garage roof question,Truss?

[jstill]

This is my problem,planning on building a 30x40 garage with 10' sidewalls,what type of roof do i need that will allow me some overhead storage,I want to keep my shop as clutter free as possible but we do have lots of things that we will need to store, christmas decorations and household items.I know there are others on here that were faced with same type of problem. I would like to keep it a free span if possible.

 

[Kevin54]

This is my problem,planning on building a 30x40 garage with 10' sidewalls,what type of roof do i need that will allow me some overhead storage,I want to keep my shop as clutter free as possible but we do have lots of things that we will need to store, christmas decorations and household items.I know there are others on here that were faced with same type of problem. I would like to keep it a free span if possible.

You can get trusses custom made in about any configuration. Normally a stock truss is 24' with a 1' overhang. Anything other than that has to be custom made. They can be made with storage above, or you can have a standard web truss and have it braced in a way that you can store some items above, but it's not recommended. Quite a few people do it though. Whatever you store on a standard web truss that is not meant for storage has to remain light so you don't distort the truss.

Now what you can do, instead of spending more money to have custom trusses made, take that money, make the garage just a tad longer, and have a closet or two that you can store items in. I can't post a pic from this computer, but in my garage, I was forced at gunpoint by the wife that she was going to take part of it over. With the threats that came, I reluctantly caved in. Not really, but I don't like climbing the pull down attic stairs to put stuff above and I sure as heck don't want her doing it and risking getting hurt, so I built a closet in my garage. It's 14' long and 4' deep with shelves on one end floor to ceiling. This holds all of the Christmas items, and whatever else we need to store but not get rid of. It's completely drywalled and insulated. Way safer to store it this way instead of up above. So with a garage your size, you could go 4' more on the length and build a closet all the way across. All you need is one entrance door. By doing it this way, I'd almost bet it would be 1/4 or more cheaper than going with custom built trusses.

I can snap some pics and post them later if you want to see it.

 

[PatJ800]

Just skip the trusses altogether and go with rafters and and an attic.

 

[rburke65]

Would help a lot to know if you live in Florida, or Alaska, or where. You deal with snow loads, or sunshine loads or? Welcome to G. J.

 

[kert]

Just skip the trusses altogether and go with rafters and and an attic.

If he wants clear span, I doubt that is an option.

There are several options for storage trusses.

Spread-Web Trusses are often designed for storage and give some, but not a lot of storage space. These probably allow the lowest roof pitch and are probably the lease expensive.

Room In Attic (gable) Trusses will give more space. Depending on the desired room size (height and width), the pitch may need to be pretty steep. These trusses are often designed for load as a living space.

Room In Attic (gambrel) Trusses are like room in attic (gable) trusses, but have a gambrel (barn style) roofline. These will probably provide the largest space, but will have a very steep lower pitch (generally at least 12:12) and may or may not be a style that fits with your property.

All these options can be easily designed for 30' span and various loading.

What I realized as i was planning my build was that the money I spent on trusses gave me some very inexpensive space (maybe $2-3/sqft extra for trusses and subfloor). Also, the price of the trusses seemed much smaller as I started adding everything else up (roofing, siding, concrete are my biggest items).

 

[pattenp]

I used attic truss on my 26X30 garage. It gave me attic space of 12X30 with 8' height at center of ceiling. The roof is 12/12 pitch.

 

[cyamaha2007]

For me the attic truss wasnt cost effective. It was cheaper to add 10ftx36ft to the base sqft.