Dished/Vaulted ceiling & in ground hoist

[skooter_built]

Hi there, been a fan of this site ever since I came across the 12 gauge garage a few years back. In in the process of buying my first home & garage (short sale). The garage is a 2.5+ (probably 3 car +, roughly 24' wide x 32' long) size wise but has a standard 8ft. ceiling. Im always working on or building a truck or Jeep so a hoist would make life easier.

Im thinking about cutting out a portion of the ceiling and restructuring, about a 10'x10' area so I can lift a crew cab truck or Jeep up. At the same time Im thinking about going with an in ground hoist as it wont take up the floor space that a typical hoist will.

What are the thought's on this? I know in grounds start around 6k brand new but last a long time, Id dig it back up and take it with my when I buy another place in a few years. I'm just wondering what the thoughts are on the ceiling work?

 

[kbs2244]

You don’t say where you are and local snow load code will have an effect on this.
But you should be able to replace your joists that are now at the top of the walls with “collar joists” that are anywhere from one third to two thirds above the wall height.

Talk with your inspector about how high you can go.
(But don’t mention the hoist. That may be a zoning issue. Just say you need more “working height” to move things around.)

This mod should not effect your taxes since you are not affecting the total square footage of the building.

 

[skooter_built]

Im 1 hr north of Dertroit.

 

[kbs2244]

Local codes strength tables can change from county to county.
They are based on local weather records.
But the most consertive of them will allow you to go up one third of the vertical distance between the top of the wall and the ridge.

 

[Falcon67]

The ceiling joists hold your walls upright, resisting the pressure from the rafters to push the walls out. When you carve a hole in that support, the loads have to go somewhere. If the hole is in front of a big door, you may have a structure problem because of outward pressure increasing on a wall with a - say, 16' wide hole in it. Think about how strong a wall with a 16' x 7' hole in it might be anyway. So it might take some engineering and thought. If no door, you can at least double up the outer joists across the width of the garage and use double headers at the front and back of the "hole" to support the cut joists and carry the loads out to the side joists. It's like making a hole for a giant attic stair.

>But the most consertive of them will allow you to go up one third of the vertical
>distance between the top of the wall and the ridge.
I disagree - from my reading on this, the rule of thumb is after 1/3 you are into "rafter ties" and big changes occur in rafter loading. Changes that can cause your existing roof to fail. Do NOT do this without reading up or getting an engineer involved. Dependingon how high you raise that joist, you will be going up 1 or 2 sizes in rafter requirements for the span. Loads can increase to the point where you can't get enough nails in there to hold the pieces together.

Over 2/3s up and it becomes a collar tie and collar ties don't do anything except make some inspectors feel better. A collar tie will not save your walls from spreading on a poor design mod.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Garage have joist and rafters or trusses?
The answer to that question will make a difference as to what you can and can't do within a limited budget.
Because, if you have trusses you're more than likely looking at total removal of the trusses in the area of question and building a vaulted ceiling.

 

[skooter_built]

Its an "older" garage so im 95% sure on it not having trusses. Id place the cut out in the center of the garage or more toward the rear so I could fit my F-250 inside.