I now have one car in long term storage in my garage and is taking up a lot of space. There is currently a set of cupboards behind it which means the front of the car is right up against the garage door. There isn’t much in the cupboards and it isn’t anything that is regularly accessed.

I was thinking of building a shelf that will hang down from the rafters but be above the height of the car. This way the car car be stored flush against the back of the garage leaving more room at the front of the garage door to get in and out. The stuff in the cupboards would get moved to the shelf and everything is good.

Before I start building I was wondering if there is anything fundamentally flawed in the idea/design.

Also, what screws/bolts to fix the timber together and to the joists?

The plan is not to have too much weight on the shelf but I know the wife will pile everything onto it so stronger is better

At the moment it only shows two sets of supports. I can put more in. How many and how far apart?

could you build a frame that went *up* from car with shelf on top – avoid putting any weight on the joists then?

could have it attached to a wall at one side and with ‘legs’ down the other side of the car?

could even have it so it just lifted clear of wall once emptied so you have easy access to car?

kind of like your diagram but the other way up?

I thought about that but the garage is high enough to have the shelf hanging above head height and still get decent storage.

This has the advantage of not reducing the floor space in the garage and not blocking the window which goes across the back of the garage.

fair enough. I’d look to put some trianglulation in ther and have it hanging from as many different joists as possible.

run ‘beams’ under the ply along it’s length to support it – you might get away 1with 6mm that way.

Triangulation makes sense if I can do it without obstructing the shelf area too much.

Struts lengthways to support the ply also a good idea.

Comments like this is why I post these ideas up here. Keep them coming.

Bolts or screws to hold the wood frame together?

I had something like that in my garage – I screwed flexi-shelving brackets to the rafters. Took a lot of weight – the local street party Santa’s sleigh was up there for a couple of years!

this stuff

Still use it to hang bikes.

our garage had a line of pallets hanging on string tied to nails in the joists as high level storage when we moved in – I think you can over engineer some of these solutions if you’re not careful 🙂

I will check it out Dez, looks like it would be easier but I do have the timber already which makes it cheaper.

Using the timber also reduces the amount of clutter I need to put on the shelf 😉

Ours is tied to the walls

they have released me early on the strict understanding that I take drugs and stay in bed all day. Didn’t seem like a bad demand.

You can’t keep a good man down 😉

I had that sort of arrangment in my garage but I took it down as it was casting large shadows when the lights were on. That and I didn’t need the storage. It worked fine and looked like it could take a fair load but I suspect that it was a bit overengineered given the size of the bolts that I took out!

i wish i had pics but my mate mike has a 911 in his garage with a floor above for all his garage stuff.. granted he has to push the car in and out but it solves all the space issues for bikes etc..

he has a std breeze block construction single garage but has put joists at right angles to the length and supported them with those metal brackets. floored it then with 20mm chip board and a set of steps to get up to it which he pulls out from under the car..

using the same principle .. but on a cheap skate budget i built a 8 x 4 shelf above my motobikes for my push bikes with a sheet of play and some 2 x 2 for legs..

I’ve got the same arrangement to your first pic in my rented garage. Not allowed to screw to the wall so I’ve used rope for uprights and they just wrap around the joists. the shelf is a sheet of osb and a softwood frame to stiffen it. Pretty sure it’s 100% junk on it, though

Mine is a double garage so can’t tie both sides into the wall. I guess I could use rafter hangers on the wall side and then just use the rafters to support the other.

It is in the corner of the garage and the window will let light in beneath it so shadows shouldn’t be an issue.

Your diagram is spot on really, especially as you’ve got the materials. A couple of 4″ nr12 screws at each corner through the 50×50 uprights into the joists and into the ‘base’ and the thing ain’t going anywhere. Couple of supports beneath across the base and it’ll be rock solid. It doesn’t need triangles or fixing to any more joists in my opinion, unless you store something ridiculously heavy on it. All assuming the wood isn’t total gash that you left behind the shed 10 years ago of course.

I have a quick question,

how are you going to get up to the rafters to screw/bolt the shelf in place? You are not going to use a ladder are you?

You are not going to use a ladder are you?

ouch.

Ladder – what could possibly go wrong?

Mine is a double garage so can’t tie both sides into the wall.

Beam down the middle of the garage (front to back), put joint hangers on either wall then put joists up supported by the wall at one end and beam a the other. Screw down chipboard flooring and you’ve got a great storage area

The sauna would get in the way but I guess I could sort of make it work

I was going to suggest ‘ladder hooks’, but someone got ‘ladders’ in before me 😉

And sell the car, it’ll only lose value.

lose value?!?

It is an appreciating asset!!

If it doesnt go up to the walls then make sure things can’t get pushed off the edges and land on the car.

I’got a similar setup to your drawing but just with cross pieces to take lengths of timber. It was put up by the previous owner and not as well over engineered as anything I’d put up but it’s got loads up on it and hasn’t fallen down in the 11 years we’ve been here.