Overhead Garage Storage Rack Installation
I would like to offer a few pointers on the installation of overhead garage storage racks. I have learned the hard way, having installed over 5000 racks from 11 different manufacturers. I will cover the basics of installation that will work on any garage overhead shelf you should encounter.
Wall Mount Shelfs
Locating the Truss for Hanging Ceiling Racks
I cannot stress enough, that the most important job that you will do is to locate the center of every truss in your ceiling to insure a secure mounting for your overhead garage shelves. If your garage ceiling is un-finished, the job of centering the truss is a lot easier. I am assuming that you are working on a finished ceiling with the trusses hidden by wall board.
I have no problem using a stud finder to locate the truss, but I would like to tell you about a simple method to use in conjunction with the finder. This method will remove all doubt as to your position on the truss you wish to mount the garage racks to. Let me back up for a second. All ceiling mounted shelves or racks will require you to drive screws or lag bolts through some type of ceiling mount into the roof trusses.
Making Sure You Find the Center of the Truss for Strong, Safe, Overhead Garage Storage Racks
It goes without saying that if you don't hit the center of each truss, you could have a very weak connection and a possible failure of the hanging ceiling racks.
When drilling across the face of every truss I place a stick pin into the wall board at the center. Stick pins are a great way to layout a shelf on the ceiling and mark the spots for pilot holes. Another must do! You must always drill pilot holes before driving any lag or screw into a truss. If you fail to do this, you can expect to split the roof truss and weaken the mount.
I highly recommend that you layout the mounting points of your overhead shelf using stick pins to mark the drill points. This allows you to trial fit all of the connection points before you commit to hanging the first section.
You are going to find sections of the ceiling where the trusses are in odd spots. You will find this sometimes when you are trying to mount a rack in a corner with a hip roof. You will sometimes find trusses going two different directions in a very small area. You will find trusses to be either 16" or 24" apart. In some cases TGI trusses in a garage with a second story overhead will sometimes be 20" apart. This is why researching the truss locations in advance is so important. Once you have mounted your overhead garage rack secured to the ceiling you are ready to start putting your extra storage items up and out of the way.