Storage Above Garage

[em8tee]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?

[LI SNOWBIRD]

A cement block

[Stu from NYC]

Nothing so far kind of a pain to pull down attic stairs to bring stuff up and down

[thelegges]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?

No candles, or decorations for Christmas that is important to you. We have suitcases, Christmas tree, Halloween inflatable. No cardboard, everything is in plastic totes

[retiredguy123]

If you put heavy things up there, you may develop a crack in the drywall ceiling.

[CFrance]

We put our artificial Christmas tree up there, our suitcases, some bigger Christmas decs, and before we had a place with pull-down stairs we used to store bins of Christmas ornaments up there, and they were fine. The opening now is too small for the bins, so they are stacked in the garage. So I suggest whatever you put up there, take a bin or two and determine what size will fit through the opening if it has pull-down stairs. We also have an umbrella stroller up there.

No books or candles, but I have found that some cloth Christmas items, in small bins with tight-fitting lids, do not mildew.

[dewilson58]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?


Hoarded toilet paper, Hoarded paper towels, Hoarded sanitizer.


:ho:

[Stu from NYC]

Hoarded toilet paper, Hoarded paper towels, Hoarded sanitizer.


:ho:

Yeast but must be packaged very well

[wisbad1]

If you put heavy things up there, you may develop a crack in the drywall ceiling.
it'll crack anyway

[SIRE1]

Based on my experience, be careful because that area is going to get HOT and Humid during the summer. I've had things with rubber handles and nylon straps that just crumbled when I tried to use them again. So look at the items and determine if they would survive a Florida summer stored for long periods.

[TommyT]

I've found plastic totes will cook in the garage attic. Plastic will cook and become very brittle....

[DDVeteran]

Definitely no chocolate.

[Buckeyephan]

We store our artificial tree and lights. Important ornaments are in a bin on the closet shelf. We also store rarely-used suitcases and linens. The older we get, the harder it is to navigate the stairs. For that reason, things that we will need other times of the year are in the garage.

[skip0358]

All my Christmas Decorations, Suitcases, Old Tax Returns, Walker & Commode from old surgery another coming, wire & wood shelving. In otherwords anything that wont melt and items we rarely use. I've added additional shelving to accommodate storage bins.

[thelegges]

I've found plastic totes will cook in the garage attic. Plastic will cook and become very brittle....
Our totes are from 2010. Never had a problem. Maybe it’s the quality

[Northerner52]

Get one of these

https://majicstairsinc.com

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?

[marygalexa]

Suitcases with plastic rims or anything plastic will not hold up well. If you value it, don't put it up there. Paper does okay if in a quality plastic container. Curtain rods, metal items, wood, glass items.

[Bruce03]

If you put heavy things up there, you may develop a crack in the drywall ceiling.
I think it should be clarified that putting anything in the area above the ceiling should go ON THE 2X4'S, NOT ON THE DRYWALL. The drywall is weak and held in place by screws. If you walk on the drywall, your foot may go through.

Instead, put some boards perpendicular to the 2x4's and put boxes, etc. on those boards. Sheets of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood on the 3x4's, would be ideal but is best done during building.

I opted for nothing up there. Not worth it IMO.

[vikkip109]

Christmas decorations.

[Rwirish]

Everything except your pets.

[Professor]

First off, get rid of the wooden stairs if you have those and have some metal ones installed. They are much sturdier (in my opinion anyway) and also provide a nice flat surface that you can slide items up on, particularly if you use plastic tubs. We store lawn tools like hedge trimmer and so on, Christmas stuff and that is about it.

[cmeinel@verizon.net]

Christmas decorations

[jefforyj]

We store almost everything using common sense. It does get very hot in the attic. Most of the things that you should think about have already been mentioned. I would only add to that list of don't store, would be photographs, slides, old movies, etc. They will deteriorate quickly. We had a mijiclift installed last spring and boy-oh-boy does it save dangerous lifting/carrying up-and-down, etc. If you are handy, a neighbor made his own lift as there are plans/directions out there on the internet that are less expensive. A neighbor built 1 for himself and 1 for a neighbor and they seem to work very well.

[Dust Bunny]

I installed a small motorized hoist to haul things up and down from the attic garage. Cost $99 at Harbor Freight

[RealJudy]

Christmas items, no clothes, cloth luggage, or candles (wax).

[caljeff]

We place mostly Christmas decoration up there. Due to the heat, we installed a solar attic fan, also

[HimandMe]

Attic fan or two; tv antenna

I wonder how hot it is when spontaneous combustion occurs...

Wonder if a very high ceiling in garage is less hot

Our black roof doesn’t help

[davem4616]

we store most of our Christmas decorations and other holiday decorations in the attic over the garage...everything is in plastic bins (that won't be a problem sliding up and down the fold down stairs that we had installed)

old tax returns are also put up there, along with a ceiling fan that we replaced with a more upscale one

as long as extreme heat won't harm the items, you'll be fine

[Magajane]

Nothing that melts, like candles. Don’t use cardboard, cockroaches love cardboard.
Do use plastic containers with snug covers, ones you can see thru or label them.
I put seasonal things like Christmas decorations exc, exc.

[themarinos]

I/we store almost anything from the kids toys and grand kids stuff to xmas and all holiday decorations we use plastic tubs. I installed plywood sheets cut them to size 2ft x 4ft and screwed them in place w sheet rock screws. Just use your judgement ( I installed
attic stairs to make it easy for access)

[Holpat39]

If your garage attic has a true floor in it you can store almost anything that will fit through the stair opening. We had our garage insulated and flooring put down when built and added an attic fan.. Plastic tubs up there for 17 years. Nothing damaged. Extra floor tiles, luggage, shop vac, etc. Only thing that disintegrated was a large black plastic bag containing a suitcase which wasn't damaged. Now nothing up there due to my age and difficulty getting up the ladder. If your garage has any of the enhancements then it is safe for just about anything.

[egmcaninch]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?

We mainly store Christmas, but we do have some things that we use infrequently (vases, etc), but we don't want to get rid of. We had a Versa Lift installed to help take things up & down. Wish we would have done it when we moved in!

[peggyb]

Have been here for 10 years. All of my Christmas/Halloween/Easter decor has been up there, as well as suitcases and a few other miscellaneous items. I have them stored in plastic totes and cardboard boxes...no problems at all.

[Guitarman1951]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?
Nothing with soft rubber. We've found after living here 11 years that even lawn chair material will disintegrate after awhile. My old golf sets are up there too and when I got them down to use with my grandsons, the material was starting to fall apart. Hard plastic, metal, cardboard or ceramic items seem to be able to withstand the 120+ degree heat in the hot summers here.

[Annie66]

All my Christmas Decorations, Suitcases, Old Tax Returns, Walker & Commode from old surgery another coming, wire & wood shelving. In otherwords anything that wont melt and items we rarely use. I've added additional shelving to accommodate storage bins.

Agreed …. anything that is not sensitive to heat.

[RonGee]

We are close to closing on home in Polo Ridge. What can safely be stored in the area above the garage? What do you store up there?

We put a plywood flooring in the area close to the hatch (4 or 5 ) and are able to use the space for storage in containers. Do not put anything that would melt in 120 degrees, also NO cardboard. The bugs love cardboard.

[retiredguy123]

If your garage attic has a true floor in it you can store almost anything that will fit through the stair opening. We had our garage insulated and flooring put down when built and added an attic fan.. Plastic tubs up there for 17 years. Nothing damaged. Extra floor tiles, luggage, shop vac, etc. Only thing that disintegrated was a large black plastic bag containing a suitcase which wasn't damaged. Now nothing up there due to my age and difficulty getting up the ladder. If your garage has any of the enhancements then it is safe for just about anything.
Having plywood on top of the 2x4's will help to spread the load of what you store there, but it still is not a "true floor". It is a ceiling. So, if you put too much weight on it, the ceiling structure will sag and cause the drywall below it to crack. As another poster said, the drywall ceiling may crack anyway. Many of the garage and lanai ceilings have developed cracks in The Villages.

[jh214]

After I had radiant barrier installed in the attic, it dropped the temp about 10 degrees. Store plastic containers and miscellaneous items with no problem.

[DLJ1657]

Get one of these

https://majicstairsinc.com

Would you mind sharing a ballpark cost including installation of these stairs?

[Agentjanhusak@gmail.com]

Christmas Decor.....luggage....most everything, however, we did store out white artificial christmas tree and it turned yellow, most likely from the heat.....congrats on your new home.

[boobear51751]

I put three levels of shelves on either side of the walk area. We have a high pitched roof. I keep things made of metal and wood up there. I do have some Christmas decorations and other things that might mildew so I put them in plastic bags and put them in totes. We have a set of golf cart tires that are for our golf cart that a friends gave us up there as well. Two sets of extra golf clubs and bags for when we have guest. They seem to be okay even after nine years. One has a pot of de-humidity jell in it because I don't want to take a chance on those items for my Easter decoration to get musty. If you have a lower head clearance like most of my friends than I would highly suggest that you wear a helmet when you are up there because the nails from the shingles with hit your head every time. Remember, it does get well above 100 degrees up there. I also put a fan in the peak to keep the air moving after it hits 100 degrees. The ceiling in the garage and lani also did crack, but that was from the settling of the house since it was brand new. That is an easy fix too.

[BHWitcher]

I have anything that won’t melt. Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations.

[Marykess1802]

Be careful. Palm rats chewed a hole and got in. What a mess 🤮

[mjkspear]

I keep Christmas things, just not candles, as well as some books, jelly jars, paint tools, lots of stuff. We installed an attic fan, which helps keep the temperature down.

[bob47]

A lot of folks store things above the garage. We do too. But if you dig into with The Villages, you may be told that the bottom of these roof trusses is not designed for weight bearing.

[brick010207]

You might consider ceiling mounted storage in your garage. Can get them an Lowes, HD and others for less that $100. Will hold up to 6 storage bins each and still be able to use garage

[nevjudbaker]

If you don't have an attic fan nothing is really safe as it gets very hot and humid. If you have an attic fan it should be ok to store stuff above your garage but I wouldn't store anything valuable or something you treasure because you never know what could happen to it. If money grew as fast as mildew, rust & weeds and in Florida we would all be billionaires.

[LynneH]

We store beach chairs and umbrellas, camping gear, and boat gear. We originally stored an artificial Christmas tree, but the heat made the needles brittle.

[chuckk281]

Bodies that have not had plastic surgery.

[sloanst]

Junk, In 5 years you will wonder why you kept it.

[Toymeister]

Would you mind sharing a ballpark cost including installation of these stairs?
You are talking about Magic Stairs. Four thousand, installed. I also have a 4' X 8' platform that raises to the ceiling it uses the same winch mechanicals as the magic stairs. About $950 for that. 400.00 to install. Better than attic storage as it is easier to access rated for 400 pounds for an engineered truss like they use here. These lifts work better in tall garages. I contacted a truss company and 2 X 4 trusses are rated for 500 pounds at any single point.

I am not sure I trust that but it is a better data point than a random stranger on the forum who always posts the worst case. Call a firm for yourself and ask.

[ALadysMom]

attic has storage but cannot think of a single thing that’s up there. Guess whatever is there would have not been missed if I had tossed it.

When I went to clean out my dearly departed Dad’s house, someone suggested to check out his garage attic storage. My 85 year old Dad had stored two kayaks up there! He lived alone and kayaked often but I can’t imagine how he managed to get those up & down the ladder.

[charmed59]

We have Magic Stairs and the platform that raises up and down. We store luggage, power washers, edger, blowers, Christmas decorations, guest golf clubs, adult kids memory boxes, and old tax documents up there. All the smaller stuff is in sealed plastic bins. We do have a solar fan, and thus far everything is fine.

[Falvotc]

It depends of course on the type of home you are buying. In our case the answer is NOTHING! I was however able to instal a "second floor" above toward the home side of the garage. This provides good additional storage and it is relatively easy to get to it. I would highly recommend you try it!

[jebartle]

A cement block

A loaf of bread

[Pinball wizard]

You are talking about Magic Stairs. Four thousand, installed. I also have a 4' X 8' platform that raises to the ceiling it uses the same winch mechanicals as the magic stairs. About $950 for that. 400.00 to install. Better than attic storage as it is easier to access rated for 400 pounds for an engineered truss like they use here. These lifts work better in tall garages. I contacted a truss company and 2 X 4 trusses are rated for 500 pounds at any single point.

I am not sure I trust that but it is a better data point than a random stranger on the forum who always posts the worst case. Call a firm for yourself and ask.

Where did you get it and who did the install? TIA

[Toymeister]

Where did you get it and who did the install? TIA

Are you referring to the stairs or the lifting platform?

[eyc234]

Hoarded toilet paper, Hoarded paper towels, Hoarded sanitizer.


:ho:

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