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

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Gotcha. 
 

The problem is the original existing 2x12 beam was a bad idea. It's technically functioning as a structural ridge, and it's over spanned.  ANY weight you add to it adds to the problem. 
 

My first suggestion adds no weight to the 2x12 beam at all. My 2nd suggestion actually fixes the original problem and eliminates the need for a beam.

You don't need your new floor platform to sit on the walls. You can run a ledger joist around the perimeter and hang your new floor joists from joist hangers.

Here's another suggestion.  This one is actually my favorite:

Leave half the loft open.  That makes it easy to load.  Use airplane cables to tie the north and south walls to each other to prevent spreading.

This eliminates the 2x12s, gives more headroom above, can be built around existing elements before removal, corrects existing structural deficiencies, and improves the overall strength of the house. 
 

It can be converted to suggestion #2 easily in the future if more storage is ever needed.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I am trying to keep this discreet enough not to permit and easy enough to build on my own, but those are certainly interesting ideas and may get some juices flowing.

Also, Mrs Monohue may not be enthusiastic about me whittling away key pieces of her house with a chainsaw. She's funny that way.

I am also curious to know what a ledger joist is. Quick internet searches don't show me anything like what I was expecting to see.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I'm building a very similar floor this weekend. I'm pretty sure you can keep it discreet. 
 

Mrs M is a totally different issue!

If you build the entire thing (including the plywood) without cutting anything out, perhaps she will see how strong it looks by comparison and be open to it?

Once that loft is built, the beam could be removed in 20 minutes with a chainsaw. Maybe during her grocery run? 😂

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Ledger joist. It screws to the existing wall studs, and the joist hangers attach to it:

In reply to SV reX :

Thanks for the image. That makes sense, and I will give that approach a closer look for a new platform between the existing sistered beams.

The garage is about 35' long, north to south (the beams and main ridgeline run east-west), if that changes anything. I am not certain I could span that with a loft floor that is stronger than the structure I have now. So more than likely I will leave the structure intact.

In reply to jimbob_racing :

I did not mean to overlook your suggestion of a shed. The topography of our lot does not allow for a shed near the garage or the house. Fine for garden tools and mowers, not great for other stuff. I'll be building a newer and larger lean-to on the exterior wall of the garage, nearest the viewer in my Sketchup mockups, but that will be limited to 3' deep due to proximity to the property line.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I'm suggesting the new floor joists span the 14' distance. East to west. The 35' is irrelevant. 
 

You can easily span that with a 2x8. 
 

I wouldn't add a platform between the sistered 2x12s. You are adding weight to something that is already a bad design and over-spanned. 
 

Build your new floor lower than those 2x12s with joists running east to west.  You can build the floor all the way across the 35', and there is no need for a platform between the 2x12s. 

In reply to SV reX :

I'm picking up. 

Anything built between the sistered beams would have extended over the top plates of the east and west walls to transfer the weight to the walls rather than those beams.  That idea has been rolling around my head for some time.  In theory, it would not add load to the sistered beams.

Rather than that, I like your idea of using ledger joists on the east and west walls and spanning that gap with 2x8s running east-west.  The net area and location would still be between the sistered beams in plan view, but the floor/platform would be below them.  That gives us a 13'-7" x 6'-10 1/2" area for storage,  plus whatever flyweight stuff I want to throw on the section north of the main sistered beam.  That's enough, and no major surgery required.  Building anything beyond that is probably not terribly practical.  If I can, I'll attach a quick video below in a second.  The lighting is poor but turning the lights on put the whole structure in shadow and made it even worse.

For reference, this was taken from the man door visible in my sketches on the east side of the garage.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

That sounds like a simple solution for storage. It's not a full loft, but it may meet your needs. 
 

Good luck!

Some progress.  Barely.

Friday I picked up the lumber and decking and hardware to do a little work on the north side of the main (north) sistered beam.  I got started this morning, and after a lot of time dragging miscellaneous junk out of the way, just managed to get two new 2x6 rafter ties installed, spaced between the existing ones, so that the area between that main sistered beam and the front (also north) side of the garage now has 2x6 rafter ties on 24" spacing.  No blocking or new decking yet.  Working by myself is taxing, and I'm pooped.  I'm going to take a little rest and see whether I get a second wind or not.  Could be a challenge to get this carcass moving again.

Sorry, no pics right now.  My phone is in the shop.  There's not much to look at yet anyway.

Wholly E36 M3, fellas.  By the grace of sweet zombie Jebus and the mechanical advantage of some impossibly sketchy hammer-store ratchet-strap rigging, Mrs Monohue and I managed - albeit barely - to wrestle a piece of 3/4" Durastrand decking into place.  Still not fancy, but it's a platform.  It's a start.  Most importantly, it's infinitely less sketchy than the previous setup.

Typing from a PC because it's sitting down time.  Will try to attach pitchers from the old loaner phone I'm using.  Standby, all them what's standing by...