Leave loft alone or change?

[b-rock106]

So as I am sitting at work I am thinking about my garage and how horrible it is so far. So this spring summer I am going to try and start a reboot. First up is the loft.

She is 8 feet deep and 10 feet wide. Built it using 4 jack posts sitting on triple 2x8s nailed and screwed together. Then 2x8 on hangers at 12" centers and on top 3/4 t+g OSB. Up top I made a 'U' shaped shelf that is work bench height for totes underneath and tool chests on top as well. Access via steps will be lost soon as my garage is only 18 feet deep and am looking at pickup trucks and want it to fit.

So I am looking at leaving it and figure out a lift system to it. Or remove and rebuild a 4 foot deep 20 foot long shelf instead.

Any input?

 

[Moosefire66]

How often do you use the loft? If you need more space you could still add on to it to span the building, and possibly build moveable stairs... possibly pull down stairs like an attic, rolling ladder like in a library, or a permanent ladder on one end might work as well

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[matt_i]

Whats off to the left, where all of the clean concrete is? I'm assuming the dune buggy is where the pickup truck will ultimately go?

 

[b-rock106]

The Sand rail once done will go into storage. The truck will be to the left of current loft as the man door to house is there. I planned to have 4 post lift in house so that's why at time of build it was not done wall to wall.

 

[Charlie51]

How much ceiling height does your loft have, and what type of stuff do you need to store up there? The trouble with something 8x10 is that more things would tend to get buried in the back and you tend to forget about them. For that matter, a 4 foot wide shelf might be too wide. How about a picture?

 

[justanengineer]

Can you simply demo the loft and put up some racking?


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[b-rock106]

Loft floor to ceiling is 6 feet. Garage floor to under loft is 7 feet.

I can do racking and demo it but I need things to make sense to do that. Here is how it looks after I did the new storage layout.

Keep meaning to clean up there but between projects and family i have been failing.

 

[Ray916MN]

Demo it and use pallet racking.

Most racking has a lip on the beams that is perfect for using 2x12 wood to make shelves. If you use racking to lift stuff up into the racking you can hang a hoist over the upper rack beams and pull some boards. Once you've hoisted whatever you want to store up to rack level, just slide the boards back under whatever it is and you're done.

An example of just how far you can go with using pallet racking to make a loft is M35A2's use http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348892 Follow my signature link for another example.

I would guess you could build a loft for less than $400. Pallet racking is so cheap, CL is generally the most expensive place to find it.

 

[bczygan]

Loft floor to ceiling is 6 feet. Garage floor to under loft is 7 feet.

I can do racking and demo it but I need things to make sense to do that. Here is how it looks after I did the new storage layout.

Keep meaning to clean up there but between projects and family i have been failing.

Nicely done! Pallet racking would not work as well in this situation. Just don't run into that column!.

Bill

 

[Strouty]

How tall are you?

I know my "loft space has less headroom than I require and it *****. Luckily I found a roll around stool that works very well, so I can sit down and just roll from one end to the other.