Overhead Storage needed for Metal building

[Floyd Cox]

I need some overhead storage, what I had in mind was using some angle iron to hold a plywood base,
the trusses are at 12’ center

Would it hurt the integrity of the building the way I have it in the second photo?

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

storage-1.jpg storage-2.jpg

[David Gutierrez]

Metal buildings are not usually designed with a lot of excess capacity so the concern would be both about where the new load is applied, how much load there is and the total load the truss is designed for. How much weight are you adding? A typical roof live load, ie snow, varies by region. Additional weight added to the roof will decrease the live load capacity. if I was to pick a location for the hanger it would be where you have shown it. it is a engineering question as to the impact on the truss.

[Floyd Cox]

Metal buildings are not usually designed with a lot of excess capacity so the concern would be both about where the new load is applied, how much load there is and the total load the truss is designed for. How much weight are you adding? A typical roof live load, ie snow, varies by region. Additional weight added to the roof will decrease the live load capacity. if I was to pick a location for the hanger it would be where you have shown it. it is a engineering question as to the impact on the truss.

David, your probaly correct, it has me a little concerned if I should attempt it or not.

[Mike Heidrick]

Could you free stand a shelf?

[Ethan Melad]

I also have a metal building for a shop - assuming you have the specs/engineered drawings from when it was built, you should be able to see what live load it was built for. Your local building inspector should be a decent resource for getting information on average snow loads in your area, and may have input on whether what you want to do is reasonable. Considering you're in Arkansas (you don't really get snow there, do you?) I bet you'll be fine unless you plan on storing concrete blocks up there.

[Jim Andrew]

I built a storage area in my steel building, it has 16' sidewalls, so I built the storage area about 8' to the bottom, along the edge. It is only 4' wide, so could build shelves along the wall to hold filters, etc. I attached a angle iron to the truss to hold the outer edge and supported the other edge by attaching to the wall. My building is very similar to yours.

[Thomas Canfield]

The biggest problem is you are adding a "point" load on the truss and it was not designed for a point load at that point. You should have someone really check out the truss before adding any significant load over say light fixtures, conduit, etc.

[Floyd Cox]

A coworker told me; the compression and tension should be ok using this method without compromising the integrity as long as I’m not storing a couple of engine blocks.

storage-3.jpg

[Floyd Cox]

maybe This will work?

[Greg Cuetara]

Floyd I have done a great deal of work with pre engineered buildings. They are able to keep their costs down because they won't let a flys weight over the prescribed minimum building code load land on the building without it falling over. If you really need to hang from the ceiling call in a structural engineer to take a look at your specific conditions and give you some advice.

I have done done a few buildings where I ended up with a building within a building just to hang some small bore piping.

Again in seek the advice of a professional in your area.

Greg

[Floyd Cox]

Floyd I have done a great deal of work with pre engineered buildings. They are able to keep their costs down because they won't let a flys weight over the prescribed minimum building code load land on the building without it falling over. If you really need to hang from the ceiling call in a structural engineer to take a look at your specific conditions and give you some advice.

I have done done a few buildings where I ended up with a building within a building just to hang some small bore piping.

Again in seek the advice of a professional in your area.

Greg

Than you Greg, that will probably save me structural headaches down the road.

[Mike Wilkins]

See if you can get in contact with the manufacturer; they should have the specs and can answer questions about load capacity.