Lumber Racks

[Bruce King]

Just remembered a safety issue that everyone with a wall stud mounted lumber rack needs to check. A common method is to fasten two vertical members to wall studs and install something to these to lay lumber on. The loads on these wall studs is acting in a manner that is essentially trying to pull the top of the wall studs out. The top needs angle metal to bolt to the ceiling joists so the angle is essentially blocking the movement of the wall studs. If you don’t have a ceiling within reach for this you will need some other method to keep the top of the studs from coming out because with enough lumber it will.

[Matthew Curtis]

I am having a hard time picturing what you mean. For a pic.

[Brian Tymchak]

Bruce, I hope you are not speaking from personal experience...

I was also concerned about loading lumber on a wall mounted rack and opted for a single cantilever design that sits on the floor. For my storage needs it sits in roughly the same footprint that a wall mounted rack would have

[David Walser]

These, or something similar, are required by code in most parts of the country. They are often called 'hurricane ties'. It provides a more secure attachment of the roof rafters to the wall, preventing the roof from lifting in strong winds. If attached to the studs, instead of just to the top plate, they also prevent a stud from being pulled out of the wall. My shop building, which is more than twenty years old, has a little longer version of these. The bottom two holes are nailed to the stud and the top two go into the top plate.

There are other types of metal ties that serve a similar purpose. This picture is the first one that came up in my google search.

simpson-strong-tie-metal-straps-h3-64_1000.jpg

[Bruce King]

I built one a long time ago in my 2nd shop. Since I had 4x4s going vertical to the ceiling I just put angle metal across two ceiling joists for each 4x4 that was up against the 4x4s essentially clamping them to the wall.

Don’t just brace the wall studs. Brace the rack to the ceiling joists.
Build it all the way to the ceiling so it can be braced.

[Bruce Page]

I put my small rack up in the mid 90’s. I was worried about the side load and discussed it with a civil engineer friend. He was not too concerned. The surrounding sheet rock has not developed any cracks in the 20+ years since.