Take a tour of my Lumber Storage
Interesting Characteristics
I have a second floor in my shop that I use for lumber storage. It's quite a large area, covering the same square footage as the first floor. As such it's ample space to store lumber and many of my infrequently used jigs (of which I have a multitude). I have both an inside and outside access to the second floor. Inside I have a pulldown staircase. This is another (shop) design decision I made during the planning stage. I did not want to loose the floor space to a permanent staircase so I found a company that makes these pulldown ones. Note: this is not a pulldown ladder, something you typically see in a garage that folds up, but does not have any real weight-bearing capabilities. This is a true fixed-length (about 10ft) staircase. It's on a spring-loaded pulley system that helps to manage it's weight when you push it up. The outside access is a 2nd story barn door, this is for hauling up a large load of lumber.
Commentary
As with most active shops, I have an over abundance of cutoff material. Some of course it clearly deemed scrap and that goes in an outside bin destined as firewood kindling. But more often than not a cutoff is just too good to toss. If you're not careful after a while, you end up with a stack of too good to toss cutoffs that could reach the ceiling. To deal with this space waster and to provide easier access when I actually wanted one, I made a cutoff lumber rack. I also have a backroom on the first floor, that is where I built this lumber rack, just inside the door. Other things in that backroom include my finishing supplies, saw horses, lawn mower and snow blower.
For a detailed walk-thru of individual workstations in my shop, click on any of the links below.