Garage shelving ideas??

[Pablo]

I have now a decent sized 3 car garage. Essentially new slate starting with bare walls and no shelves. I have about 1 gigatons of crap to store. 12 ft Walls are finished, rafters are exposed.

Finished product should = space for 2 cars and all our stuff stored.

I have googled and got some good ideas for shelves - but not quite what I want. Also, I have to do this on the cheap. I have skills, and wood working tools but limited cash.

 

[ikeepmychevytoo]

Do you need open or closed shelves? How much importance for dust or visual crowd? Covers can be substitued cheaply with textile or plastic materials (drop shades, curtains). For hard covers we seldom need that 1/3" thichness boards really. Going thin, chemically threated industrial chipboards are better to prevent future bending issues.

How much this things actually are? I recently needed book shelves and measured them in lenght before shopping. "6 meter of books" sounded funny but worked perfect.

Lighting. If you have edaquate lighting you can use each space more efficiently. Believe me, this is not an overstating.

Clever structure lessens hardware need. Substituting the structrual or supporting elements with metal pipes may drop the expenses as you can find suitable fixtures. A cross-tie backside maintains the diagonal stability hence less sectional area needed for vertical supports, two shims and one bolt makes a good tension adjuster hence you may use wires for this purpose. There are also ready-made things in the hardware stores.
For vertical supports 2*8 or 4*4 sections may cost the same but 2*8 placed lengtwise with fixtures both sides may handle the diagonal stability alone (how much stability in every direction.)

 

[ikeepmychevytoo]

edit:
Rafters exposed? Let's measure the crap, if the size of the craps are in harmony with the rafters spacing then you already have the half of your structurrals. Also you might want to search for lofting details in architecture. There are good books for this but I bet one costs the price of your whole project.

umph... intead of editing I've quoted

 

[T-Keith]

Why not three cars, it's a three car garage right?

I like using old kitchen cabinets for storage. The short ones(usually uppers above stoves, fridges, ect) are great for oil, spray cans, and other normal height liquids. Put a piece of particle board on them and you can store stuff on top.

-T

 

[drm7]

Do what my dad did when I was a kid. Build a structure with 18-24 inch shelf depth out of 2x4 (floor to ceiling) and cut shelves out of plywood or OSB. He has had these shelves for 20 years, even moved them from VA to SC. They are strong and cheap to build. You can paint or stain to your taste.

 

[Kestas]

Good ideas above. I prefer open shelves because my garage is a working garage. Cabinet doors would just get in the way of my daily activities.

Instead of 2x4 framing I opted to go with 10"x12" metal brackets that I find are strong enough to hold a lot of shelf weight and make the shelves more open.

I also use 16" or 24" depth shelves (2 or 3 widths ripped from 4'x8' plywood). Use 3/4" nominal plywood... anything thinner will sag under the wight of your stuff.

Also measure the height of what you want to store for maximum use of shelf spacing (oil bottles, spray cans, antifreeze jugs) with just a bit of head space.

 

[Schmoe]

I'd go with drm7. Done the same thing in my garage and they give you the room you want, and you could just about store a V8 on them as they are strong as nails. I'd shelve one side against the wall, all the way up to the rafters and space the shelves with what your going to be putting in them. Then, I'd shelve the other side the same way. That way, you can walk inbetween them, but on the side that is open, you can access if from where your cars are and store stuff for them like the car vac, waxes and most important....the OIL.

 

[1sttruck]

I built freestanding shelves at the back of the garage, using 2x4 framing and 4x8 particle board reinforced with a 2x2 frame. The particle board was dumb as it's heavy, I'd use plywood next time. I needed a design that I could assemble by myself, so I built the 4x8 shelves and stacked them with 2x4s, also using 2x4s on the frame and for cross bracing. Experiments with foot long pieces of 2x4 assembled with an offset with drywall screws, smacking one end with a hammer, resulted in me using drywall screws for compresion loads and nails for shear loads, as the drywall screws popped every time. I spaced the shelves to use a standard size of Rubbermaid container.

 

[kenw]

I hung mine from the rafters, means no floor space was taken up, won't tip either. Exposed rafters makes it even simpler. In a shallow garage, it means the hood or the cars can still go all the way in, the shelves are suspended above it.

Wouldn't use particle board for anything, as oil, chemicals etc make it swell and disintegrate. Plywood or OSB only.

 

[TooManyWheels]

A note on the drywall screws mentioned above. Drywall screws are notoriously weak, so don't rule out screws because of that one experience.

 

[2Fast4U]

Sams sells some heavy duty stainless steel rolling shelves. I bought some... they are easy to assemble and roll very easy. My recommendation... get some type of rolling shelve.

 

[1sttruck]

For light duty shelving on the othe rwalls I used some of the light gauge steel shelves, you know, the wobbly ones, but I mounted them 1/2 height on the wall. With the bracing on the sides and the frames screwed into some 1x4 that was screwed to the wall studs, the shelves are very sturdy. The approx 4ft of space under the shelves is handy for desks and other stuff.

 

[Pablo]

Dang good ideas. Thanks.

 

[T-Keith]

I keep all shelving above 6' or 4' so I can walk or park something underneath, depending on the area. This allows me to have two cars in a two car garage with a work bench and room around the vehicles.