Want to fit pulleys, etc to hoist garage contents

[d000hg]

I want to put a bunch of hooks and also ropes & pulleys in my garage so I can maximise wall/ceiling storage.

I'm pretty familiar with messing about with ropes and pulleys from sailing years ago - but sailing equipment is very expensive and overkill for these needs. Any advice on what type and thickness of rope would be suitable, and where would be a good place to shop online for such things? I was thinking buying a whole drum of some generic 8 or 10mm rope might be best but realised I don't know what "generic" rope is, only that I want to avoid horrible polypropylene and don't need expensive spectra stuff!

Also, I'm pretty happy attaching fittings to the concrete walls but when attaching to beams can anyone give a rough idea what load is appropriate, and what size screws are best? The ceiling/roof beams in our garage are not massive, 3x1" or 3x1.5" I think... but I assume they are strong enough for any normal kind of use?

 

[doitall]

I would think anything over a comfortable lift would be out of the question in that case.

 

[Nigel_Cro]

Been there, done this.

I used to be able to reverse the car into the garage, lower the minisail onto the roof rack and drive out, all in about 10 minutes, no fuss, no bother.

I have no comment about the load bearing ability (or otherwise) of your roof trusses. I am not a structural engineer.

But, for rope. Do you live near a decent marine chandlers? If so, pay a visit and see what they have in the 'end of reel' bin. You will find some pretty decent bits of 'string' going for very reasonable prices. I would avoid polyprop as well, it is only any good for lorry drivers!!

 

[JohnD]

3x1" or 3x1.5" I think... but I assume they are strong enough for any normal kind of use?

you don't mention the span, but that is not enough to support a floor, or anything more substantial than a bit of lightweight flat roofing.

 

[d000hg]

I don't know the name but it's a pitched roof so the beams are part of the roof frame i.e each beam is the base of a typical triangular frame.

It actually is strong enough to walk about on - I've had an 18st builder up there and it din't so much as creak - but we only store stuff up there, definitely not a proper floor.

Anyway I'll restrict beam-hung stuff to light things as suggested.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Do you mean pre-formed trusses like this?

Someone like this I would have though would be useful, might find ebay is cheaper though http://www.linepost.co.uk/acatalog/

 

[d000hg]

Ah yes, trusses is the word I wanted. Each truss is the length of the garage so I guess about 6m. They look really flimsy - held together with flat pieces of metal that almost look like tape - but appear very strong. However I shall exercise caution and not rig up 16:1 purchases on my beams

My garage actually looks just like the one in the bottom right of that photo.

Thanks for the link, for light stuff that might be the grade of fittings I need.