Fastening Garage Cabinets to Ceiling?

[robs400]

I am currently in the middle of making some designated store "cabinets" in various locations around my small 2 car garage to help tackle my ever moving pile of stuff. I have ceilings that are around 9 and a half feet tall, so I'd like to put on some simple store on one of the side walls up out of the way.

I have seen a few examples of these types of cabinets posted by members on here, but I could not find how they were secured. I am just looking for some simple framing that I will put some cheap sliding doors on the front of. They do not necessarily need a top or back as the ceiling and back wall would serve that purpose.

I looked online for tensile ratings of grip rite coarse thread drywall screws but did not find anything useful. The easiest method I see is to run a 2x4 perpendicular to my ceiling trusses (24" O.C.) and screw the 2 x 4 to the ceiling into the truss. This would then become the top/front where I would then drop down the face of the cabinets, and then tie back to the wall for the "floor" of those cabinets. Any pics and fastening methods would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

- Also, I will not be throwing engine blocks in these, just misc. stuff around my garage that I do not need access to all too often.

 

[csp]

Use lag bolts instead of drywall screws for attaching the 2bys to the bottom chords of the trusses.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I have a flat roof and I've secured them to the ceiling joists with lag bolts. My structure dates back to 1925 and I've discovered there's a fair amount of shifting in the roof -- probably the whole building moving back and forth, very slowly. In any case, it can cause some minor problems for the fit of your cabinet doors -- at least it did in my case. I have one set of cabinets that I'm going to take apart and re-build because of it.

Newer construction might not have this problem at all. Not to mention the fact that we have small earthquakes out here pretty regularly.

 

[robs400]

Jack, Yours is one of the cabinets I was actually referring to. If I remember correctly tho, you have your supports running up adjacent to the ceiling joists. It looked like your supports were fastened into the side, putting the fastener loading in the shear direction.

I am not easily able to do that as I just finished sheetrocking my ceiling so if possible I'd like to just tie into the ceiling by hanging something.

 

[BigAirT]

You might try Strong Tie by Simpson (the guys that make all those neat little metal hangers etc. that framers love to cuss), they have a lot of information regarding their products loading abilities so they might have info on their screws. HTH

 

[ddawg16]

A lot depends on how your going to make your face frame.

If it was me, I would get a bunch of 1x1 L channel....say 1/8" thick. I would screw this the inside of the face frame using 1 1/4" wood screws. Then, drill holes in the top of the L channel that line up with the ceiling studs/rafters. When you have the cabinets built, screw to the ceiling using 1/4" lag bolts. The advantage of the L channel is that it does not eat up a lot of room inside your cabinet and helps distribute the load along the length of the face frame.

Actually....there is a way you can build those upper cabinets that would put less demands on the attachment to the ceiling and transfer the load to the wall. Basically, you make the ends using at least 1/2" plywood.....ideally, you want a plywood panel about every 4' or less. This creates a very stiff box that helps transfer the load to the wall. The attachement to the wall then depends on a shear attachment which for wood is better than a tension attachment such as you would get with a lag bolt.

 

[ks6c]

Here's a site I bookmarked - may be of use:
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-P...rage-Storage/installing-large-garage-cabinets

 

[robs400]

Ks6c - Those are supported by the wall, which I may me better off doing. I came across that article a while back, has some good ideas. Any idea where to get that door track? I checked the local hardware store and they do not carry it. McMaster Carr has some, but its not exactly cheap. I may end up just making my own tracks.

 

[ks6c]

No idea where to get the track, I haven't started looking yet. I just got the epoxy floor put in (local installers are hungry and it wasn't a whole lot more than doing it myself) and now cabinets are the winter project.

 

[Wingnut65]

Here's a site I bookmarked - may be of use:
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-P...rage-Storage/installing-large-garage-cabinets

I just built that cabinet and have it attached to the wall and the ceiling. I just used wood screws into the ceiling as it only is for the top door track. The plywood on the sides carry the loads. I can stand in it with no worries.

 

[pima67]

Other things being equal (never are??) fastening to the wall provides more strength. A wall fastening is subject to shear loads rather than pull loads. For the same fastener, shear strength far exceeds pull strength.

 

[Stuart in MN]

The other guys are correct about what fasteners to use - drywall screws are not the right choice. They're fairly brittle, and aren't designed for this kind of use. They can snap off pretty easily. Use lag bolts, or wood screws (deck screws, which look like drywall screws except they are plated, should also work.)

In my garage I recycled some old kitchen cabinets. To hang them, I screwed a piece of 1x2 to the wall at the height of the bottom of the cabinets to support them, then screwed through the backs into the wall. The 1x2 made them easy to install, I could lift the cabinets up and set them on top of it, and then I was able to hold them up with one hand while driving screws with the other.

Another good method for hanging cabinets is a French cleat. Here's a diagram that illustrates how they work: http://benchmark.20m.com/plans/FrenchCleat.pdf

 

[robs400]

Thanks for all the help guys. I am currently finishing up building a smaller cabinet with some doors on it and will then be moving onto the cabinets I was talking about in this thread. Hopefully I will be able to start on those this weekend. Its going to be great once I can see my floor in the garage again.

 

[robs400]

Other things being equal (never are??) fastening to the wall provides more strength. A wall fastening is subject to shear loads rather than pull loads. For the same fastener, shear strength far exceeds pull strength.

I realize other things come into consideration here, such as the friction created between the wall and loaded cabinet when the two are forced together by the screw, however it was my understanding from school that tensile strengths for fasteners are larger than the shear strengths.