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My house and garage here in Texas were built in the late 70's and at that time built under county codes which are less strict the City of Houston ones which we now fall under. My garage is 22' wide and 20' deep and the ceiling joists and rafters are all 2 x 6's!!! Most were showing signs of sagging only made worse by knots that had all but dried out and were cracking.
My man cave/ wood working shop conversion began by insulating and drywalling the walls followed by a major re-engineering of the ceiling. Replacing the sagging rafters was not an option and even if we had, the code would call for something like a 2 x 10 or 2 x 12 or some kind of laminated beam. So I used an idea from an article I read several years ago in Fine Homebuilding. We jacked up the joists as much as possible to straighten out the sag, as much as 1 1/2 inches in the center of the room in some places. Using 1/2 cdx plywood ripped into 6 inch strips my son and I heavily coated one side with wood glue, clamped in place and used drywall screws about every 8 inches in a zig zag pattern to create a sister side board, then we did the other side of the 2 x 6. After every joist was engineered with the glued plywood we attached 2 x 4's to the rafters in a truss pattern to spread the load to the roof which is a 4 sided pyramid shape.
Then we added R19 insulation and 5/8 inch drywall, damn that stuff is heavy! My son is out there now starting to tape it and float it. He was a dry waller in California before relocating here.
This is the ceiling from Wednesday top today, Saturday!
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