The Five-Pound Sack Garage: making the most of an awkward little space

The unnecessarily presumptious foreword: I posted a portion of this on another forum five years ago.  I'm a lot better at planner than at doing and even after five years have not taken action.  Coincidentally, Little Monohue will be five this summer.  Although my mental health and outlook are somehow a lot better now than before he came along, my spare time and budget have both suffered.  It looks like there may be room for improvement in the near-ish future.

The house: Mrs Monohue and I own a modest (almost embarrassingly so) little house.  It's our first house and we have now been here fifteen years without making any real changes.  It may be my last house based on the real estate market and how little interest either of us have in going through a move.  Home improvement isn't of great interest to either of us.  We are dull people with dull lives and do what we can to avoid obligation.  That said, we're also in dire need of storage space, and I would really like to be able to actually pull a car into the garage and possibly even swing a wrench or two.

The house was built in 1969 and boasts all of about a thousand square feet.  It's stick-built with 2x4 stud walls and a stick-built roof (no trusses).  Electrical service is 200A via an old GE split-bus panel in the garage and I added a Siemens 125A sub-panel in the next stud bay.  Power will not be a problem.

The garage: Attached, and technically a two-car garage, but only technically.  It's about 35' long but only 13'-7" wide on the inside, so walls are probably 14' apart on center.  Interior walls are sheathed with an attractive assortment of gyp on the east (house) side, OBS on the west (exterior wall) side, and some very 1970s wood paneling on the ends.  The floor is a concrete slab.  There's no ceiling.

The goals:

• Build at least one storage loft in the garage to get junk off the floor
• Add a standby generator, move most existing branch circuits serving the house from main to sub panel
• Add at least nominal ventilation (attic fan), improve lighting, etc.
• Re-purpose existing main panel to serve garage loads, pull new branch circuits as necessary
• Bonus round: demolish the existing lean-to on the exterior wall of the garage and build a bigger one

The excuses: I'm poor, I'm broke, I'm too old for this E36 M3, I lack motivation, I'm easily discouraged, and I don't have any help.

This post is just to set the scene.  In the next exciting installment I will go over thoughts on the storage loft.

Garage storage loft:  I would like to add a simple storage loft for storage of seasonal items, spare clothing, et cetera - nothing terribly heavy. 

As mentioned, my garage has no ceiling.  The roof is stick-built, so no prefab trusses, with a 4/12 pitch.  There are two sistered pairs of 2x12s that run east-west across the garage.  The northernmost one runs directly under the ridge line of the roof and the other runs parallel to it about 7' to the south (the north end of the garage faces the street).  Vertical clearance from the top of the sistered 2x12 beam to the bottom of the ridge beam is approximately 38".

I have this mocked up in Sketchup and took some screenshots to help illustrate.  The first image shows the basic structure as it sits today.  Again, the inside width of the garage is about 13'-7", so the walls are on 14' centers.  Walls are 2x4 construction.

If we take the rafters away, the second image shows those sistered beams sitting atop the walls of the garage.  There are three 2x6 rafter ties that run between the north beam and the north exterior wall of the garage.  They are nailed to the side of the rafters on top of the north wall, above the garage door, and are on 48" centers.  Length of those 2x6s is not quite 13' total, or 12'-6" measured from the sistered beam to inside edge of north wall.

In the third pic is an early layout.  The initial plan was to just tie some more 2x6s to the existing sistered 2x12 beams, throw some plywood on top, and claim victory.  I've discussed this with a few people and it turns out there is little consensus.  This may or may not be strong enough.  There has been much hand-wringing about snow loads (11.0 lb/sf here) and the entire house collapsing under the weight of the storage loft, never mind the things in it.  (This pic also shows an early design for  a platform between the big beams.  I would like to add a platform there but the first priority is the one on the forward/north side of the north beam.)

Another option (not pictured) is to sister another board on the north side of the north beam so that it spans the side walls of the garage, and use that to transfer load to the walls.  That would require cutting the existing rafter ties back enough to wiggle the new board in, and that means bracing the north wall so that it doesn't just bow out.  Not sure how to do that or whether it would even be necessary.

Thoughts are welcome.  Mostly.

Just frame it in as in your 3rd sketch and start stuffing things up there.  Use joist hangers where the 2x6s meet the 2x12s, put hangers on the existing ones if they don't already have them, and sheet it.   It'll be fine for any load you can put up there in the (not very tall) space you mention.

Kendall Frederick said:

Just frame it in as in your 3rd sketch and start stuffing things up there.  Use joist hangers where the 2x6s meet the 2x12s, put hangers on the existing ones if they don't already have them, and sheet it.   It'll be fine for any load you can put up there in the (not very tall) space you mention.

From what I understand from the sketchup, I agree with this.

In reply to Kendall Frederick and Antihero :

That's what I thought at first, but there had been so much hand-wringing that I lost all confidence. My gut said I'd be adding strength by tying the beam to the front wall that much more securely, and not adding or storing enough weight to warrant any concern at all. But my gut is not a structural engineer.

Sistering anything onto the north side of that north beam, in order to transfer load to the east and west walls of the garage, would be fairly invasive. That's the bad news. The good news - and this just occurred to me - is that there's no native structure between those two sistered beams. It  would actually be really easy to add whatever I want in there. We could run anything we wanted crosswise, wall to wall. Maybe that's where the heavy stuff goes, and the light stuff gets thrown onto the north side.

I took some terrible pics to further muddy the situation. First is looking toward the north from the east/house side:

Second pic is looking at the north wall where the rafters and rafter ties join:

Third pic is looking south from the north end, showing the north beam as well as the gap between north and south beams. Disregard the 2x4 between those beams in the pic. I added that to give me a place to hang a light fixture. The existing plywood on top of the rafter ties is 1/4" or so and just strong enough to hold up a couple rolls of fiberglass insulation. 

Commenting to come back to this later. 

Are the sistered 2x12's properly supported with jackstuds/columns/something?  If so, I'd have a VERY hard time believing you can put enough load in a sloping 38" loft to make any lot of difference, assuming you frame it 16"ish OC and tied in with sheathing, blocking, and hangers as in your sketchup.  Those 2x12s are going to carry the vast majority of the load, and with a 14' span, sistered pairs seems to me more than adequate for basically storage items. 

Full disclosure- I am not a structural engineer. 

golfduke said:

Are the sistered 2x12's properly supported with jackstuds/columns/something?  If so, I'd have a VERY hard time believing you can put enough load in a sloping 38" loft to make any lot of difference, assuming you frame it 16"ish OC and tied in with sheathing, blocking, and hangers as in your sketchup.  Those 2x12s are going to carry the vast majority of the load, and with a 14' span, sistered pairs seems to me more than adequate for basically storage items. 

 

Full disclosure- I am not a structural engineer. 

I have not yet opened the walls to see what's below the sistered beams. This is a cheap little old tract house so I expect to find some doubled up 2x4 studs under each beam, probably not 4x4s. Ironically, I can't hardly get to a wall to open it up without getting some garbage off the floor. A lift would be so handy for that.

The plan was to add 2x6s on 24" O.C. on the north side of the main beam because that's the spacing of the existing  rafters.  Even at 24", with blocks and hangers, it seems like it would be strong enough to support itself and some Christmas decorations.

For the space between the beams, I'd also go with 24" O.C. (though maybe 2x8s, and oriented east-west) in order to accommodate an attic ladder. Or maybe the ladder could go on the north side, oriented north-south...

It'll all gel at some point, and everything will make sense.

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

Commenting to come back to this later. 

...but like the proverbial dad who was just going out for a pack of smokes, you never came back to this later again. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

Dude, i have a 500 square foot basement shop. I feel your pain. 

If it helps, ive done some inexpensive improvements over the last 17 years of being here. 

Best being the french cleat wall. Thats been an AMAZING addition. 

I have a loft in my garage and mounted an electric hoist to the ceiling above it with a cable that drops to the floor. You would be surprised how handy it is for lifting stuff up rather than carrying things up a ladder. Even storage tubs get hoisted up by wrapping a strap around them and lifting. Things like the bicycles get lifted off the ground by a rope and pulley system and they can be quickly dropped any time we want to ride them. We also have these racks that hang from the ceiling and we put storage bins in them. I attached pics.

DarkMonohue said:

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

Commenting to come back to this later. 

...but like the proverbial dad who was just going out for a pack of smokes, you never came back to this later again. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

Hahahaha. My bad. 

I would have to agree with Kendall Frederick's statement. You're either going to be using a ladder, or eventually fold away stairs to access the space, if you can carry something up a ladder, it's not going to be heavy enough to hurt. (I am also not a structural engineer.)

Kendall Frederick said:

Just frame it in as in your 3rd sketch and start stuffing things up there.  Use joist hangers where the 2x6s meet the 2x12s, put hangers on the existing ones if they don't already have them, and sheet it.   It'll be fine for any load you can put up there in the (not very tall) space you mention.

I would also agree with golfduke that you want to make sure your sistered 2x12's are properly supported underneath. That obviously holds most of the weight. 

Also, I am pretty sure a pair of 2x4's sistered underneath to support the beam is actually stronger than a 4x4. 4x4's like to twist, sistered boards make for a pretty sturdy beam. 

Thanks for the input, everyone.

The French cleat wall is worth investigating. I had not considered it.

Manually carrying loads up and down a ladder has somehow lost its appeal. As for loosecannon's suggestion of a hoist to lift heavy or bulky items up to the loft, I was planning to eventually build a powered platform lift more or less like the one Wesley Treat built here:

It looks like a neat solution, not too complicated, and should be constructable in a manner that transfers most of the (admittedly minimal) weight to the slab rather than hanging it from above. And it's out of the way when not in use.

Bicycle storage would eventually be from an electric hoist operated rack located farther north, where there's a nice little space below the roof that does not really lend itself to general storage. The power hoist may be overkill for half a dozen bikes, but overkill does not bother me.

Interior sheathing will definitely be removed to confirm and add bracing where required. I'm not sure when. At this point I have sort of painted myself into a corner in that I have so much crap packed into the space that I cannot build the storage area necessary to clear the crap out of the space. But sheathing has to come off anyway to run branch circuits, so we can look at the stud/post situation then.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

How tall are your walls?  Any chance of lowering the loft to gain some storage space?

7' clear of space below the loft should be fine. 

If I'm reading this correctly, it appears the 2x12's were added to support the roof. With no ceiling, the rafters can cause the walls to spread. The 2x12's gave the ability to add a post under the ridge. Sketchy solution, but it's lasted this long. 

Here's what I'd do...

I'd get rid of the posts and raise the center beam so it was directly under the ridge. The only thing it is holding is the ridge- keep it that way. 
 

Leave the other beam in place. It's not great space anyway. 
 

Then build a loft floor with 2x8 floor joists 7' above the concrete floor. Clear span them from side to side across the 14' width, and attach them to the studs.  Even if you only gained 10", 48" height is a heck of a lot better than 38".  But if you could gain 24", WooHoo!

EDIT: This would avoid adding any weight at all to the 2x12s

I described that process backwards. I'd build the new loft floor first (7' off concrete, under existing framing). THEN I'd raise the beam and remove the 2x6s.

Another option would be to lower the 2x12 beam, and incorporate it into the loft floor. If you made the top flush, you'd still have 6'8" clearance under the beam. And you'd gain 12" of headroom in the loft. 
 

It may sound a little harder, but I think it would actually be easier to build than building around everything that is there, and give you a better finished product. 

In reply to SV reX :

I think you may be confused. Those 2x12 beams are not a tacked-on reinforcement, but are an integral part of the structure, and they extend (not shown) past the garage into the house. Pretty sure they go all the way to the other end of the house, or at least the northern one does, to support the ridgeline of the roof while the north and south walls support the outer edges.  The beams rest on the top plates of the walls. Lifting or relocating them is a no go.

Wall height in the garage is right at 9'.  I had not considered adding a platform that did not sit directly on the top plates of those walls. I'm not sure that would work well for a few different reasons, but adding a steel basket suspended below a new platform might be an option.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I don't think I am misunderstanding at all. Ridges don't hold weight. The rafters counter each other. 
 

Except in this case, the lack of ceiling joists means the 2x12 is actually helping prevent the ridge from sagging. 

If you currently have 9', you could keep an 8' ceiling and still have 50" above (instead of 38").  If you lowered it to 7', you'd have a cavernous 62" above. 

Is there any possibility of building a shed? I cleaned out a ton of things from my garage when I got one.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Here's what I am trying to say:

In reply to SV reX :

I understand what you are saying now. Your assessment of the existing structure looks correct.

As is, the sistered 2x12 beams sit on the top plates of the walls.  I don't think relocating them is practical.

Although I want any new work to rest on top of the existing wall top plates, there may be a way to add a suspended platform that hangs below the top of the wall in some way.

Much to think about.