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Attic storage with trusses

Attic storage with trusses

Attic storage with trusses

(OP)
I spent some time looking through the forums, and while I found a few threads that helped answer a few of my questions, I figured the uniqueness of my situation required a new thread. I'm looking to use some attic space for storage and had a question for the structurals out there with regard to how much weight I can put up there.

My house is part of a townhouse cluster. From the outside the roof seems united over all units, however the trusses supporting the roof do not pass between units (I hope that makes sense). My roof is 32' Wide, about 6/12 pitch, and made of mono truss. So the attic slopes from about 16' high to nothing. The vast majority of all the trussing is made of 2x4 with the exception of about an 8' section of bottom chord that is made of 2x10. The space over the 2x10 bottom chord is the most open in the attic. The 8' section of 2x10 has 2x4 webbing connected to the left and right ends of it rising in and inverted V to a point about 12' up. Looking at the truss from left to right, with the left side being 16' tall and the right sloping to 0, the leftmost 8' of bottom chord is the 2x10.

My first reaction was to assume that the 2x10 section was designed for attic storage, however I wanted to get some other opinions. Would there ever be a reason to design a truss like mine with a section of 2x10 bottom chord other than to use for attic storage??

I apologize in advance for the verbose and most likely inadequate description of the trusses...

Any help would be much appreciated...

Thanks








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RE: Attic storage with trusses

I think you are correct in thinking that the section with the 2 x 10 bottom chord has been designed for attic storage. You should try to obtain drawings of the structure, which should indicate the design loads.

RE: Attic storage with trusses

If the space is big enough to fit boxes, then it should have been designed for 20 psf live load (which is attic storage load). As long as you are not stacking your old library book collection, you should be fine for most things stored in attic..

RE: Attic storage with trusses

(OP)
OK thanks.... I've requested drawings, so hopefully that makes things clearer....

RE: Attic storage with trusses

Your truss design sounds more like a space for an AC unit than attic storage. But without the unit it could be used for storage up the its design load. I am glad you are getting the drawings to check this out.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

RE: Attic storage with trusses

Gentlemen: There is a 2x4 roof truss system over my garage I plan to use for light storage. I am a Product Research Engineer and know little about truss loading, but the geometry of the truss system looked very good, so I proceeded. Although I am a Solids CAD designer, my youngest son drew the attached for me, so I'm going to use it to explain what I've done. What are your thoughts and opinions?

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