Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
the roof coming down.
He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
the rock would be too great.
On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 23:19:33 GMT, [email protected] (Kevin Carbis)
wrote:
>Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
>garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
>two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
>it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
>trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
>little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
>at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
>them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
>the roof coming down.
>
>He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
>the rock would be too great.
May not be relivant, but I built shelving into my attic trusses. I
glued/screwed 2x4 supports into the V's, then screwed 3/4" thick
solid pine boards to the 2x4s. I have maybe 200 lbs of stuff stored
over five struss supports. Making triangles into the trusses will
generally stiffen the truss and support the shelving. Wood can be
rather heavy, depending on how much you want to store up there.
"Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
That's true - in general the trusses are engineered to hold the roof up.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
My entire house, albeit built in late 90's, is a trussed roof. The cieling
is completely 'rocked.
Although I've walked on the trusses in my attic many times, I don't think
I'd put anything very heavy on them without planks/plywood to distribute the
weight.
Talk to an engineer/architect/inspector.
You have a simple truss system most likely. 2x4s are hardly recommended in
general house construction and only used (usually) for storage sheds with
very little (relative) dead load.
I have a solution (Maybe): often 2x6 or 2x8 (depending on original design
and usage) are recommended if you tend to use them as storage. I take it
that your trusses are open in the garage. Take a 2x6 and add it along side
the 2x4 truss cord, you may have to cut an angle to fit the ends under the
roof line. The weight of the storage will now be stored on the 2x6 and not
2x4. How much can be stored depends on span (distance between walls) Type
of wood (southern yellow pine or general white pine/spruce) and spacing (24"
or 16" o.c.) If they sag you are nearing a limit.
If you want an Idea as to dead load ratings of a 2x6, modern code often
lists the specifications for various sized 2xs used for floor joists.
--
Young Carpenter
"Save a Tree, Build Furniture"
"Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
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I looked at some new houses in the Houston area that have that type set up.
The sales department said absolutely NOT for storage. I believed him when
I looked at the attic pull down ladder that was heavily reinforced. The
ladder was right next to the furnace and A/C unit. The water heater that is
now normally put in the attics was on the ground floor.
"Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
"Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
I don't know the details of the design, but he is essentially correct. Do
you know the original builder or who made the trusses? They could give you
a more definitive answer.
Trusses are used in a lot of house construction and they are sheetrocked,
but they are designed to hold it. There may be some weight limitations with
yours, but only the designer or an experienced, knowledgeable person can
answer that.
Ed
"tnfkajs" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> > garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> > two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> > it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> > trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> > little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> > at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> > them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> > the roof coming down.
>
> That's true - in general the trusses are engineered to hold the roof up.
>
> >
> > He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> > the rock would be too great.
>
> My entire house, albeit built in late 90's, is a trussed roof. The
cieling
> is completely 'rocked.
>
> Although I've walked on the trusses in my attic many times, I don't think
> I'd put anything very heavy on them without planks/plywood to distribute
the
> weight.
>
> Talk to an engineer/architect/inspector.
True an engineer will tell you if this is OK.
If you are going to load the trusses, the correct place to load them is at
the points where the boards are attached to each other. Trusses are designed
so that the elements are either in compression or tension (the force acts
directly along the longitudinal axis of the members) as this gives the
greatest strength for the least material. Loading the truss at other points
causes bending which may reduce the compressive strength and therefore cause
the truss to fail.
I'd think that you are fairly safe by sheet rocking them. And you are
probably OK if you are storing light things like sleeping bags an the like,
but you want to beef them up if you are storing stacks of lumber up there.
If it is an attic space I think it is recommended that you use a load of
10lbs per square foot and 20 if you are going to be storing things. Codes
vary.
-Jack
Bottom line: I probably wouldn't worry about sheetrock, but would
recommend storing significant amounts of lumber. Everything depends
on the specific situation of course, after all trusses are used to
carry all kinds of loads, but I'd think you'd find that most modern
houses (last 20 years) use trusses for the roofing. For the trusses
over the living space, there's sheetrock nailed to the undersides.
That's my current and previous house and they're still standing. A
lot of houses use trusses for the floor supports as well because you
can have much greater spans than with solid lumber.
But it obviously depends on their design as to how much load they can
carry.
Another sweeping generalization is that lumber storage would probably
not be a great idea, as it is fairly heavy and you could get a pretty
high load in a pretty small space. When I built my shop, which is in
my basement, the inspector made me close in my ceiling so I wouldn't
use the space between the joists (which were dimensional lumber) for
lumber storage because he was concerned about overloading the joists.
If I recall, the general design load for decks (which probably is the
same or close to that for interior home construction, and not
applicable to roof trusses) that drives joist size, span and spacing
is a 40# live load and a 100# dead load per square foot. I only know
that because I had to provide a analysis with my deck to show the
deflection in the joists & beams and acceptable footer loads with my
planned (yet to be realized ... sigh) hot tub. A hot tub is a lot
heavier than lumber, but that deck structure is far more massive than
any house framing I've ever seen too. Not that helps, but may be of
interest.
[email protected] (Kevin Carbis) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
"Kevin Carbis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
> garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
> two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
> it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
> trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
> little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
> at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
> them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
> the roof coming down.
>
> He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
> the rock would be too great.
Two suggestions.
Contact your local building inspector's office and make an inquiry there. I
had some business with these folks on occasion and saw contractors in there
discussing beams and trusses with an inspector.
If it were a problem, you may (I am guessing) be able to reiforce the
trusses to make them stronger. Again, check with the building inspector
before doing this.
On 15 Aug 2003 07:57:34 -0700, [email protected] (Kevin Carbis)
wrote:
>Recently moved and have been slowly getting the shop together in my
>garage. The house is a basic California 2-story built in 1977. Just
>two-thirds of the back wall of the garage is attached to the house and
>it has its own roof. That roof is held up by what I understand to be
>trusses made of 3/8" plywood and 2x4's. My brother-in-law knows a
>little about these things and tells me that the trusses are very good
>at holding weight up but aren't made to have anything stored "in
>them". I'd like to use the space for wood storage but I don't want
>the roof coming down.
>
>He suggested that I couldn't even sheetrock the ceiling, the weight of
>the rock would be too great.
This is possible, but not likely. One would have to see the
trusses to know. If I were you, I would find someone who knows more
than your brother-in-law and have them look at it. If you can't find
anyone else to ask, pose the question to your local building
inspector. They are supposed to know these things.
Also, the way you describe the house, it seems to me that
probably other houses in your neighborhood have the same or similar
configuration. Go talk to your neighbors. (Good way to meet your new
neighbors.) See what their experience is. Take a look at who is
storing what in their garage and if anyone has had problems or if you
can see any sagging. Draw on their quarter-century of experience.
Good luck.
Peter