Garage Deck

With all of its wide-open space, the garage alone could handle most long-term storage needs—that is, if you didn’t also have to store your car in there (or maybe your car’s already been banished to the driveway due to a serious clutter problem). As it is, garage storage is usually confined to hooks along the side walls, and perhaps a bank of shelves or cabinets in the back. But of course this isn’t enough. What you need is something to take advantage of all that empty air space above the front of the car. This garage deck does just that.

The garage deck gives your vehicle all the room it needs while utilizing the wasted space above the hood. Depending on your storage needs and the ceiling height in your garage, you can make your deck low to maximize storage space, or make it high enough to walk underneath. As an example, the deck shown here is eight feet long by about five feet deep and stands four and a half feet above the floor. In a garage with a standard eight and a half feet ceiling, this deck would add about 150 cubic feet of storage space. You could double that space by building the deck so it spans all the way across a two-car garage.

In addition to the ample storage space, the best things about a garage deck are its strength and simplicity. The construction is virtually identical to an outdoor deck. It has a 2 × 6 ledger board mounted to the garage’s back wall and a doubled 2 × 6 structural beam supported by 4 × 4 posts along the front. Hanging from the ledger and beam with metal framing anchors are 2 × 6 joists. Instead of a floor made of deck boards, the storage deck is covered with plywood, which is cheaper and faster to install. A 2 × 6 understructure provides plenty of strength for a deck of this size. For a larger deck, you might want to move up to 2 × 8 joists and beams. And for any size of deck, be sure to include a 4 × 4 post at least every eight feet along the beam.