Help I have a large 2 car garage that has a nice large attic space that could be used for storage. I understand the ceiling joist are not the same as a floor joist and are not made to hold weight especially as mine are 2×4’s so I wanted to sister them to strength them. So I am not ripped off when I hire someone to do this for me I need to understand how this is done. Can anyone help?
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There are about a dozen different ways to do this, some safe, some not. Some "code legal", some not (and not necessarily coinciding with what's safe). And a lot depends on how much weight you intend to put up there.
P.E.
A professional engineer would be able to help you with this project.
did you not ask this same thing about 2 weeks ago?
post a picture of the attic showing the "joist" so that everyone (except numbnuts who will talk till his blue in the face that you need an engineer) can give their thoughts.
did you not ask this same thing about 2 weeks ago?
Notice the original date. It was a double post (which happens quite a bit with newbies).
AAAAHhh...gotcha. thx.
This post is a perfect example of it's effectiveness.
Good one
That's a good one Dan. However, the culprit for the confused memory is called censorship. The Russians and Chinese have been successful with this technique for many, many years. Apparently it works very well on the prol's.
Whats prol's? Progressive Liberals?
informal abbrev for
Proletarian. But if you want to believe otherwise, more power to you.
Thanks
I now have a new word in my vocabulary. And I am one.
Boy, someone sure got up on the wrong side of the casket!
Well, ladies ... hope everyone is over their PMS!
OK, here's the deal ...
Folks typically 'rip off' themselves when they pay the least possible. The direct result of this frugality is that you get the least possible. For garages, this means you get a design that just barely meets code and won't hold an extra blackbird.
The penny-shaving design of roof trusses is a fine art. Unusual lumber sizes are used so that the truss has not an extra ounce of strength anywhere in the design. That's why trusses are all factory-made and delivered to the site complete. They're designed to be used with no modification.
Making them 'stronger' takes more than simply sistering some lumber to them. The bottom part of the truss is more intended to prevent the ends from spreading, than for supporting ANY vertical load.
Sure, you can 'get away' with hanging a bicycle or putting Christmas ornaments up there- but if you want to suport serious weight (such as tax files), you'll need to construct an independent framework.