Attic Storage

Jason Janczak

I am usually over in the plumbing forum but, I recently put a floor up in my attic above my attached garage for storage purposes. Now, I am concerned about wieght so, I did 2 things, first I tried my best to keep most of the wife's heavier stuff out of there like boxes of books. Secondly, I spread everything out and put stuff near support areas like near walls and main truss support. I am still afraid I have too much weight up there. My main question is, other than having my garage collapsing on my cars, how do I find out what kind of support I actually have without contacting a structural engineer? Thanks in advance, Jason

SelfContract

Sell the books on eBay. Sit up there only get the pages colored/yellow/curled by summer heat and dirty dust collections. I have many book boxes I know. Damn they are heavier than my tool boxes!!.. How come they made books so heavy? I measured one big box before, it weight almost 70 lbs. Now, try to put that ten boxes on the attic, you got almost 700 lbs weight down on rafters, and soon the roof will crack or collapse!

Nowadays, I start getting rid of my paper books, get new ones only in CD-rom (electronic versions) and store in my PC to read anytime I want to read w/o finding, remembering, shelving and fumbling through stacks of unread/forget junk boxes!

neolitic

Good news!
You will see cracks at the drywall joints
before it collapses.
Bad news, if it's a 2X4 bottom chord...
it's not for storage.
If you/she insist, as close to the bearing walls
(eaves)as possible.
They are strongest there,
and not high enough to over load.

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

Jason Janczak

Thanks neolitic. I went back up today to finish a few things off and i did strategically place things near supports and walls to help distribute the weight. I also built a large shelf that is actually attached to the house wall and not the garage up in the attic so I can sleep better knowing I won't have a problem. Thanks again.

Jason