Storage Loft above Garage Door

[CasperTron]

I am planning on building my very first garage storage loft above my single door garage. I have no experience doing this at all and would like some advice or should I say approval that I am building my structure properly.

My garage is 10ft wide and I plan to have a storage loft above the garage door that is 10ft wide x 8ft in length. I just need some confirmation if my idea is correct as shown in my picture. If you can't see the picture my idea is to place a 2x6x8ft ledger board on each side wall, mounted to the studs with lag bolts. What lag bot size should I be using?

Then I would run 2x4x10ft long joist at 16" OC along with joist hangars. Therefore, my calculations say that I should have 7 joist. Would I use screws or nails to fasten them into the joist hangars? and what size?

After that I will place 3/4" plywood to finalize the setup while using deck/construction screws to mount them down to the joist.

My concern is whether, it will hold enough weight. I plan on storing my winter/summer tires (with its rims), cardboard moving boxes, seasonal items (ie christmas tree & ornaments), and maybe some tools like my miter saw and circular saw. I'm not sure how much weight this totals up to be.

I look forward to the responses and thank you in advance for your assistance to my first wood project.

Cheers,
Ron

 

[Jeff Ivers]

When I read your idea, the first thought that came to mind is what kind of door - Overhead? If overhead, how much clearance do you have between the raised door and the bottom of your platform support structure? Have you allowed enough clearance for the door to open without hitting? Personally, if you have only 25" above the loft floor, I would not build anything more than 2 to 3 feet deep. 25" is not enough height to crawl back into to retrieve items shoved to the back.

***

I am planning on building my very first garage storage loft above my single door garage. I have no experience doing this at all and would like some advice or should I say approval that I am building my structure properly.

My garage is 10ft wide and I plan to have a storage loft above the garage door that is 10ft wide x 8ft in length. I just need some confirmation if my idea is correct as shown in my picture. If you can't see the picture my idea is to place a 2x6x8ft ledger board on each side wall, mounted to the studs with lag bolts. What lag bot size should I be using?

Then I would run 2x4x10ft long joist at 16" OC along with joist hangars. Therefore, my calculations say that I should have 7 joist. Would I use screws or nails to fasten them into the joist hangars? and what size?

After that I will place 3/4" plywood to finalize the setup while using deck/construction screws to mount them down to the joist.

My concern is whether, it will hold enough weight. I plan on storing my winter/summer tires (with its rims), cardboard moving boxes, seasonal items (ie christmas tree & ornaments), and maybe some tools like my miter saw and circular saw. I'm not sure how much weight this totals up to be.

I look forward to the responses and thank you in advance for your assistance to my first wood project.

Cheers,
Ron

 

[bop_pa]

I built a similar loft above my front garage door to store all the body parts off of a 70 challenger I am in the process of restoring. It's 22' wide by 8' deep. I used a ledger board all the way around that was lag bolted to the wall studs and built my own lam beam for the front that was gluded and bolted together. I used joist hangers to attach the joists using nails and 3/4" plywood (full sheets) up top. It really has come in handy as I have practically the entire car up there. I can crawl up there if needed too and it is plenty sturdy.

 

[bop_pa]

Before

After

 

[CasperTron]

@JeffIvers - Thanks for your advice. The garage door is an overhead door. If I make it 3ft deep, shout I run my joist the short way (the 3ft way) rather than the long way (10ft way)? Or could I make an access whole in the middle or something that way I could keep it 8ft deep? I'm a small guy too.

@bob_pa - are your ledger boards & joist all 2x4's?

 

[bop_pa]

No 2x4s. They are all 2x6s. The lam beam in front has a peice of plywood sandwiched between two 2x6s that were gluded and bolted together. This thing is super sturdy. However in retrospect I may have built it easier if I just bought some of those engineered wood beams running several of them longways. However, at the time I did not realize the mom and pop hardware store down the street from me sold them until after it was all up. Oh well. But a loft is a great way to utilize some extra space.

 

[upndown]

Casper, just remember to do like bob did..leave a little room above the door spring!! In case it breaks...

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Personally, I think 8ft deep is WAY too deep for what you describe you'll be putting up there. I'd go much less and use those clear type storage boxes stacked so I could see what I've got up there. Put the heavier items - rims & tires, around the perimeter. In other words, big enough to be useful but not so big as to cause you to store junk and lose track of it.

Whether you go 8 ft deep or not, 3/4" plywood is too thick since you're using joists at 16" o.c. You could easily get by with less. I used 3/8" and I DID put rims and tires up there. Near the walls as I described. Yes, the plywood would deflect when I'd crawl up there. But when I wasn't, it was just fine. I'd suggest 1/2".

All this advice is assuming you're NOT planning on putting most of an entire car up there like "bob pa".

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Ron,

Based on the other posts in response to you, it would appear that others have made the 8' depth work for them. I do not have enough structural knowledge to advise on your question about the direction to run joists. I would pay attention to their comments about the dimension of the lumber to use. The only time I did something similar, I built a 2.5 foot deep by 4 foot tall by 16 foot wide cabinet in a recess of my garage up near the ceiling. I did use 2/4 lumber for framing, but the center was supported by all thread running through the ceiling and through a 2/8 that spanned multiple ceiling joists. I never attempted to put much weight up there and certainly not myself. We stored ice chests, camping gear, and other bulky times in this.
Good luck with your project an keep us posted.

@JeffIvers - Thanks for your advice. The garage door is an overhead door. If I make it 3ft deep, shout I run my joist the short way (the 3ft way) rather than the long way (10ft way)? Or could I make an access whole in the middle or something that way I could keep it 8ft deep? I'm a small guy too.

@bob_pa - are your ledger boards & joist all 2x4's?

 

[shannonw]

there's a bunch of threads on gj on this (also search on garage soffit storage,etc) but here's one:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119140

and look at what these guys do:

http://www.garagestorageloftbuilders.com/lofts.htm

notice in real deep setups foot deep they frame an access door.

Mine is all 2by4s but i'm only about 3-4 foot deep (about as far as I could reach on a ladder) and i used unistrut drop downs (bridging two rafters up top to distribute the load.

 

[pipsters]

You need to keep in mind access. If you are just going to use it as an attic I suppose you could enclose the entire thing. I had a "unique situation" in that I had a "mini wall" separating the front half from the back half of my garage, and unfortunately there were no studs inside.

So what I did was lag bolted using 4" SPX lag bolts from HD (T30 driven, much nicer than screws or hex lag bolts IMO) a 2x4 across the top to act as a mounting point. Then cut up some angle iron to use as brackets. Lag bolted that into my shelves. If I were to do it again, I would use a nut/bolt combo and then put the hard board on afterward.

I could've done what you describe but like I said the big issue is accessibility.

I ran 2x4's the whole way, 2x6's might be better but honestly they are going to be bolted in well. I used 3" deck screws on the horizontal 2x4 because it faces the front of my house and I was concerned about 4" lag bolts going thru and into my siding outside. If you don't have that concern, use a 4" lag bolt or SPX torx bolt (I like them because they have a nice flat washer type surface on them) and go with it. I even only did every other stud up into my ceiling. I can hang from my shelves no problem. Maybe in the future I'll add some more lag bolts but it's really not needed.

Also IIRC I used 15/32 OSB, that cheap stuff, I want to say $10/sheet. You don't want to go too heavy here, as the more weight you use for the floor, the less weight can be put topside.

 

[pipsters]

More pics

 

[CasperTron]

What kind of clearance should I leave between the open overhead garage door & and the plywood? Or should the clearance be between the garage door and the bottom of the 2x4's?

 

[shannonw]

if you make it too low the garagedoor will hit at the height of it's arch. I just left room for the door and couple inches above the opener..but do watchout before hand the height the g.door needs to open.

 

[regguy1]

My idea...why limit it to just the area above the door?
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65557