Legal
Terms of use
What you can expect from this site, what you cannot, and the one section that genuinely matters if you are about to drill into a ceiling.
By using railandrafter.com you accept the terms below. They are short and written to be read.
The part that actually matters
Our load and capacity guidance is arithmetic to inform a decision. It is not an engineering assessment of your building.
Published span tables tell you which design case a piece of framing is consistent with. They cannot account for what the roof above is doing, for a previous owner's modifications, for notched or drilled joists, or for a load concentrated on two of them. We have not seen your garage and cannot assess it.
If a situation is marginal, if framing has been altered, if there is living space above, or if you are simply not sure — consult a structural engineer. That is a cheaper conversation than a ceiling repair, and it is the honest answer regardless of what it does to our click-through rate.
What the content is
Editorial opinion and compiled published information, offered as general guidance. Specifically:
- Capacity, dimension and warranty figures are the manufacturers' published figures, attributed as such. We have not verified them by testing and do not imply that we have.
- We do not test products. Our scores are editorial assessments against published criteria, not test results — see how we pick.
- Manufacturers revise specifications without notice. Check the current product documentation before you buy or install anything.
- Recommendations here are not professional advice — not structural, not safety, not legal.
Installation is your responsibility
Follow the manufacturer's installation instructions for the product you actually bought, not a description on this site. Where those instructions and anything here disagree, the manufacturer's instructions win.
Several products we cover state explicit limits — SafeRacks, for example, states that its racks must not be installed into I-beams, steel joists or concrete ceilings. Those limits are not suggestions to engineer around.
Links to other sites
We link to retailers and to manufacturers. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, their terms or their pricing. Buy links carry a tracking identifier — see the affiliate disclosure.
Any purchase you make is a contract between you and that retailer. We are not a party to it and cannot help with orders, shipping, returns or warranty claims.
Accuracy, and telling us when we are wrong
We work from primary sources and record the date we read each one. We will still get things wrong. If you find an error, tell us at info@railandrafter.com and we will check the source — the process is on our editorial policy.
The site is provided as-is. We do not warrant that it is complete, current or error-free, and to the extent the law allows we are not liable for loss arising from its use.
Using our content
The writing, tables and analysis here are ours. Quote us with attribution and a link — that is welcome. Republishing pages wholesale is not.
Product names and trademarks belong to their owners. We use them to identify the products we are discussing, and no affiliation or endorsement is implied in either direction.
Changes
If these terms change, the date at the top of the page changes with them. Rail & Rafter is published by Slate Mill Group.