Lofted Bedroom

[Bismarck Jack]

Ok, I have a 13 year old boy, who will soon be ready to make the big move to the basement. (part of the reason I worked so hard to finish it). I had completed a room, the bathroom and the family room. Initially the first room i completed was to be his room someday after we installed the egress windows. and the adjacent room (which is still unfinished) would be my office.

WHAT WAS I THINKING? The room i told him i was making for him is right below mine. There goes the privacy since my wife and I have a room directly above it...:dancing:you can figure the logic in him not staying below us.

Of course it is from his music being too loud:thrasher::rock:.......what were you thinking....

You thought i was talking about the wife and i playing...:nurse: LOL

Anyway, long story short, I convinced my son to take the other room based on a conversation about lofted bedrooms I had with a friend last week. He was totally hip to it! Problem solved?? maybe. I still have to construct the thing.

Has anyone seen these before? where the bed, the stereo, the TV and shelves are suspended from chains and the like? My son thought it was the coolest idea ever and he even wants to be a part of the construction of it. "finally"

Please shoot me some ideas for how to go about this. I was thinking for the bed, put 2x4s across the bottom against the long wall and one on the adjacent corner, which would support the head board and suspend the last corner of the bed with a chain. he could then have a couch or futon below the bed if he wanted.

any other ideas?

[Wgoodrich]

A lot depends on how big your attic is height wise. If you can get new floor joists up into the attic that will reach from outside wall to bearing wall or header inside then you could pull about three of these joists sized as floor joists matching your ceiling span but sized as floor joists per the charts. Once in the attic put them in place where you want the chains to support your bed and nail them together to make a header sitting on two bearing walls over that ceiling. Then use a chain to wrap around that new header bolted below the ceiling and a single chain hanging down to support your bed frame. Do the header idea twice one for the head board and one for the foot board but chained directly to the bed frame in all four corners. YOu now have a swiinging bed. Problem is if the chains are too long below the ceiling you will have too much swing requiring a couple of chains to the walls to stop the swing or crosses from head to foot of the bed on the chains to limit the swing. The support chains will be bigger than the swing support chains.

Same can be done on chairs or even a porch swing style couch from the ceiling. If chair or porch swing is used a bumper on the wall should be installed to take an accidential hit of the hanging furniture or a limit set in some other manner.

Just an idea or two.

Wg:trytofly:

[Wgoodrich]

Just forwarding

Wg

[Bismarck Jack]

did you say attic? this is for the basement. I think your forward was for a main floor lofted bedroom, and the idea behind your post is to re-enforce the ceiling. I dont know, maybe i am missing your point?:stupido3:

I hadn't thought of the swinging couch though, that might be "cool" as my son would say.

[Wgoodrich]

Yes your wording loft got me thinking attic above.

If a basement the floor joists above are already heavy enough to support the bed or couch being 40 pound rated. Problem is to finish a basement normally a suspended ceiling is involved. The swinging of the suspension cables or chains would tend to damage the ceiling tiles. This would have to be addressed but the floor joists if the suspension method is supported by at least three of these floor joists at each supported suspension point should already be rated to support the load. To support from multiple floor joists hangers would need to be installed off each floor joist then a 2 by same orientation as the floor joists running perpendicular to the floor joists with the cables or chains wrapping this purlin board should support as you desire.

Double up the purlin hanging from the floor joists if you expect rough housing of the kids from the suspended equipment.

Hope this helps

Wg

[Bismarck Jack]

teenager....??? roughhousing...??? could be a factor

thanks for the advice!:itsme:

[Bumblerazz]

LOL!! A buddy of mine did something similar in university (much to his landlords absolute disbelief!!). It is a really cool idea. We had lots of fun putting the damn stuff up, but once there it became THE place to hang out.

Couple of things I learned from the experience:
- easiest thing for a bed is to make a hanging floor and just place the bed on it. may not look as good, but way more stable and relies less on the strength of the bed frame (makes for some extra storage as well)
- for narrow items (such as couches, side tables, automans,...) though they are suspended at the legs, make sure they are hooked up at the top so they don't flip over.
- for items that people sit on or will bear significant weight, attach at the feet, and underneath join each foot to each other making a boxed X with more chain. This keeps the frame of the item from spreading out like a deer on fresh ice
- shelves are no problem and actually can be bought at most BB stores, some with threaded rod which helps prevent swaying or flipping when uneven weights are placed on them
- and last but not least, don't steal from the local building site unless you can run really, really fast with an arm load of plywood, 'cuz you can get in a whole lot-o-trouble!!:vroam: (ah, the good ol' days...)

As Wg says, make sure you have lots of support in the ceiling. The swinging will cause problems for a suspended ceiling, but you could drop some T-bar (or something equivalent) through and hook the chains to that.

When done you will be happy with the results. Looks a little industrial, but very cool for a teenager.

Jon.

[Bismarck Jack]

That is exactly what i am talking about:rock:. Huge coolness factor, which is why my son bought into the idea so fast.

Not sure i understand how you are doing the bed though. I planned on framing out the bed with 2x6 and placing that on the plywood. this would leave a little room for some built in cubbies.:wavey:

[Bumblerazz]

Yea, sorry, not very clear. I was thinking that you would be hanging a regular bed frame (running boards connecting head and foot boards with suspension chains). If you used this set up, the frame would likely come apart, depending on how well it was made.

I think you've got the right idea. it's pretty much what I was aiming at. I was thinking 2X4 every 24" with plywood on top, framed in 2X4 or 6. Then place the bed et al on top. 2X6 will definitely hold some weight, probably more than required.

If you hang it closer to the ceiling you can make a study space or zen lounge underneath.:D

[Bismarck Jack]

my thoughts exactly. figured i would put a futon below the bed and suspend a rough cut entertainment stand that will hold his tv and game counsel on the other side of the room. will have to do some measureing to be sure controller cords reach ect. this will be fun. may start as soon as first of the year.