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Loft in shed
Can you flip the fork over on the carriage I know on a forklift with a hoop type carriage this will give you about 20" more lift but you have to get the thing you want too lift up off the floor. I put 40' of used pallet rack along the back waal of my barn for storing the off season toys.
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Loft in shed
Franky--as I read your list of stuff I stopped my tally at 10,000 lb. Personally, based on what you want to store up there, you might get your you-know-what caught in the wringer so to speak if your insurance agent finds out (um, I think "ballastic" is the word I'm looking for) what you have in the barn up on a second floor...the easy way (you tell him) or the hard way (a catastrophe happens) if it collapses. I'd look at not doing the second floor and just surround the inside walls with warehouse-style pallet shelves. It makes it soooo easy to see and pick things off the shelves with stuff on pallets or pallet boxes or pallet basket/cages. Shoot, absent a hi-lo, for the small stuff you could make a roll around ladder like Lowes has or like a library has for high shelves. I've been to many a scrap yard back home that had the shelving from closed Home Quarters, Costco, and Sam's Clubs that was just sitting outside rusting.
Yes you might have to buy a forklift (a few years ago a forklift rebuilder wanted to GIVE me something like 60 plus hi-los but I passed because scrap was only .5 cent a lb.) You might want to consider a high-reach electric one with good batteries (bad batteries will cost thousands to replace). Quiet. Doesn't drip oil. No exhaust. If you have a skid steer you could easily adapt a used hi-lo mast to one---talk about practical!
If the pallet-style shelving is a no-go, then I'd take the money and just add on to what you have---which compared to the loft will likely be cheaper, quicker, and handier in the long run no to mention resaleability---and lower insurance premiums. Maybe KTompson can weigh in on the insurance aspect since that what he does for a (really good!!) living.
But I'm jis' sayin'
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Loft in shed
7) Dumb waiter with electric hoist to move items to loft.
8) Used pallet racks.
EW Electric fork lift see 4).
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Loft in shed
EW; I am looking at other options too as I know my loft plans will be a lot of work to construct, and I also don't like having a bit less than 7ft. clearance under it. I've got a longer narrower loft I built 30 yrs. ago in a shed at the farm, the insurance man has saw it for years and never said anything about it, but maybe they have a new outlook on them now that he hasn't told me about. Adding a 20ft. lean on the side of the present shed is a possibility too, and I have looked into leasing or buying an existing building in a nearby small town. I kind of created my own storage problem by recently selling some property that has several buildings full of stuff that mostly needs to be sold and the ballance I'd like to keep, Frank.
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Loft in shed
Frank, I realize there are many factors --seen and unseen---that drive insurance rates (right, Kenny?  ) including your agent which can work for...or against you (right Kenny? ). And it doesn't necessarily have to happen to you for the can of worms to open on your situtation---the farmer down the road had a similar barn like yours and it internally collapsed---so now EVERY barn in the area is suspect. For example: back home a trucking company dumped 20,000 yds of asbestos-contaminated fill. The land owner went after their insurance company. So what was done by one trucking company makes us all in the area suspect--and a potential risk. Insurance agents starting sending questionaires to their commercial clients--like me---demanding to know who, what, where, and how much my fill dirt was going. In my case it was simple: I told them I don't haul dirt! (that was what they wanted to hear)
My point is if you build what will have to be a massively sturdy structure, it could get messy (if required) with engineer/architect costs, permits, inspections, risk assessment insurance premiums, etc. and that's why I was leaning toward a straight-forward stacked pallet storage system in an addition to the barn. You could make a dedicated pallet just for the Gator! It'd be like the old Hot Wheels storage case of the '60s, remember those?
But like I always say..."I'm jis' sayin'"
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EW; There is a used storage and office equipment outlet in a nearby bigger town that I'm going to check out today if time permits, I just came from looking at an old store building in a near by small town, but it has wooden floor joists and a wood floor over a dirt cellar, probably an easy 150 yrs old, so that was a dead end. Being we are on more than 40 acres out in the county we are not subject to any codes, inspections, of any kind except sewer and well, unless a home is being built as rental property. Thanks for the input. Frank.
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Loft in shed
Hardwood,
I know codes vary from county to county often but you probably would have to have engineered plans here. Only if you could sell it as a FARM building would you not have to. Then problem if you ever sold the place.
EW is correct at least your insurance agent has some ledway and what matters with an insurance company(ies) can vary wildly and quickly. (Hurricanes are a great example here.) Sometimes the reason an insurance company does not seemed concerned is because there is no or very limited coverage for a certain area and you don't realize it. Some companies will cover damage done by a water leak over time while others do not as an example.
I would want to compare the cost of building your second floor to hold the weight you want it to and the cost of the lift system and the issue of having to move it to the loft and such to a lean too shelter or such. When we went to build our current house we had plans for part of it to be two stories. When the builder got through with all the cost that caused I learned second floors are to save yard space. At least here. I have a friend who said where he grew up they taxed only ground floor so all houses had full basement and at least two floors.
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Loft in shed
Thanks to all who responded, I think between you guys and the Mrs. that if I do build a loft it will be scaled down to an 8-10 ft. wide structure along one wall more similar to the one I now have at the farm, I agree my original plan was quite complex, guess I'll just put more stuff on the auction and be a bit more selective on what I "Just cant sell" category. We are still quite free to build what we want where we want without any permits, inspections, except for sewer and water long as you have more than 40 acres in the parcel you build on. Kthopmson, you are right on the passing of a code to sell property. The property we just sold with the sheds full of stuff had a rental house on it and we did have to have a county inspection before it was final, but thank goodness any faults the inspector found were very minor and can be corrected for a couple hundered bucks, an example was the lack of a hand rail on the basement steps. Thanks, again. Frank.
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Loft in shed
Frank, I haven't read all the replies in detail yet, so I apologize if I'm repeating something someone already stated, but....
If you build a pretty substantial frame wall beneath an area of the loft with enough headroom, barn door track mounted vertically and standard roller trucks make a dandy elevator, I've done a few this way. Lift can either be (depending on usage and ambition) via a gear reduction boat trailer winch (the worm drive type for safety) or a 120 volt winch doubled through a snatch block. Just frame the elevator car out of wood or steel tubing with a plywood floor.
I have done several that will lift commercial turf equipment (1,000 pounds) to the mezzanine level to allow snow equipment to be inside for the winter.
Best of luck.
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Murf; Thanks for the barn door track idea, that got the old wheels turning again, back to the drawing board. Happy new Year. Frank.
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