I need more ceiling height

[slowTA]

My garage walls are 8 feet tall with a flat ceiling and I desperately want a lift. The car I mainly work on is a Firebird, it stands 50" tall which means I can only get the car 46" off the ground. The township limits garage heights to 15' tall, my peak is 13' high now.

Ideally 10 foot walls would be great and those extra 2 feet would take full advantage of my 15' limit. Lifting the roof isn't too practical (unless someone has done that already?)

It looks like my best option is to rework the ceiling somehow. The trusses could be engineered/prefab so I was told that cutting them apart is asking for trouble. The garage is detached, 24 wide by 28' deep, the garage door is 16' and offset to the left side when looking at it.

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In the perfect world I would open up the ceiling from the garage door opener over to the right side. But that means the section I want to open is under the peak, not off to one side. This would probably weaken the roof greatly.

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Does anyone have a suggestion that doesn't require tearing off the roof or demolishing the whole thing?

 

[IDASHO]

Detached? Either jack the whole building up as far as you want, build a wall for it to sit on, or rip the roof off and re-truss it.

Jack it up!

 

[autoist]

Why not turn your trusses into scissor type

 

[slowTA]

Is it possible to 'convert the trusses' without taking the whole thing down? I guess the bonus is that I would leave some of the trusses alone at the ends.

 

[mad57]

look at my build i just cut out 1 truss but beefed up the ones around it looks good didnt even move with 3 ft of snow on it, i have 9.5 wall height with scissor trusses max height at 11.4. i removed one and have an 8 ft opening perfect for lift, and have about 14.5 in middle and around 12 on low sides... granted my lifts not in yet still gotta sheet rock but should work fine, just beef up your truss around the one you remove. its not too code. but its your only cheap way out with not have to do major construction . good luck mike.

 

[slowTA]

Saw your pictures but my garage is different. The trusses look to be 24" on center, if I take out 1 I have a 4 foot gap to put my car in lengthwise. I would have to remove about 18 feet of trusses to make enough room, that's almost 65%!!!

 

[Al356]

I have expertise that may help you solve your problem. I am a licensed engineer. I am not looking for work. I don't even know where you are located. I can provide you some general advice on how to reason through the problem. Probably best accomplished by way of a telephone call.
I am new to this board and don't know how to use the message system. My user name is Al356. If you send me a message be sure to tell me how to contact you.

 

[KCarGuy]

Jack that entire garage up 24" and built a Block wall under it, set that Baby back down. Rework wiring, the doors, windows if need be...and Wah-Lah! 15' Peak and ceiling 2' higher.