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building a mezzanine

Engine-Ear

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Nov 16, 2007
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40
Location
a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
Hi everyone,

I would like to share with you my garage build and follow-up with a couple of questions.

By way of introduction, I bought a 30' x 40' steel building kit from Miracle Truss. Eaves are 18' and peak height is 24'. Spent 6 months last year building it to the point shown.

Anyway the 1200 sf area will be divided into to main areas: half for cars and parts storage, half for working on stuff.

Regarding the cars/parts storage:
One pic shows 3 garage doors leading to this area. I plan to have 4-post storage lifts at each of those bays, as well as a mezzanine above that area. The mezzanine would be self supporting and not dependent on the building's trusses.

What I am trying to do is design a mezzanine and a staircase.

I originally wanted to build the support structure out of steel (I-beams, etc) but a couple of people recommended lumber for better fireproofing (comments?).

As for load calculations vs. material usage, I am not sure what to specify. My goal is to have pallet racking up there with the potential to store LOTS of stuff. ...Not talking engines but certainly sheetmetal, brackets, tires, wheels, seats, glass, etc.

I really need to get moving on this NOW because I have 3 cars to part out sitting in the driveway and a couple of my neighbors are already calling the fuzz to complain.
 

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Stuart in MN

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Minneapolis
Matt - keep an eye on Craigslist, search for mezzanine or pallet racking. On the Minneapolis list there are always people selling used mezzanine components out of factories or warehouses, I just checked Milwaukee and there are a couple on there now.

Stuart

Edit: I'd want to talk to a structural engineer about it, but if you're going to have four post lifts lined up along that end of the garage, I wonder if you could extend the vertical members of the posts up to support the mezzanine?
 
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Engine-Ear

Active member
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
40
Location
a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
Stuart, thanks.

Adding the mezzanine to the lifts is a clever notion and helps minimize crowding along the part of the floor where the vertical posts will reside.

The used pallet rack and used lifts sound like a wise move.
 
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Engine-Ear

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Joined
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Messages
40
Location
a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
more on building a mezzanine

KMR, I agree...

so, here is a scan of a sketch...the 19kB PDF limit makes it pretty difficult so here's a .jpg file.

The illegible legend says:

[] = 1 sq ft

[//] = Truss 'keepout' area

== = Horizontal Support

---- = 2-by-X Joists
(blue)


I am suggesting staggered joists because they are shorter (more manageable, esp. at 13 feet UP) and the system will still 'interlock' all the vertical supports, in my opinion.

Your feedback is most welcome!
 

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KMR Construction

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Oct 20, 2008
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Newport RI
ok, A 2x8 will span that but go 2x10 joist 16"o.c. for the beams 2- 1 7/8" x 12" LVL with the 3 colums (steel or 4x4 pt) will give you a very strong floor. Use 3/4" T&G plywood
 
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Engine-Ear

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Messages
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Location
a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
Thanks again.

I am going with wood instead of steel...btw, Stuart, "engineer9" (aka Gary) from the PY board is helping me with some structural details for this.

I will keep this thread up to date with progress.
 

akdiesel

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Aug 8, 2008
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Location
Wasilla, AK
Let me start by saying the shop looks great.
I would think strongly about extending the post of the 4-post lifts since they are designed to support the loads they were origianly set up for. Any additional weight may cause them to fail, and warrenties will be voided.
I would offset the supports, for your type of beams, so that you have the option to move your lifts if need be. Plus extend them at least 3' further out past the lifts so you can have access to get between the lifts as well.
I would do this front and back to give you the correct structural support needed and then tie them into the shop frame work to keep things from shifting.
Now the size needed for the span and weight is up to an engineer to figure out.
Good luck and keep us posted.
 
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Engine-Ear

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Thanks for the feedback, guys. As for the look, I wanted to go a little more Jetsons/unusual but the cost of the kit went crazy when my creative drawings were evaluated.

Based on your (and others') recommendations, the lifts will be independent of the mezzanine, and the mezzanine will be independent of the building.
 
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Engine-Ear

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a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
Back again after a long hiatus... the mezzanine has taken a dramatic turn for the better.

I ended up going with steel structure with a concrete floor. Roughly 21 x 29 with a floor that's 12 feet up so I can put 6 cars (on back yeard buddy type lifts) under it. No support posts in the middle, either.

More images coming after I get the stair case stuff in.
 

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Engine-Ear

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a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
I will post more pics when I can, along with a more thorough definition.

NUTTS, the floor has pex tubing thru-out as well as 3" of pink foam board insulation. Nothing like working in a garage with a warm floor!! Full insulation is also coming soon.
 

rburke65

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Nov 10, 2007
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Canfield, Ohio
I really like your Pontiacs. That's all Dad would buy. He had a new '61 Catalina that my brother demolished and then bought a '63 Star Chief. Oh, and a real nice building also!
 
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Engine-Ear

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Messages
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Location
a burnout west of Milwaukee, Wis.
The mezzanine (or MATT-zanine, as I call it) is 29 x 20 with a clear span underneath. Concrete is 3" thick, 6-bag mix over a patented new concept in structural stuff. (I'd tell ya but I'd ...) The walking surface is about 12' above grade.

Now that the concrete is hardening, I am putting pallet racking up. Man, utilizing the z-axis is a beautiful thing. More pics coming soon!!
 

gbcamp72

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Dec 17, 2006
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Magnolia, TX
I two have a 30x50 with 16 foot walls and want to build a mezzanine as well. Can you give me any insight as to how to spec a floor? I really want a clear span so I'm hugely interested in what you have done and how much it cost?

Thanks Glenn
 

kwb

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I two have a 30x50 with 16 foot walls and want to build a mezzanine as well. Can you give me any insight as to how to spec a floor? I really want a clear span so I'm hugely interested in what you have done and how much it cost?

Thanks Glenn

I did mine the long and hard way - shop is 36'w x 42'd x 14.5'h+ loft is 11'6"x42 This kept a section of the shop to be able to park tall boat/RV's inside. and still pick up about 500sf of space.

Being an engineer (not structural) and low on cash I dove into my first wood structures engineering project and designed a box beam then built it in place. Designed around a 50psf load and L/480 deflection limits. In hindsight it would have cost more but I should have done a glue-lam to save a lot of time. Steel to keep deflection limits the same was going to be considerably more money.

Spans of 40-50' are doable without posts but expect the beam to have a tall section. Mine the beam also serves as a nice 2' high wall at the edge of the loft that keeps me from walking off the edge. This also makes it so you have to lift higher to get items over the top of the beam to then put down onto floor of the loft/mezz.
 
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