Mezzanine

I built a mezzanine today, i'd toyed around with a few designs, the one that seemed the most foolproof and fairly cost effective was to use rivet nuts to fasten a block of wood to each side of the garage, then joists going across the workspace at 2.20M high.  This meant that the minimum height underneath was quite high, above head height by quite some way, and that maximum width was still obtained.

At first I was quite worried about the strength of the steel sheet on the side, but it was quite solid (1.6MM on the outside walls, and 1MM on the inside)   I used 44*69MM wood although on hindsight, the width was perfect, but I think 90-100mm would have been better for the depth.   On top was 18MM board with tongue and groove edges.  With me standing on it in the middle it sags just under an inch which is acceptable although not ideal, thicker lintels would have eliminated this. 

This provides a great storage area, and now has everything I rarely need from old toolboxes to trolleys stacked on it, as well as some of the larger parts of the fury build - wheels etc.  It was a bit of an effort getting things up there, but its made a lot more space.  I'll also put the compressors and possibly the engine crane if I can lift the bits up there too.

The only issue was that it made the work area dark so 2 18W strip lamps were installed underneath, and these light up the area pretty well, in addition is the infrared heater, and a conventional fan+hot bars heater which is primarily there to heat the floor when I get around to painting it.