Thread: Realistic height to have a mezzanine?

Make your stairs fold down as a component of the mezzanine either as an attic ladder type which you can buy as a kit or a boat winch on side wall with pulleys to raise and lower your own diy stairs or just a simple extension ladder If you do the mezzanine without any evidence of stairs, council will probable ignore it and see it as an occasional storage area, just add a simple 1000mm high handrail (with intermediate rail) at the front
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Just call it a loft or attic on the plans....

Put the elevator platform in after its built and signed-off on

My shed has 3.6 walls so similar to yours. I have a storage mezzanine that I built, it is effectively free standing as it sits on a timber and steel storage rack on one side and on shelving the other side, it’s only 6m x 2.1m with a very short unsupported span of only 800mm which is a walkway between the shelves and rack.

This allows the mezzanine floor and framing to be only 115mm total. Frame made from 90 x 45 and 25mm “decking” on top.

Free standing so no approval required.

Cheers Andrew

Dave, if you haven't already done so then you should have a look at the "Simon's new shed" thread and maybe contact Simon (LyricNZ). He has a mezzanine and is looking at the issue of access too so you may be able to compare dimensions and swap ideas. I can't see any discussion of the access issue in the thread but I think it has come up in the "Friday Lunchtime Prattle", a weekly zoom meeting. See the thread in the Forum Get Togethers section if you want to join us - some direct discussion sometimes helps generate solutions for things like this.

Dave, my shed is 10m wide and eaves similar to yours at 3.8. The mezzanine is 2.4M above the shed floor. My staircase is right against the end wall and starts 1100mm from the side wall but much reduced by tools tidily stored as you can see from my second photo. The stair enters the mezzanine floor at 4.5m from the side wall. There are 14 steps including the mezzanine floor, the stairs are 800 mm wide, with risers 180mm and goings 240mm. The last photo is looking back down the stairs. The ceiling height at the lowest point in my case is 1.2M and I can tell you that bald heads, hot days and corrugated iron are not a good mix.
My first photo shows the staircase running up the end wall and the area under it is used for storage, the 20L drums full of handy bolts, nuts etc is actually on a wheeled platform to improve accessibility but the truth is there is that much junk....er...equipment in the way that it doesn't get used.

Hope this of some help,
Cheers,
Geoff.

1. Don't include it in the DA.


2. Don't build it initially. Get the brackets on the portal frames. Put in an external door under the ridge at one end.


3. Build the floor once the council are gone. Give plenty of headroom below.


If it's storage you don't need headroom. There will be buckets of floor area to pile stuff up. You can access via a ladder or if you prefer an external stair, possibly removable.


2c

You have to have council permission for a mezzanine in a shed? I built mine out of heavy channel, no timber at all to cut down on the structural depth under the floor, the channel is only 100mm deep and 18mm ply on top of that with 100mm steel posts to hold it up. I used a ladder for access and it only had crawl space between it and the floor and it was a real problem. Any stuff at the back had to be manouvered around anything at the open side to get it down or access it and invariably anything needed was always at the back. I solved the whole problem by backing a trailer into the shed several times and throwing everything out and honestly I haven't missed any of it. The accumulation was caused by inheritance and we decided that there is only so much you can make use of and no one wants to buy it. The structure was 7.5 metres x 2.4 and here is a picture of the small part that remains. The 2.5 metre ceiling height was the biggest constraint with the whole thing but it served a purpose for many years. You can see the channel and corner post clearly in the photo. Why I can't remove the sideways photo I don't know

IMG_1647.jpg

I got my permit with the mezzanine in but no permanent stairs (just a ladder, secured with a tie down). Mezzanine is 2.4 to the bottom, and about 300 thick, with yellowtongue flooring on top. My gutter is at 3.6, and 22 degree pitch, I think. Can send photos or see the Simon’s Shed thread.

I haven’t done stairs yet. I’m assuming will be from near one wall up towards the center of the mezzanine in a single run. But open to other options (eg a landing half way up, with or without a turn)

Want to leave it easy to push a sheet of ply up to the mezzanine from the ground without obstacles then walk up to put it away

Can you increase your roof pitch to make more height in the center?

Assuming you have a gable end to your shed (not hips) then you could have a few steps at 90 degrees to your gable end wall (at either corner) leading to a quarter landing, then from the quarter landing change direction by 90 degrees and let your stairs run up the side of the gable wall, the rake of the stairs should then follow the pitch of your roof structure, so the pitch of the roof may need increasing to make sure the stairs and roof are running parallel to each other thus maintaining the correct head room height which in a minimum of 2000mm. I hope this helps

Mezzanine is 8m wide by 6m deep in first photo orientation. I think roof pitch is 22 degrees

Centre post is 2200mm tall
Big beam (bearer?) is 250mm tall
The joists are 100mm tall
The yellowtongue is 19mm tall
(So deck about 2570 from the floor)

The orientation means that the “car height” (left to right)is a little over 2400 (goes between the bearers), as is the walls for lining with sheet.

Mezzanine head height is 1000mm at the edges and 2600mm in the middle. I can stand about 1800mm from the edges. This feels plenty for storage area!

Realistic hieght to have a mezzanine?
high enough so you dont bash your noggin, bruises on the head raise abuse issues.

I had a buddy that made cabinets and custom furniture. He had storage above the offices that he accessed with stairs that were hinged at the top edge and lifted/lowered with a boat winch. He wasn't constantly using it so taking a few minutes to lower the stairs and raise them again wasn't an issue. It maximized his floor space. It also had railings permanently attached for safety. A counterweight and pulley system could make it a one finger operation or use an electric winch if you don't want to hand crank it. A couple LED baton lights on the underside would take care of any shadows below. You also don't have to compromise the tread size or pitch to make something fit.

Pete

Originally Posted by QC Inspector

... He had storage above the offices that he accessed with stairs that were hinged at the top edge and lifted/lowered with a boat winch....
Pete

Yeah I really like that idea.
I must admit that I have only assumed that council will require stairs. I don't know that for sure. I have asked the shed builder to make sure they call it a storage shelf. of course it is not a mezzanine. Perish the thought.