New garage storage

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Alrighty, so we are moving in about 3 weeks.  House has a two car attached and 3 car detached garage, both heated.  There is very little storage in the house aside from closets.  The three car detached has high rafters with a large open attic.  My issue is, it has one of those pull down stair cases that looks to have been mounted about 4-6 inches to high, so it doesnt touch the ground until you put weight on it and then is very rickety.  We will be using that attic for 90% of our storage so I'm trying to figure out a better way up.  One option is to build stairs on the outside with a small storm door going in.  Another option is to try and see if there is a better pull down staircase that I could haul totes and boxes up easier, and third would be building a platform, fixing it to rails on the wall and mounting a 110v winch in the ceiling to hoist loads up and down.  Anyone have any experience with any of these, or any alternatives the would recommend?  This will be a relatively soon need for us because everything we have in storage now needs to go up there.

Thanks!

[BartmanMN]

My ladder doesn't reach the ground either so I keep a chunk of 4x8 post that it can sit on when I pull it down.

Works fine.   I suppose you could build a little box if you wanted to be fancy.

 

TB

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Not a bad idea, I didn't think about that.  Only problem is it comes down in an area where my workbench will be and If I have that out on the floor I know I'll trip daily.  Plus, we will be in and out of the attic frequently for storage, holiday decorations etc. so I'm thinking I would like to get something in place thats a little easier to carry totes up and down than that ladder.  Would like my wife to be able to come and go without worrying about her trying to get a box down from there.

[delcecchi]

9 hours ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

Not a bad idea, I didn't think about that.  Only problem is it comes down in an area where my workbench will be and If I have that out on the floor I know I'll trip daily.  Plus, we will be in and out of the attic frequently for storage, holiday decorations etc. so I'm thinking I would like to get something in place thats a little easier to carry totes up and down than that ladder.  Would like my wife to be able to come and go without worrying about her trying to get a box down from there.

Put some feet on the bottom of the stairs.  When it is up, they will be hidden, or hanging from the ceiling.  Might need to be hinged, I haven't looked at exactly how they are made. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Yeah I could do that.  I guess ultimately I'm looking for something a little easier up and down  with a large volume of boxes.  I may look further at a winch platform to lift, could do many at a time that way.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Moon Lake Refuge

[Walleyehooker]

I would put a staircase either outside or inside if possible and may help get heat up there if needed. Especially if you plan on moving and storing a bunch of stuff. And get rid of the rickety ladder.

Could also put in one of those fireman poles to get down  I always wanted one of those.

[PurpleFloyd]

Before you fill it up, do you know how much additional load the trusses can take and how much weight you plan on adding?

Also, what is your budget?

[Moon Lake Refuge]

It's a garage listed as a loft build.  2x6 floor beneath the trusses to it will take a good amount of weight and I'm not putting much for weight up there more so just a bunch of bigger boxes spread out.  I will be good as far as weight goes.  Budget would like to be a couple hundred but would go to 5ish if I throw in stairs.  And the fire pole may be the best idea yet! 

Edited March 24, 2017 by Moon Lake Refuge

[Moon Lake Refuge]

2 minutes ago, rl_sd said:

How close is the access hole to the wall? I have a friend that built a large loft in his shed and utilized cammed pulleys and weights to allow him to hinge the stairway from the loft. Basically, with the cammed pulley, it stays down when he pulls it down and stays up when he puts it up... all with little to no effort.

Access is in the middle but I'm not overly concerned with that.  I can seal it up and cut a new one.  I'm thinking about slide channels mounted on the wall with a steel or aluminum frame mounted to the channels that can slide up and down with a electric winch routed through a couple pulleys. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Kind of crude image but here is what I'm looking at.

Edited March 24, 2017 by Moon Lake Refuge
The top ceiling is up in the rafters. The line the channels pass through would be the ceiling of the garage.

[PurpleFloyd]

14 hours ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

It's a garage listed as a loft build.  2x6 floor beneath the trusses to it will take a good amount of weight and I'm not putting much for weight up there more so just a bunch of bigger boxes spread out.  I will be good as far as weight goes.  Budget would like to be a couple hundred but would go to 5ish if I throw in stairs.  And the fire pole may be the best idea yet! 

After a quarter century in the construction sector I learned you should take your budget, double it and add another 10%. That gets most people in the ballpark anyway lol. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Yeah I know it always adds up.  I have done some construction work and a bit of home wiring and plumbing so I can usually come pretty close to price.  The parts that always kill me are when I need to go back to the store for a 30 cent bolt or something really small that just kills ya to make the trip ha!

[PurpleFloyd]

Well, I think the dumb waiter concept would be pretty cool.