built already in the garage, and reuse the wood after you build the beam and new joist structure. You will need to buy additional plywood and joists.

You could overhang the plywood over the existing truss by about 1 ft to cheat some extra space and end up at 15 ft, halfway point of the garage. Then use the 1 ft cutoffs to help build your fabricated beam if you do not buy a premade one.

 

[meatness]

Good advice! Thanks, how would I tie into the fabricated beam? I have not seen that before... hold on I will go google that one I like your ideas. Maybe I can make the top of the fabricated beam at the height of the bottom of the truss. Then go straight across. Aaah typing while thinking, it's makes for some very coherent posts

 

[meatness]

Anyone got on idea of what size fabricated i beam I need to pick up? Again I am going across a 24ft span and will only be supporting the beam at both ends with 4x6's.


Thanks

 

[Danglerb]

You have any local code issues that you have to meet?

Beam across my garage looks like about 8x24. The beam directly over the door was just replaced, pretty sure that was 6x18.

Kill two birds with one stone, use a steel I beam and use it for a shop crane with a chain lift on a trolley?

 

[meatness]

Steel I beam would be great if it was in the budget. Not really feasible right now though.

 

[38Chevy454]

Just go to a real lumber builder supply and find out what they have for a fabricated beam.

Since your beam is not really being used to support a full std floor load, I would look at building something yourself. Use those 12 inch x 48 inch plywood cutoffs I mentioned above. Sandwich them between some 2x6's top and bottom (could save a small amount and use 2x4 at the top), but leave about 2 inches space until the plywood. You would end up with a 16 inch tall beam if you follow what I am describing. Or leave 1 inch space and make the beam 14 inches if you will be close for headroom, point is that taller is better. It would be about 3.75 inches thick with the plywood, assume you use 3/4 plywood. Glue and nail/screw through from one 2x6 to the other. You do not have to get 24 ft 2x6's, you could get 12 ft and 8 ft lengths and stagger the joints on each side of the beam. The plywood will brace it together.

You could also sister a 2x8 or 2x10 along that existing truss bottom board to make it extra strength for not much additional cost.

I would put the beam so the beam's top surface is at the same height as the top of the truss bottom board. Use the metal joist hangers and run your floor joists. You could mix new 2x6's with the 2x4's you already have. Put the center of the beam right at the joint for the plywood floor pieces and you have 1.5 inches of solid wood to attach the plywood to on each side of the beam.

My suggested beam is probably not per code for a full 24 ft span, but then I assume you are not doing any of this with full permit either. Just keep the weight reasonable and it should be fine.

You could check with some steel scrap places and see if they have any scrap steel beams that might be lucky to find? Problem is that many nowadays don't like to sell, just take in and send to remelt.

 

[meatness]

Awesome advice, thanks! I am going to go to the local steel place and see if they might have an I beam lying around that I can snag. I don't think that this will happen but you never know. As far as making an I beam, that is interesting to me and I think I would be more apt to do it if the table saw worked and I had a dado blade on it, that way I could just make it the correct way with a couple of sections. I will check what an I beam costs and so how motivated I am to make one.

Thank you Chevy, I appreciate the time you took to reply to me. This place is awesome.

 

[slip knot]

looking at your pics the first thing I thought of was a bar joist. 24ft is nothing for span and a bar joist or two would allow you to use the whole end for storage. I dont know if anyone in your area has bar joists but the can be fabbed up pretty easy.