I'll squeeze it in somewhere--it's just a baby forklift! And yeah, the more I learn the more I'm thinking the answer might just be "buy a pre-engineered steel mezzanine." I need to investigate those used mezzanine dealers and see what the reality is there.
Drifter/youtuber, Taylor Ray, recently put out a video with a pre-engineered, mail order assemled steel loft.
I did a mezzanine setup using palet racks. A couple longer beams span the two horizontal racks to form it. I'm about $1200 in the setup since the wood was included in the sale. Picked up the two horizontal and green shallow rack from a music store closing then the blue center rack from a guy that resells them.
I don't have mezzanine but I do have 24' of 3 pallet rack shelves.
The only mistake I made was I bought 10' up rights for my 12' ceiling. 8' would have been fine.
If you use the uprights as a base for a mezzanine I would bolt it to the floor and wall.
I think you can get 16' spans now,bolted to the floor you could put the first "shelf" 8' above the floor then tie 2 together for an 8' floor.
Like Lego you could easily put together a setup that would hold 10,000 lbs.,but you have to bolt it to the floor.
I'll start its own thread at some point, but figured I'd post an update. New shop acquired!
When I lived in a 24' x 60' shop, my bathroom was closer to the front. I had 21' peak, in same layout as yours. 15' tall pallet racks (5 10' sections) down the entire wall of the side with bathroom. 6th 10'tall section was set over bathroom (100% non load bearing bathroom, about 4' away from the racking against wall. Cross beams (4x6 I beams) gave me a 10' x 12' floor never did get walls built. Was still young enough, I just used my ladder, couple times a week. But my reach type forklift had hand controls at the forks! So if ida stayed there, I would have had an elevator!
I do NOT regret getting married at 45, and moving to her place in AL. But I do miss my 3 phase power!!!
My parallel pallet racks with cross beams (too big, just what I had) worked better for me , as it used the stability of a long line, instead of two free standing sections.
But I got mine SUPER cheap at an auction. At modern prices, a pre built would probably be as cost effective.
Okay, it's time for an update here, since I just finished assembling my mezzanine. I'm nearly moved into the new shop now, and still have wiring to do and lights to hang, but it's close!
You all talked me out of building it from wood and designing it myself, so I started shopping around. I got quotes ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, then eventually bought and installed a used steel mezzanine from American Surplus. They buy, reconfigure, then sell used mezzanines to meet whatever specs you want, so I sent them a drawing of my space, they asked a few questions and we revised drawings a few times, and then they did some cutting and welding to build exactly what I wanted. It even came with all of the hardware, decking, and engineering drawings. We assembled it ourselves in a few days. Still have some odds and ends to install (kickplate, gate latch, etc.) but it's now 99% complete.
The price was about $8000, plus another $2000 in shipping, so this was definitely more expensive than building it myself. But it's also way sturdier than anything I'd design, and it didn't take weeks to build, either. I figure spending $10k on the mezzanine saved me about $150,000 of cost towards a larger shop, so I'm calling this a win.
Still messy from the move, but here's the current status:
I never would have guessed that was used, good source. Hmm, a mezzanine would work well in my space. Might have to move the lift though.
And that's a LOT of cones.
Right? This isn't really like a car, so aside from few extra holes from the last time these pieces were assembled...what am I really giving up vs. a new mezzanine? They even painted it!
"Oh no, I could never have these USED stairs, gross, I have to have stairs nobody has ever walked on before."
And I'd definitely use them again. Communication was good, shipping only took a few weeks, and they were overall a joy to work with.
What's your ceiling height in the new space? Apologies if you mentioned it three pages ago.
It's about 16' at the edge, and more like 18-20 in the center (I haven't gotten up there yet for a proper measurement yet). I'm 6' tall and have no issues walking around the mezzanine.
pushrod36 said:I just went through this with my garage. The engineering stamp/calculations on drawings I had was ~$1200.
The more painful part was the lead time. I was lucky that my contractor had a relationship with the firm to save me waiting 3 weeks for a bending moment calculation.
What engineering firm did you use?
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