Garage attic storage

[sizzler90]

Hello all, I have been reading through this forum for about 3 weeks now. This is a great site and I have gleaned a lot off of you all. So here is my first question here. I have a 2 car garage attached to my home. It has a great deal of unused space above it's sheet rock and 2x4 ceiling. What all would I need to do to make this safe for attic storage space? Would I just use 1x6's for a floor and call it good? Any help would be appreciated.

Rob,

 

[bmwpower]

What are the dimensions of the garage? What type of things do you want to keep up there, ie. how heavy?

 

[astroracer]

4' x 8' sheets of 1/2" OSB or plywood will work fine on rafter spacings of 16" to 24". Anything more would require additional support to keep sagging to a minimum.
Mark

 

[logical]

If the span of 2 x 4 is across the width of a typical 2-car garage, you will already be loading it pretty heavy just with the plywood floor. Unless you plan to sister in heavier boddom chords from wall to wall on top of the headers, you shouldn't do much more than walk around up there and store light stuff like snow shovels, tarps, skis, snowboards, other light stuff...spread out as evenly as possible. If you think you are going to push the limit, hang a plumb bob from the ceiling center, an inch off the floor before loading and check it again after loading. No more than 1/4 inch.

No 3-high stacks of cases of oil, furniture, boxes of books, engine blocks.

 

[sizzler90]

What are the dimensions of the garage? What type of things do you want to keep up there, ie. how heavy?

I am not at home right now but I think they 24X26. The only part that is usable up there is an area that is 12x24. It looks like a great place to store Christmas decorations. Nothing really heavy maybe the heavyiest box would be 40lbs.

If it make any differance the part I would use is off the wall leading into the house and in the middle of the area is a set of rafters coming down from another peak. If 5that makes any sense.

 

[Darren M.]

Makes perfect sense to me. It sounds like I have nearly the same attic above my garage. I have installed scrap plywood as a floor and store quite a bit up there. Normal house stuff, Christmas decorations, etc. However, I do not stack anything and keep all the heavy stuff, > 30 lbs, near the wall.

I like the plumb bob idea. (Note: heavy bolt on the end of a string will suffice.)