Freestanding Shop Loft and Homemade Elevator?

[Chips O'Toole]

Now that my shop is becoming orderly and functional, I am trying to think of ways to increase floor and wall space. I have considered welding up some shelves, but it occurred to me that they would take up floor area and be in the way. I am now thinking of building a loft with an elevator instead.

The idea is to use wasted space over my head, including wall space. I could use the floor of the loft to hold things like my portable table saw, pressure washer, jack hammer, and generator. I could put shelves on the wall in the space from 7 feet up to the 12-foot ceiling, and I could use the shelves for things that are rarely used but too good to throw out.

I started looking at loft videos, and then I realized a loft is the same thing as a deck, so I looked at deck videos, too.

I was expecting to have to anchor one side of the loft to the wall, but I just saw a video featuring a freestanding loft. This seems like a great idea. It's easier to put legs on a loft than to bolt it to a concrete wall, and I can't think of any reason why a wall would be better. I would also have the option of moving the loft with my tractor if I decided to rearrange the shop.

I want an elevator because a staircase would take up over 30 square feet, it would be in the way, and it would stick out into the area where I want to put things like vehicles and the tractor. I have seen a bunch of videos about shopmade elevators, and they are surprisingly easy to build.

Has anyone here done a freestanding loft or an elevator? Seems like genius to me. I have seen people complain about safety issues with the elevator, but then my shop contains a lathe which can roll an arm up like a sock, grinders that can throw disks through a face, a table saw that can make several fingers disappear in an instant, and various other things that are scarier than a slow-moving platform.

If I built this thing, I would have around 70 square feet of room under it for an electronics area, and the elevator itself would serve as a workbench when not in use.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Now that my shop is becoming orderly and functional, I am trying to think of ways to increase floor and wall space. I have considered welding up some shelves, but it occurred to me that they would take up floor area and be in the way. I am now thinking of building a loft with an elevator instead.

The idea is to use wasted space over my head, including wall space. I could use the floor of the loft to hold things like my portable table saw, pressure washer, jack hammer, and generator. I could put shelves on the wall in the space from 7 feet up to the 12-foot ceiling, and I could use the shelves for things that are rarely used but too good to throw out.

I started looking at loft videos, and then I realized a loft is the same thing as a deck, so I looked at deck videos, too.

I was expecting to have to anchor one side of the loft to the wall, but I just saw a video featuring a freestanding loft. This seems like a great idea. It's easier to put legs on a loft than to bolt it to a concrete wall, and I can't think of any reason why a wall would be better. I would also have the option of moving the loft with my tractor if I decided to rearrange the shop.

I want an elevator because a staircase would take up over 30 square feet, it would be in the way, and it would stick out into the area where I want to put things like vehicles and the tractor. I have seen a bunch of videos about shopmade elevators, and they are surprisingly easy to build.

Has anyone here done a freestanding loft or an elevator? Seems like genius to me. I have seen people complain about safety issues with the elevator, but then my shop contains a lathe which can roll an arm up like a sock, grinders that can throw disks through a face, a table saw that can make several fingers disappear in an instant, and various other things that are scarier than a slow-moving platform.

If I built this thing, I would have around 70 square feet of room under it for an electronics area, and the elevator itself would serve as a workbench when not in use.

Elevators are very very expensive.
Consider Pallet racking along one or more perimeters and a hydraulic or manual pallet stacker to move items and even smaller machines around as needed.

Of course this also works with a deck/mezzanine/loft which you could also use pull down ladder to access in conjunction with pallet stacker

 

[Bi11Hudson]

I could use the floor of the loft to hold things like my portable table saw, pressure washer, jack hammer, and generator.

I admire and concur with most of the idea. especially using the tracter to "rearrange" the whole structure when needed. I would like to throw a couple of considerations at you.

The first is where or how the weight of the mezzanine is supported. A concrete slab has quite supportive but concentrating that weight on a few points(legs) may well cause cracking or sinking if things got overloaded. In industrial applications, and likely building codes, such a support is cut into the footers below. A "monolithic" slab is very common in Florida. One where the footers are cast as part of the slab. They usually have good strength around the edges but not so much so out in the center of the floor. If it was poured as a "generic" shop building, it may be thinner towards the middle. When I built my "barn" it was 32 feet by nominal width. There were two wings of 10 feet and 12 feet in the center. Since I intended to use a second story in the middle, the floor was cast thicker with extra rebar in the two areas where the supporting walls would be located. I did the work myself, there was no "inspection", I just did what felt right. Structural engineering is not really my forte'. I figured 20 yards of concrete, it took 19 plus.

Another point of interest is "what" is to be stored there. In the first place, I wouldn't be placing any "running" machines up there. You will find that running "upstairs" to make a single cut to be a PITA on a good day. Machine and tools that are not regularly used will do well "in storage". A generator is one of those "iffy" machines that is very seldom needed. On the other hand, when you do need it you need it NOW without running upstairs and digging it out. Plus the hazard of fuel, but that can devolve into a book on its' own.

Then there is the matter of an "elevator". To simplify the thought, just imagine the power is down and you need your generator stored up there. But without power to get the generator down. What do you do??? The idea behind the elevator is good solid forethought. But there should be a stairwell as well. A pull down ladder as suggested above is a great idea, just pull it down to run up there then anything too heavy to handle with one hand goes on the elevator. One hand to balance with, always. Basic safety at the front.

Perhaps a "toggle" mechanism that can be manually cranked up or down. Then consider the lifting mechanism. A block and tackle arrangement with balanced attachments would be simplist. But that would require reinforcement of the roof structure. The lines would preferably need to be cable, I wouldn't trust grass or nylon ropes not to stretch or wear, or rot. Perhaps a hydraulic assisted toggle mechanism is not so far afield after all. As long as you have power to run the hydraulics. . . But a toggle mechanism would require space, which in any home shop is at a premium. This could easily digress into a book, become an engineer and think through the many aspects before commiting to anything.

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[Chips O'Toole]

If you think elevators are expensive, you may not be aware of what your fellow home shop nuts have been up to. I'll post a video. This idea has been around for at least a decade.

You can do it for something like a thousand dollars, with stuff from Home Depot and Harbor Freight. Some guys are making them from wood, but since I can weld, I would be able to make something less clumsy.

Good tip about the slab, but I'm not worried They rolled my 4000-pound lathe in on it, on a telehandler that weighed more than twice as much. The loft would weigh less than a thousand pounds, and I doubt I could get more than half a ton of stuff onto it. I'm thinking of something around 6 feet wide and 12 feet long, and a lot of the stuff would be on shelves mounted to the wall.

I would never put anything upstairs if I had to get to it often. I try to arrange things so I can walk right up to machines and turn them on. I've put a lot of things on wheels because I had to, so there are things I have to roll out for use, but I know convenience is a very important part of shop layout.

I have jugs of shop fluids I may not need for years. I have empty gas jugs. I have a big sprayer that sits on my utility cart. Then there is my collection of old paint.

I'm not worried about having the generator stuck in the loft. We always have lots of warning before tropical storms come through. Besides, if the generator were stuck in the loft due to an outage, I could run the generator to power the elevator. I would put in a ladder, though.

The tractor has been useful in the shop more than once. I lifted my Gorton grinder to put it on the mobile base I made, and I also picked up the giant wooden shelf unit that was in my shop, backed it out, and turned it. Life without a tractor is too scary to think about.

The loft itself would be pretty easy, but I would have to figure out how to frame it with a recess for the elevator.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

If you ever have any accident related to the elevator your insurer will deny your claim.

I was referring to code complaint residential and shop elevators which are both safe, and insurable.

A person I met in Quebec a few weeks back stores every one of his heavy cast iron commercial wood working machines on pallet racking, and pulls down each machine as needed in just seconds. He has a tiny space in a one car garage but that it has the loft height to put in the racking makes the space usable. I plan to copy that idea when I build my shop.

 

[Chips O'Toole]

You mean you GUESS they will deny the claim. And what do I care? I can easily afford to replace the kind of junk I would put in the loft. And my homeowner's deductible is so high, it exceeds the value of anything I would lift.

 

[tq60]

Pallet racking is the answer.

Pre-engineered and assembles without tools.

Add some 1.125 Plytainium subfloor that is span rated 48 inch and done.

The supports can be used s walls for wall mount stuff.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[Chips O'Toole]

Are you suggesting building a loft from pallet racking?

I am looking at it online. It appears to be industrial shelving made from steel, with shelves that are mesh or just isolated slats. I see no way to walk around on it or roll heavy things on it. Is there a way to put a floor on it? I'm sure you're not suggesting I put my odds and ends on pallets, which I could never lift. How would pallet racks be used in a home shop?

I had a tenant who built a mezzanine from something similar. I think he added plywood flooring.

 

[Chips O'Toole]

Here's a video of a guy who put up pallet racks and then added a shopmade elevator.

 

[extropic]

Has anyone here done a freestanding loft or an elevator?

I have used pallet rack to build a 8' x 12' mezzanine in a one car garage. The intent was dead storage and seasonal tires (not real heavy stuff). My installation was side wall to side wall so I didn't worry about loads other than vertical. I used two each uprights at each wall and had four each beams cut/welded to my desired length so the uprights were snug against the walls. I used Interlake (teardrop) type pallet racking (same type as Home Depot). IIRC, the uprights were about 3' wide, so they were spaced about 2' apart to achieve the 8' dimension. I laid 2x4s (the weak way) about every 2' in the recesses provided in the beams then decked it with 3/4 Melamine MDF so it would be smooth and easy to clean. Get the deepest beams you can (6"?) for load capacity and you can mount lighting underneath which will still be higher than the lower edge of the beams.

Regarding an elevator: I think the easiest way to deal with it is to install something in your ceiling that will support a hoist and build a cargo platform with four posts and spreaders. You go up using a ladder (easily stored and doesn't have much of a footprint) and hoist the cargo up/down on the platform. Leave the platform up when not in use (uses zero floor space).