Mech33’s garage remodel with in-ground scissor lift in California

I owe virtually every one of the ideas realized in my remodeled garage to the GarageJournal community, so let me start by giving a big thanks to everyone on here! There are a LOT of pictures to scroll through to get to the end, so here's a quick spoiler of the finished outcome:


Now on to how we got there...

This all started a little over 2 years ago when I moved into a new (to me) house that had a detached 2-car garage. The garage was completely re-built like a tank back in 1989 after a big earthquake nearly leveled it, but was only 22’ x 22’ with an 8’ ceiling with a single 20A breaker feeding all of the circuits.

Here’s a pic from the day we moved in (don't ask me what that mannequin thing is about... that, the carpet, and the couch were all junk the previous owner left):



And this was my typical scene working on the car on a weekend afternoon:




But then I discovered GarageJournal, and my garage life would be forever changed! As soon as I came across one of the in-ground scissor lift threads, I knew that was something I wanted to put in my garage to make it easier to get the car up in the air while keeping it open without posts for regular use or parking. So I started sketching up some plans, and let’s just say things snowballed from there…

The 8’ ceiling would limit how high I could lift my small car (an Audi TT), but from some scale drawings I pieced together it looked like I could take the scissor lifts to their full 70” height if I could vault the ceilings and the garage door track to match the roof pitch:



So that was the basic plan when I started:
- vault the ceiling
- install an in-ground scissor lift
- wall-mount some reasonable cabinets

The build quickly feature creeped to include:
- installing a sink (needing water lines and draining run to the detached garage)
- completely re-wiring of the entire garage including a 4-wire run to a new 100A sub-panel to support electric car charging in the future
- LED lighting throughout (LED troffers, LED cans, LED under cabinet lights)
- polished and stained concrete floors
- in-ceiling speakers with wireless music streaming
- a wall-mounted computer that doubles as a TV
- compressed air drop from the ceiling
- custom stainless countertops
- a mini-split HVAC unit

So start, we removed the ceiling drywall and plywood to expose the structure:


Then the rest of the walls were removed, and the roof framing shored in prep for structural changes to support the vaulting:


A ridge beam was installed to support the roof:



I ordered the lifts early so that we could carefully measure them in advance of any concrete work:


Then the concrete work started with saw-cutting two outlines, as well as a route back to the corner for the lift controller:


Concrete removed showing the sand underneath:


Holes were dug to provide about 8” of solid concrete depth under each of the lift pockets, and a rebar structure was formed for support:


4” conduit was run between the lift pockets and the controller location, making pulling the hydraulic, air, and limit switch lines relatively easy:


Forms were built and high-strength concrete was poured:


The lift pockets turned out well, and would just require a little bit of depth fine-tuning later on:


With the new panel and wiring run, we insulated everything:


New drywall was installed everywhere, and we decided to wrap the the beam for a clean look:



I decided that a computer at the bench would be helpful for looking up install guides and other things, and it could double as a TV with streamed content. To keep the computer out of the way as much as possible, we designed a cubby hole recessed between the studs that would support the articulating wall-mount and power / network connections, enabling the computer (planned to be an iMac) to sit as flush as possible against the wall). We embedded a threaded aluminum plate to support the wall-mount attachment with minimal reduction in pocket depth:


Since a compressor was needed for the lift’s safety mechanisms, we ran compressed air both to the lift controller area as well as a drop in the ceiling for a reel:


For primary lighting, we decided on a total of 8 *dimmable* LED troffers (they are pretty trick) that would mount flush with the drywall. Here you can see the troffer cutouts as well as the speaker cutouts in the ceiling:


A pile of troffers patiently waiting to go in:

To keep the garage a nice temperature year-round, we decided part way through the remodel to install a mini-split system. I quickly did some research and decided that the newer Fujitsu systems had the right combination of reliability / features / look, and had a local installer do the work (we had pre-run the wiring, so the unit was in start-to-finish in about 5 hours). This pushed us to quickly paint the walls (I chose a warm orange color that I had used in a previous garage) so we could get all the way under the mini-split unit prior to install:


Lights, speakers, and mini-split all installed:


With the walls painted, the computer mount and electrical connections went in:


Now on to the garage door! I wanted the garage door opener and tracks pushed as close to the ceiling as possible. This took some back and forth with the installer, but they eventually pushed it up acceptably high. We popped a small hole in the drywall to let the top of the LiftMaster 3800 go up into the ceiling slightly for maximum clearance:


The door sits just a couple inches below the ceiling at the end:


The flooring material was a tough decision. I had originally planned on going with a modern rectangular porcelain tile that would continue the pattern over the scissor lifts. But integrating the tile on top of the painted metal scissor lifts platform was getting a little complicated, and I was concerned about how the cut tile would look when the lifts were raised, and how durable the edges would be from damage. If I left the lift tops exposed and tiled the rest of the garage, I would have had to shim the lift pockets up higher to keep everything flush.

I was also a bit nervous about keeping the tile grout clean, plus the cost of the combination of nice quality modern style tile plus install labor was getting a little out of control. So I did some more research and decided to punt on the whole tile idea and went with polishing the existing concrete slab instead. This was actually surprisingly cheap (about $2950 out the door including staining and additional labor to do some rough polishing by hand on the stem walls), and looked great.

In prep for the polish, we decided to fill the expansion joints in the original slab. I realize these may move around or break up over time, and I’m OK with that risk for now. We also did some final depth leveling of the lift pockets:


Then the polishing crew came and started doing their magic:


Lots of concrete dust!


Here you can see the visual difference between rough polishing of the original concrete slab vs. the new concrete that filled the expansion joints:


Here’s how it looked after a couple of passes:


Then they applied a black stain to get a dark gray color. We chose this to help hide stains and varying concrete color:


A second coat was needed to get everything looking nice and uniform:


Here’s how it looked up-close after staining (but before final finish polishing and burnishing):


Then they did their final fine polishing and burnishing steps with some harness:


I had asked them to cut the concrete down enough to show some of the aggregate when it was done, and it really turned out nicely:


Nice and shiny!

With the messy stuff now complete, it was on to installing the rest of the garage goodies. We had built a 1.5” thick plywood shelf reinforced into the wall framing to hold the air compressor, so we hooked that up next:


Then it was on to the lifts. Those are some heavy suckers! We rented an engine hoist to move them around. It was quite a game to maneuver them around the garage and into the right spots without falling in the lift holes.


Dropping the lifts in the holes was tricky because of the order of operations. Since the hydraulic lines were custom made to be just the right length, they wouldn’t reach from the controller to the lifts through the conduit without the lifts in the pocket. But if the lifts were in the pocket in the closed state, then we couldn’t access the hydraulic connections to connect everything up! So we had to raise the lifts before dropping them in the pockets, which meant we had t hook everything up outside of the pockets first just to raise them up.

So in prep for that, we moved the lifts right over the pockets so they’d take minimal movement to drop into the holes once raised:


We then hooked up all of the connections, filled the pump reservoir with hydraulic fluid, crossed our fingers, and gave it a test run. Success! They went up and down on the first try:


Then I dropped them down into the pockets:


We then mounted the lift controller right under the air compressor in the corner. Above the lift controller, the left switch turns on the lift power, and the right switch is lit when on and turns on the air compressor:


We had some custom hydraulic extensions made to get the line lengths just right:


Finally, the lifts were hooked up, synchronized and lowered to the floor for the first time!


Look, no visible lines!


With the lifts carefully centered in the pockets, it was time to bolt them down with concrete anchors:


Getting there… hmm what’s missing? Oh yeah, we need some cabinets and benches in there!

I did some cabinet research and decided that the Saber cabinets were the best bang for the buck, and designed layouts for both sides of the garage with their “silver” color in mind. On the left side we’d integrate a sink into a 2-door base cabinet, and on the right we’d need a 5 cabinet-long counter:



We ordered the cabinets, and they arrived via freight delivery within just a couple days (the Saber headquarters was just a 4-5 hour drive away):


After a LOT of hand assembly of all of the cabinets (what a pain!), we started installing the upper cabinets:


We had to cut some holes in the base cabinet with the sink for the water and drain lines. The hole in the base was originally intended for routing water lines to foot pedals:


Left and right sides all hung above the stem wall! Lots of empty boxes and packing material.



Big cabinets were built too, but we decided not to hang them until the counters were installed. This would give some flexibility on maneuvering the counters in to place.


After hanging the upper cabinets, we completed the network and audio panel connections for the amplifier and router. All of the network lines run to various security cameras that get aggregated here:


Next we started working on under cabinet lights. I couldn’t find anything perfect off the shelf, so we bought bare aluminum light bars with diffuse covers and bright LED light strips and cut them all to custom lengths.


We mounted the lights on thin metal strips on each end so that they could be easily angled slightly towards the back well. A dedicated mechanical power switch was added to the light strip that was above the computer so it would be switched off when using the computer, or left on when using the countertop in front:


Testing, testing! We hooked the power for these lights up to a motion-triggered switch, so they turn on whenever the garage door opens or someone walks in the garage. This is great for quickly walking in, grabbing something, and walking out without having to fiddle with any switches.


Audio amplifier, AirPort Express (for wireless audio streaming), router, and a subwoofer (to supplement the ceiling speakers) all tucked away nicely in the upper corner:


And air reel and power / light reel were both installed against the beam for easy access:

I spent a while trying to figure out what to do for countertops, and went back and forth on butcher block vs. off-the-shelf stainless vs. custom stainless. In the end, I decided to go with custom stainless countertops in 16 gauge 304 stainless with 4” tall backsplashes on the wall sides, and an integrated stainless sink. I ordered them over the phone from across the country, so I was a bit nervous about how they’d turn out. But the company sent detailed CAD drawings prior to fabrication for my review and approval, and they showed up packaged extremely well without a single scratch on them. Every dimension I checked matched the drawings within 1/64”! Here they are immediately after unpacking:


Before dropping them in, we had to cut a hole for the sink in the base cabinet:


They fit!


Now to start hanging those larger cabinets:


For power over the countertops, I found some stainless Wiremold strips that were only about 3/4” tall that matched the countertops nicely. The wiring between adjacent strips was a tight fit!



Outlet strips installed and the stainless protective wrap removed on the shorter counter with the sink. I think it turned out really well!


With the outlet strips installed, we bolted up the computer next:


Then installed the faucet and a pumice soap dispenser over the 12" deep sink:


We couldn’t forget a garage vacuum:


Oops, but I did forget a good spot for a trash can! So after a little research, we decided to put a recessed combination trash can and paper towel dispenser into the wall that fit between the studs. Oops, there is some wiring in the way!


So we had to re-route the wire through some boxes. We painted them and they hid nicely:


Here’s the dispenser all installed. It makes grabbing a hand towel quick and easy without a roll to deal with. For heavy-duty stuff, we have separate Wypalls.


And with that, it was finally “done” (for now)! I took some finished pics at night:






The last thing still TBD is a vise location. I’m very hesitant to cut into the stainless counter to mount a specific vise bolt pattern, so I am debating between attaching an intermediate aluminum plate to the stainless with an adhesive that can be cut with a wire later if needed, or doing something like a hitch mount under the counter in the stool area or hanging off of the wall. Any advice welcome!

I hope this write-up can help someone else with their garage ideas just like all the help I received for mine.

Fantastic job! How well do you like the scissor lift? It was thinking of the same system. I like how they do not take up open floor space while not in use.

Incredible!! Very well thought out and I love the floor. That is exactly how I wanted mine originally but I heard polishing was very expensive and went another route.

Great work man. I really think this was well thought out and many details turned out great. I just had one question. How is the lighting when the garage door is open at night? It cuts half of the ceiling lights right?

Wow great shop!

It's the best ever. Honestly, you have my dream garage. The recessed garbage can, sink, lift, lights, cabinets, everything. It's just perfect. I wish you would have started this thread back at the beginning so I could have followed it from the start. Just fantastic.

Fantastic work well done.

That garage is gorgeous! Well planned, great color, user friendly..Kudos!

Simply awesome! A lot of great planning!

So much useable space in that garage. Its nice when everything has a place and is organized. Well done

Hot damn, that is a really nice shop. Very clean, very well thought out. I am more than a bit envious of that space. And with the reference to the '89 event, you might very well be fairly close to me.

Excuse me while I go burn my shop down so I can start over.

Literally speechless right now. Dream garage hands down! Gave me lots of ideas for my next garage too!

The perfect home garage!

This is one awesome garage and thanks for posting. Many great ideas, job well done....

Stellar! My mental budget tells me that you need a helluva project car now!


-D

This is not a garage, it's a work of art! Great job!


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just read through this...WOW! Very well thought out. It turned out great and the floor looks amazing.... nice!

Epic garage

Very nice. Some great ideas in there. I'm really liking the lighting.

As said before, epic Fantastic color combination!! And thanks for sharing.

Wow nice job...

I'm sorry for not contributing earlier... I had the same situation with the Liftmaster being close to the ceiling. I solved that by dropping the opener and installing chain & sprockets. It turned out extremely well that it actually looks like a factory option. No holes to cut!

And about your garage,... I'm speechless. It's a fine work of art sir. Thank you for sharing with us!


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Out standing job on the build and thanks for sharing. I like the colors you choose also. Is this a detached garage?

TC-CAD

Outstanding! the floor looks great ...as well as your cabinets, lights, lift, walls, ceiling and even your trash bin!

Wow. Beautiful job!

HiHoSilver said:

Fantastic job! How well do you like the scissor lift? It was thinking of the same system. I like how they do not take up open floor space while not in use.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I *love* the scissor lift. It is so easy use:
1) Just drive the car over the lifts. They're flush, so even the lowest cars fit no problem.

2) Toss some blocks under the car in the points where you want it to support the lifting. I have some 4" foam blocks that are nice and soft that evenly distribute the load that I bought from here:


3) Flip the switches for the lift and air compressor power.

4) Press "up"!

Knock on wood, but I haven't had a single problem with the lifts since I finished installing them. They've stayed perfectly synchronized with no leaks, and the pump is not too loud. They're the EE-6503 lifts that so many folks have used on here.

Accel Junky said:

Incredible!! Very well thought out and I love the floor. That is exactly how I wanted mine originally but I heard polishing was very expensive and went another route.

Click to expand...

I figured it would be cost prohibitive as well, but it turned out to cost less than a high-quality epoxy install. The concrete polishing companies have it down to a science. The base price was about $5/sqft out the door, but mine turned out to be ~$6/sqft with the extra depth cuts we made to show more aggregate and the labor needed by hand to smooth the stem walls. That was cheaper than the cost of material alone for most of the tile I was looking at!

uameche said:

Great work man. I really think this was well thought out and many details turned out great. I just had one question. How is the lighting when the garage door is open at night? It cuts half of the ceiling lights right?

Click to expand...

Thanks, trying to design so much of the layout up front got me stuck in analysis paralysis often, but the contractor I worked with was very flexible with all the fine-tuning along the way.

Yeah, with the garage door open I block 4 of the 8 LED troffers. But I rarely have the garage door open, especially at night, so it hasn't been an issue. Honestly the biggest issue caused by that is the finished garage pictures at night with the door open looking a little dim on the front half of the garage!

I'd highly recommend those LED troffers to anyone looking for similar lighting. They're on a dimmer switch and it is just so trick to be able to slide the dimmer up and down and have the light intensity in the garage follow from low all the way up to "flame thrower".

DragonSteps said:

Stellar! My mental budget tells me that you need a helluva project car now!


-D

Click to expand...

Indeed. Most of my work tends to be fitting tuner parts to newer cars for track use (like swapping out suspension components), but I dream of getting a transmission jack one day and doing something like a clutch job on my own in the garage. I'm looking forward to using the oil change catch for the first time soon!

GBsnoopy said:

Very nice. Some great ideas in there. I'm really liking the lighting.

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Thanks. I highly recommend connecting up one set of lights on a motion sensor, and another for bright fill lighting. When I walk in or open the garage door, both the under cabinet lights and the perimeter LED can lights turn on. They're all triggered by two wireless Lutron motion sensor modules that are attached on opposite ends of the beam to try and capture motion throughout the entire garage (didn't want to be annoyed by lights turning off when I was working on one side of the garage behind the car if I had put just one sensor right in the center of the beam).

Sunbimmer said:

As said before, epic Fantastic color combination!! And thanks for sharing.

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Thans! I used this exact color in my last garage (which was all just free-standing Gladiator stuff), and I was tempted to try something new like a blue or a green. Honestly I ran out of time to stall and test colors before I would have held up progress, so I went with what I knew I liked from last time and moved on.

Aquamoose said:

I'm sorry for not contributing earlier... I had the same situation with the Liftmaster being close to the ceiling. I solved that by dropping the opener and installing chain & sprockets. It turned out extremely well that it actually looks like a factory option. No holes to cut!

And about your garage,... I'm speechless. It's a fine work of art sir. Thank you for sharing with us!

Click to expand...

Ah, yes that would have been the right way to do it! I totally missed those chain drive threads before it was too late. Luckily you can't really see that the top of the opener pops into the ceiling since the hole is cut very close to the opener dimensions, but I think the chain drive would have looked pretty cool.

tc-cad said:

Out standing job on the build and thanks for sharing. I like the colors you choose also. Is this a detached garage?

TC-CAD

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Thanks! Yes, this is a detached garage. It had no side door (just the main garage door) when we started. I wish it was attached to the house, but the upside of it being detached is nobody wants to park in it so it gets used exclusively for working on cars or hobby projects.

Very nice and almost an auto clinic so to speak. So clean after all the work, how long did it take from start to this point? I especially like the in ground lift and planned to do that for the bike lift in my shop after I get the walls finished. I Subscribed too!

MrQuinn said:

Very nice and almost an auto clinic so to speak. So clean after all the work, how long did it take from start to this point? I especially like the in ground lift and planned to do that for the bike lift in my shop after I get the walls finished. I Subscribed too!

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Thanks! My focus is auto work, so auto clinic is a good call. I just took a look at my records, and from the time we started removing drywall until I took those final photos was roughly 9 months.

absolutely amazing garage. im truly jealous. great job.

Love the night photo. I'm very envious of the finish on your floor. All-in-all you've created a really nice space!

Sooooo awesome!.

So have you loaded any of the drawers yet?. I'm interested to hear what you think of the quality of those cabinets once they start getting used. I've looked at those before and have been thinking about a set but would like an honest opinion before pulling the trigger.

Thanks

LXCam said:

I'm interested to hear what you think of the quality of those cabinets once they start getting used. I've looked at those before and have been thinking about a set but would like an honest opinion before pulling the trigger.

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Ditto that. I went and looked at their website, and it's a bit short on details. I'd love to hear a bit more from someone that actually owns them.

LXCam said:

Sooooo awesome!.

So have you loaded any of the drawers yet?. I'm interested to hear what you think of the quality of those cabinets once they start getting used. I've looked at those before and have been thinking about a set but would like an honest opinion before pulling the trigger.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I've loaded a few of them full of socket sets that are pretty heavy. While they still open and close fine, and are in fact "ball bearing", the ball bearing slides themselves are not as high quality as the Gladiator cabinets I had before. The result is that they take a bit more force to move in and out than I'd ideally like, while higher-end slides just glide more fluidly.

It's not a deal breaker, but just something to be aware of. If you tried to replace all of the slides with high-end ones, you'd probably quickly offset the cost savings of the cabinets.

The cabinets themselves are pretty beefy and look fantastic. I especially like the extruded aluminum pulls. BUT they are a pain in the **** to install and leave a bunch of sheet metal screw ends exposed in the corners and edges (hasn't been a problem yet).

But all in all, if you don't mind the limited selection of different cabinet sizes they offer, I'd still consider them. Plus the owner Dean @ Saber is a great guy that was quick to address any question I had. On delivery, some of the shelves were crunched by the freight truck (clear marks of them setting another shipment on top of my shipment were evident), and Dean got new parts FedEx'd over to me immediately no questions asked. I actually got to check out his warehouse and showroom when I was up in the Reno area before I placed the final order.

So if there was one thing I'd change about the cabinets, I'd just be the slides.

Wow! Awesome garage.

Wow, very nice.. wish i could have something like that. One hour with a angle grinder and a rusty datsun.. not possible.