Hello,
I'm new to this group but I thought I would post a question about something I'd like to do. Some history first: I currently have a detached 3-car garage (about 30'x22') and it has a hip roof on it and ~8' ceilings. I am looking at buying an automotive lift and need additional ceiling height over the double bay. The hip roof has another 3' above the ceiling joists at the peak so with the pitch of the hip roof, there still isn't enough room even with the ceiling joists removed to get the 14 or so feet hight I'm looking for. I would like to have a gable constructed (I'm assuming trussed) that spans from front to back over the double bay. I would most likely leave the rest of the roofing structure alone and would want the new gable roof to be tied in somehow. Looking at the roof rafters they are 2x6s and where the hips come to a point (don't know what that's called) there is a brace going down to a ceiling joist (which by the way are 2x12s 24"OC) for support. The brace on the far side is over the 1 bay area that will not be modified in any way. The other brace is over the area I need opened up and would be getting replaced by the gable. There are also 2 2x6s going across to form an "A" every 4th rafter. My question is, structurally will the addition of a gable present any problems? The one side of the gable would go to an exterior wall, the other side of the gable would need to be attached somewhere not sure if the 2x12 could hold this as the gable would end up perpendicular to the
2x12, or if it would need to be attached somewhere else.Any ideas on the approach or if there's a better way to do this would be greatly appreciated. Also is this a huge job or can it be reasonably done (i.e. would I be looking at a $3K job or a $10K job?) I'm trying to make this determination because if it turns out to be too expensive it may be a better option to just do an addition to the garage.
Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.
Nick.