Home-made garage overhead storage...

[SixFifty]

I recently finished my third car side and decided to add some "home-made" overhead storage above the garage door track. The whole "system" cost less than $200 bucks for everything, which compared to many store bought systems, is relatively cheap for the net amount of storage space they yield... roughly 48 cubic feet.

Basically, I removed the 6 wire shelves from a rack that retails for about $70 bucks. I decided to hang the shelves with 1/4" Allthread and Fender washers. The Allthread fastens to 10 foot sticks ($7 a stick) of Unistrut via spring nuts and the Unistrut is fastened to the ceiling joists through the finished drywall with 1 and 1/2" lag screws.

The project actually turned out better than I thought it would, and when I'm able to get decent containers to store my junk in, it'll look even better. If you'd like to do something similar with Unistrut and Allthread, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

[Troy]

Looks great!!

[SixFifty]

Looks great!!

Thanks Troy... and welcome to the Garage forums!

[MorpheusGPR]

Looks good. I want to put some storage above my 3rd car slot like that where I plan to park my boat.

Can you give me a parts list?

Does the metal touch the garage door rails at all or just hang above it? Did you use lag bolts into the cieling joists up top or into the 2x4s or how did you make it secure to hold a lot of weight?

[SixFifty]

Looks good. I want to put some storage above my 3rd car slot like that where I plan to park my boat.

Can you give me a parts list?

Does the metal touch the garage door rails at all or just hang above it? Did you use lag bolts into the cieling joists up top or into the 2x4s or how did you make it secure to hold a lot of weight?

Thanks Morpheus. :)

The door rails as well as the door path aren't bothered. It's anchored by lag bolts up into the 2 x 4's. I don't know the math to tell you how much weight they can hold, but I don't put very heavy things up there anyway.

Most home garages I've seen don't really take advantage of the space above the rails, but I think it's a great way to store some stuff you use, but not very often.

Here's a link (http://www.home-garage-help.com/garage-hanging-storage.html) to my page with all the details.

[Holtff1074]

SixFifty,when i first seen this idea of yours i was kicking myself for possibly having gotten rid of some racks like those you used.My son had gave them to me as they got taken apart at a Home Supply store at which he worked. Well,i had not gotten rid of them,i found them stashed and now can plan to use them above my Garage door as well,Great idea....Thanks for sharing!

[Gunslinger]

Nice job. Looks sturdy.

[SixFifty]

Well,i had not gotten rid of them,i found them stashed and now can plan to use them above my Garage door as well,Great idea

Cool :D
They can be pretty useful with a bit of imagination, I'm glad you held on to them. It's amazing what can be made from things no one wants. Show us some pics of your project!

[Holtff1074]

Will do.....but gotta finish the build first. Details are located under the following link.

http://www.garageforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

[Hobie1dog]

been building an 11' wide storage cabinet that will have (2) 4 ft. long sliding doors this week. I had unused space on the wall that the projection screen will be on, so I am going to use it for all the misc. audio equipment I have laying around. I went and put some LED puck lights across the bottom which has a small remote button that controls the 3 levels of brightness for them...I mounted it down on the wall by the remote control for the door opener.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/hobie1dog/garage/P1020866.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/hobie1dog/garage/P1020864.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/hobie1dog/garage/P1020899.jpg

[FR8]

Made some of my own also, didn't already have the steel racks so I used (for each shelf) 4x8 1/2" plywood and 3 2x4's, 8 3/8x8" eye bolts, 8 chain quick links and 8' of chain. I have access to the attic over my garage so I drilled thru the trusses instead of lags. Braced each truss on both sides with 2x4's so no strength was lost. Added lights to the bottom of each to brighten things up in the garage (when the GD isn't open). Have had one up for a few years, finally put up the other one and stained the original while I was finishing up the rest of the garage. The one has worked great all this time, the trusses don't seem to notice the extra weight and no cracks in the ceiling. I did add 2x4's to support it from bowing down the middle, you can see the absense of them in the first pic. Here are a few pics, really simple to make and I have maybe $100 into both, 68sq ft of storage area......first a pic of the original one, then a few of them finished off.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo1xmz/garage/garage06.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo1xmz/garage/garage15.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo1xmz/garage/garage16.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo1xmz/garage/garage17.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo1xmz/garage/garage18.jpg

[watson05]

weldone, you have nice work.
but i don't know why you waste your time, even you can buy portable garage with reasonable price. portable garages need less time for installation aytime anyware.