Hi all,
Am looking at boarding out 2/3 of the loft space of my garage to use as storage for general locost stuff... modern house, the roof of the garage is
made of pre-fabricated truss?? the lower joist of which is 3"x1.5", and they are at 22" between centres. Span (length of garage) is
5.5m. At each end of the garage they are sat on a wooden pad which in turn is sat on the top blocks.
Looking at it, I'm not confident just boarding would be sensible, but could do with some guidance on what reinforcement I should fit...
So the trusses run from front to back?
How wide is the garage?
What is the pitch / or do you know how high it is to the ridge?
It'll depend on what you store up there, and what you board it with. A dozen engines and gearboxes sat on 22mm chipboard is probably no going to
end well.
If you really wanted to beef it up, you could fix a pair of wall plates to the brickwork / blockwork at the sides. Then run a number of joists across
the garage. You would then have a grid of support. However that would be dependant on the available height in the garage.
Mike
I 2 layers of loft boarding in mine and it's been fine for 8 years so far..no sagging....
Seems a bit flimsy to me.
[Edited on 25/7/09 by Confused but excited.]
Wouldn't advise it, roof trusses are designed to support the weight of the roof allowing for snow loads but not for storage. They are made from
thin timber and get their strength from their design and this doesn't allow for putting lots of weight on the bottom spars.
The trusses on the garage i have built are a lot sturdier than yours but even so the only things i store up there are a few pairs of skis.
thanks for the response, yes trusses run front to back, roof height (top to bottom of truss is 2m), like the idea of running joists side to side with
wall plates (no probs with height) and perhaps sistering the trusses with additional joists over the effected length?
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
So the trusses run from front to back?
How wide is the garage?
What is the pitch / or do you know how high it is to the ridge?
It'll depend on what you store up there, and what you board it with. A dozen engines and gearboxes sat on 22mm chipboard is probably no going to end well.
If you really wanted to beef it up, you could fix a pair of wall plates to the brickwork / blockwork at the sides. Then run a number of joists across the garage. You would then have a grid of support. However that would be dependant on the available height in the garage.
Mike
id put joist hangers into the walls on either side and run 4x2s across underneath the existing. Then screw all the intersections, and then board with 22mm chipboard flooring. As said though it really depends what you're putting up there.
My shop has barn truss 2 x 8" 20 foot span, storage width 12' x 30', currently 3 snowmobiles, 1 garden tractor, 1 snowblower, 1 cologne v6 with transmission, several winter tires and some building materials. There were 5 snowmobiles, but winters are getting shorter. Cheers
have decided to run new joists 6x2 from side to side at 40cm centres - should be plenty...