How should I mount something above my garage doors for storage of lumber?

[Kevin Vasko]

I have a 2 car garage which means limited space.

I am planning on using the the space above my garage doors to store wood. Based on these pictures how should I go about mounting it to the ceiling and the wall (above garage door when down)?


https://imgur.com/gallery/xS80Y

What type of brackets/braces/fasteners should I use to accomplish this? Any suggestions?

[Keith Westfall]

Make the box 4 sided (and good joints if using wood!) and screw the top one to the joists/rafters in the ceiling.

[Mike Henderson]

I did something like the product shown in this link.

The product I bought came with some steel pieces that you lag screwed to two ceiling joists so that the weight was carried over more than just a couple of joists.

Mike

[Chris Fairbanks]

I ran unistrut along the ceiling and the dropped down with 1/2" all thread to another unistrut. I did this setup every 2' and it's need holding up plywood above one section and hardwood above another. I'll try to grab a picture tomorrow for you.

[Scott Brader]

My one caution would be to make sure the trusses/joists in your garage are designed to hold weight. I paid a bit extra when I built my garage to get trusses designed to be used for heavy storage. They use a stiffer web construction of some sort than a standard truss. The builder recommended that I go that route when he saw how I was using the truss space in my old garage.

Scott

[Kevin Vasko]

This is what I am thinking at this point.

The concerns I would have is on how much weight it can hold doing this and what type of fasteners I should use for everything.

https://imgur.com/gallery/sPjMU

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Lumber weighs more than you think.
I'd have some steel in there somewhere.

[Tony Gomez]

I use a product like what Mike linked to store stuff up on my garage roof. As mentioned, wood gets heavy fast so make sure your joists can handle it. For exmaple, 4/4 S2S maple weighs about 3lb per boardfoot.

[Kevin Vasko]

I use a product like what Mike linked to store stuff up on my garage roof. As mentioned, wood gets heavy fast so make sure your joists can handle it. For exmaple, 4/4 S2S maple weighs about 3lb per boardfoot.

What is the best way to determine if the joists can handle it?

https://imgur.com/gallery/0cPot Not the best picture but that is the garage structure under the drywall.

[Bruce Wrenn]

What is the best way to determine if the joists can handle it?

https://imgur.com/gallery/0cPot Not the best picture but that is the garage structure under the drywall.

Professional engineer.

[Tom Bender]

I have done something similar but different. Your plan looks scary,,,depending.

So the trusses in my garage run back from the door. My rack runs the other way from yours, across the door. It sits on top of the big beam that holds up the trusses. At the back it is supported by several trusses and only 4 ft from the end. This spreads half the load across several trusses and the other half on the beam so I'm not worried about the trusses and not much about the beam. I have checked the 18 ft long beam for sag and there is none. Maybe with a big snow load. I am careful to keep the wood load modest, maybe 400 pounds max. Heavier stuff just can't go there. My garage is much wider than the 2 car space so there is room to pull out 16 ft stock. You may have to keep only 10 ft stock there. Hope this helps.

[Kevin Vasko]

I have done something similar but different. Your plan looks scary,,,depending.

So the trusses in my garage run back from the door. My rack runs the other way from yours, across the door. It sits on top of the big beam that holds up the trusses. At the back it is supported by several trusses and only 4 ft from the end. This spreads half the load across several trusses and the other half on the beam so I'm not worried about the trusses and not much about the beam. I have checked the 18 ft long beam for sag and there is none. Maybe with a big snow load. I am careful to keep the wood load modest, maybe 400 pounds max. Heavier stuff just can't go there. My garage is much wider than the 2 car space so there is room to pull out 16 ft stock. You may have to keep only 10 ft stock there. Hope this helps.

Thanks, yeah I plan on having this run across 4 trusses per run so 8 mount points in total. That weight should easily be distributed across all 8 mount points so even if 500 lbs is put up there it would only be 125lbs or so on each truss.

My problem right now is determining what I want to make the run with, slotted angle iron or a 2x6 and then what to use for fastening the drops to that run with.

[Chris Fairbanks]

Kevin here is my setup. My trusses run front to back in my garage so each unistrut hits a truss every 24" with a predrilled lag screw as to not split the truss. I also put the unistrut every 24" as I balanced the load more evenly across the trusses. I then use the t nuts for unistrut attached to all thread with a double nut to lock it in. I then go to another unistrut with two more nuts. On my hardwood stack I still have 2x4 hangers as you can see but plan to swap those out for unistrut as well. This has been up here for nearly 15 years now and survived a few minor earthquakes. I used to have the plywood side stacked fully with sheets but decideded to take a bunch of the weight off as we had a swarm of earthquakes for like 6 weeks here and figured I did not need all that weight up there especially over the top of my sports car that is normally parked underneath. Home Depot should have all of the unistrut in the electrical aisle and it's fairly cheap and strong as hell.

[Alan Bienlein]

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This is how I store my veneer about my garage door. It's about 8' x 8'.

[Wade Lippman]

They just aren't designed to hold hundreds of pounds. Your photograph doesn't seem to exist, so I don't know what your trusses are, but I wouldn't want to chance it.