Need advice on practical overhead storage setup

[zemutan]

Hi all, I'm new to Garage Journal. I was directed to this forum by a Reddit post that said I could get good advice here on overhead garage storage setups. I'm looking for a balanced, practical approach. I don't necessarily want to maximize storage, but I do want as much storage as possible without overdoing it. Here are some photos of my garage. Let me know what other information I should provide to help you help me. Thanks!

 

[shade]

Ceiling hung storage racks above the garage door rails.

 

[Zeke]

^^^^Yes. Rim storage 2 feet or 16" to maximize plywood rips. All kinds of brackets available. I just Google a subject and then go to 'images'.

 

[LeeG]

What do you want to store, and how often will you be needing access?

 

[Viper98912]

This is the garage journal forum. The standard answer is to tear down your weak garage, build a new one that's 4 times bigger, make sure it can store everything you need in it, including the mezzanine and toilet, and after it's all done, consider how you can squeeze in a car (optional).

But I would say yes, there are multiple ceiling mounted racking systems out there. You probably need to figure out what you want to store up there first though (size and weight)

 

[CraigStu]

A previous house had a 2ft wide shelf 2ft down from the ceiling on two of the walls. They built a simple ladder of 2x4s w/ the cross pieces 2ft apart. Then topped it w/ 3/8 plywood. Screwed the side 2x4 into each wall stud (on 16in centers) and ran a piece of small chain up to the ceiling about every 3ft. For longer than I like to admit, ours looked like ****. Then HD had clear plastic containers on sale and I bought enough to fill the shelves. Looked much nicer then. An 8ft step ladder gave easy access.

 

[CombatNinja]

First and foremost, determine what kind of framing is up there. I've seen way too many well-meaning husbands (led down the garden path of a demanding spouse that did some Pinterest 'research') put up all manner of racks holding hundreds of pounds of junk that end up causing sagging of the joists because they were never intended to carry any load.

 

[manwithtools]

These are great:

Safe Racks, 4' x 8'

 

[DGersic]

Consider first what you want to put up there, how heavy it is, how often you’re going to want it, and how you’ll get it up and down.

I have some high storage, and getting stuff up and down is a hassle, so only stuff that I’ll only want every year (or longer) goes up there. Outdoor Christmas ornaments are a good candidate, you only need the box down once, and they’re bulky and lightweight. Something like a lawnmower that you’ll need down every week, that’s heavy, bulky, and awkward, you don’t want to put up there.

I‘m also not a fan of depth. If I have to take down six other bins to get to the thing I want that’s behind them, that’s annoying.

Lay out what you think you want to store on the floor underneath the area. Now imagine putting up and taking down, from a ladder. Can you? Is it something you’ll want to do often?

Seconding the research recommendation. Find out what’s on the other side of that ceiling, and what load it can support. Just because you can build it doesn’t mean the structure can hold it up.

 

[racecougar]

A concern that hasn't been pointed out yet is the fire sprinkler system. Blocking the sprinkler heads with shelving is a no-no.

 

[MerlinsBeard]

First step, you need to get a ladder and stud finder up there to first determine where the framing is (I often cut 1 3/4" blue masking tape to mark all the studs). Often times, ceiling storage expects a certain dimensions and you want to make sure your framing can support the ceiling storage rack you want to install. You may be surprised where the joists actually are. In my house, the joist spacing wasn't constant across my garage ceiling. This could be a surprise if you expected a joist to be there and it isn't.

Next step, you need to determine if you're going to have enough space for the rack and how much of the sprinkler area you are able/willing to occlude. It may only matter when you sell the house if you include the ceiling racks (I don't have sprinkler heads in my garage, just the house, so I never found out about this).

Also I would think about a tote system to store the contents. I prefer rubbermaid roughneck personally (though it is pricey), and I use binder clips with tags to attach to the lid with the category or contents (makes re-organization simpler, just acetone the tags and relabel). Need to look up tote dimensions to make sure you can try to maximize storage with minimal ceiling clearance to top of tote. If you stack totes, leave enough clearance for the top tote to stack onto the bottom (two stacked totes use less height, but you still need clearance to slide the tote over another).

I have a 12' ceiling, so I was able to use two ceiling mounted storage racks and NewAge wall mounted shelves on both sides of the garage (I have roughly a 20'x20'x12'), with space between the wall shelves and ceiling storage so I could access both sides. I also have a 3-tier lumber rack that spans the garage above the door for storing long things. Your height looks less, so that may make some your options less feasible.

If you can ask the seller or builder what kind of joists were used, that may be an important question depending on the weight of contents stored.

Just some thoughts to consider. Good luck!

 

[racecougar]

Is this a townhouse? From the photos, I'm thinking it may be. While it may be an unlikely event that a fire occurs, you could find yourself in some serious legal hot water if you've blocked sprinkler heads with storage totes/shelving, especially if it leads to damage/loss-of-life of other parties.

 

[niget2002]

A concern that hasn't been pointed out yet is the fire sprinkler system. Blocking the sprinkler heads with shelving is a no-no.

That was the first thing I noticed too.

 

[Sumboodie]

I have 2ft deep shelves that run along both side walls, around 30ft long. They are maybe 8ish ft up, out of the way for most things. May put another row, as it's not too convenient to stack stuff 6ft high.

 

[tarmy]

Like this?

 

[beyondhelp]

Like this?

This is what I'm planning to do for offcut / wood working storage, how much hassle is it to get a sheet of plywood out of your setup? I considered the safe-t-racks but I might build my own using unistrut.

 

[driftpin]

You need to see what the plans show for the sprinkler system, for water supply volume and what reach the heads are rated for. You might be able to have upper storage if the heads further into the garage, towards the back wall, have sufficient reach. A FPE (fire protection engineer) should be able to determine what needs to be done, to comply with code. Do you have a set of plans for the dwelling? That would greatly simplify the plans review.