garage loft space, boards and truss roof

[petebrooks]

Hi, I was planning to part board my garage truss roof for light to moderate storage purposes, but after lots of reading here and elsewhere I'm starting to think this is not a good idea as the trusses are not designed to carry this additional load. the area I'm planning to board is quite small really, just 2m x 2.4m approx and would span the entire width of the garage, from roughly the middle of the garage lengthways to roughly 1m from the far wall

To find a way round this is it possible for me to build a framework slightly above the bottom chords of the trusswork to lay boarding onto ? And more importantly how do I attach it ? I was thinking of anchor bolting some 2"x4" timber to each side wall then spanning it with some 63mm stud timber, end on, at quite narrow centres (say 20cm) to act as rafters to lay the boards onto.

Is anchor bolting to the wall stong enough ? does it have to have support posts ? is this even a good idea or have i taken leave of my senses ?

Any advice would be appreciated...

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Just stick some T&G chipboard flooring sheets down and lay them on the existing trusses and be sensible about what you store up there. Shove a couple of screws in if it makes you feel better. I've been in dozens of garages where people have utilised this space like this. Many on here don't seem to appreciate that whilst they look and feel pretty flimsy the trusses are designed for and can cope with a couple of fat builders clambering about on them when they're installed.

And low and behold before the usual suspects start up provided the garage doesn't have hole in the roof the chipboard seems to last for decades.

 

[swanny65]

Just boarded my garages centre roof space and don't see a problem with it as long as you are sensible with what you store up there.
I used 8 x 4 sheets of 18mm chipboard cut in half and screwed onto the trusses.
Where two sheets of chipboard rest on a single truss I screwed a piece of 3 x 2 onto that truss to give a wider area to fix the chipboard onto.

 

[tony1851]

DON'T USE CHIPBOARD WHATEVER YOU DO! If there's a hole in the garage roof, it gets wet and ends up like Weetabix!.