Garage Renovation / Lift and RaceDeck

ewjax · Apr 6, 2015

Was encouraged to post here instead of General...

Have an 800 sq ft garage with a room above it.

It has 2 doors - 8' and 16'. In the left side 8' bay, I want to install a lift (Bendpak HD-9) so I can stack my two cars and also be able to do maintenance whenever I can.

Only problem for the lift is that the ceiling is 100" and not enough height for the two cars (110" minimum required).

Above the garage is a large room that is 38' x 21'. So I've contracted the original builder to raise the ceiling in the left side bay by 20". Going to require truss work.I'm then going to have them build a wall in the upstairs room so there are two steps up into a newly created (albeit 20" shorter) air conditioned storage space.

The garage door will be converted to a high lift as well.

I'm going to compliment the garage with a new Race Deck finish that I just ordered.

Construction should being in a couple weeks and I'll update this thread with progress.

Race Deck Design

FXR500 · Apr 6, 2015

Welcome. Take lots of pictures during the refit. I'm sure it will be a great space.

HotRod68Camaro · Apr 7, 2015

Following this one.

BeachBoy · Apr 7, 2015

Nice cars!!!

adamjabaay · Apr 7, 2015

multiple 997s. And what appears to be track tires sitting around.

excellent. Excellent

TX4runner · Apr 8, 2015

adamjabaay said:
multiple 997s. And what appears to be track tires sitting around.

excellent. Excellent

I think the front one may be a 991, but agreed, very nice cars.

nationwide · Apr 8, 2015

As far as the doors of the garage are concerned, I would suggest you to go for security shutters. Recently, I had the experts at nationwideltd.co.uk/awnings install roller security shutters to doors and windows.

dubber · Apr 8, 2015

Boy am I excited to see this!

When you get your highlift conversion done you might also want to consider getting a Liftmaster 8500 which mounts onto the shaft of the opener and eliminates all of the clutter above the door and on the ceiling.

Chevy-SS · Apr 8, 2015

Looks great. But why go up only 20"???? Is there something preventing you from going higher? Kinda sounds like you are basically ruining the upstairs space (the lift section) anyway, so why not go all the way? The cost to go higher would likely not be very much. You can always use more ceiling height.

That way you can get a lift that has lots of height and you can comfortably walk around underneath without worrying about hitting your head.

Good luck!

-

Z06Joe · Apr 8, 2015

Keeping an eye on this one!

MattN03 · Apr 8, 2015

Very cool! Please keep us updated with pics!

ILLuSioNz X · Apr 8, 2015

Chevy-SS said:
Looks great. But why go up only 20"???? Is there something preventing you from going higher? Kinda sounds like you are basically ruining the upstairs space (the lift section) anyway, so why not go all the way? The cost to go higher would likely not be very much. You can always use more ceiling height.

That way you can get a lift that has lots of height and you can comfortably walk around underneath without worrying about hitting your head.

Good luck!

Could be because the upstairs room is also limited with ceiling height.

Subscribed, if the two porsches didn't already grab my attention, the lift setup should be pretty nice.

RPFletcher2 · May 10, 2015

I ran into a similar issue with my ceiling height. I think mine is 103" I wasn't able to raise the ceiling height without serious re-engineering and a hefty price tag. I went with an Atlas BP8000 lift and modified the columns to fit my ceiling. I can lift a car about chest height. With your low sport cars that may work for storage. Yes I may not be able to walk around under the car but it beats the hell out of jack stands. Plus if you buy one of those wheely shop stools it's perfect. Just giving you another option. But hey, if you have the ability to raise the ceiling I would go for it. That is the only thing I wish I could have done differently in my garage.

CombatNinja · May 10, 2015

Agree with above^^ 120" ceiling height is not going to satisfy you in terms of getting the car high enough to work on it comfortably. In my experience you will want 11' to 12' feet of height with 'normal' cars and normal height humans. Get into any kind of SUV or truck and you will be stooping under it even at that 12' height (ask me how I know). Look into just getting rid of that section of room above completely and getting maximum height for that one bay. You will thank us all in the end if you can pull it off.

55cadillacking · May 10, 2015

Those Porsches. Wow. Thanks for sharing your project. Best of luck with the ceiling.

ewjax · Jun 11, 2015

Sorry for being away! I am one step away from being finished... Waiting on my black Bendpak HD-9 in a couple weeks. As for now, it's pretty close to finished.

First, thanks for all the compliments on the cars. They get driven a little bit on the road and a little bit on the track. My goal was to be able to stack them. I do work on the 997 myself, including brakes/suspension/ etc, so I'll be picking up the rolling jacks when I can.

The cars are both 50.5" tall. I needed a minimum of 110 inches of clearance and after the renovation, got 116". More than enough.

Here are some pics of the project. Took about 3 weeks with the different trades/inspections.

Initial Garage setup:

Cleaned up and ready for the job:

Demolition of existing components. They left the 2x8 trusses in place until the 14" LVL's were installed one at a time. I had a constraint on the height due to windows being in the second floor.

LVLs being installed... 22' 14" LVL's are HEAVY. Took 4 grown men to put them in place.

LVLs in place. New floor raised 16" upstairs.

A new wall was added to an already large room. With existing air conditioning and power, this becomes a great climate controlled storage room (or my teenage son's future room).

Final structural view from garage:

Drywall installed and knockdown being put in:

Upstairs finished:

RaceDeck in place... This stuff is awesome!

High-lift door to be fitted with Liftmaster 8500:

997 waiting for lift:

I went with 4' LED Light fixtures from Home Depot. Worked out very well and the garage is illuminated quite nicely.

Here's a night time shot of my mobile garage before heading to Sebring:

ewjax · Jun 11, 2015

Very nice, Rob. My son would love a 944 Turbo.

The garage looks great!

RPFletcher2 said:
I ran into a similar issue with my ceiling height. I think mine is 103" I wasn't able to raise the ceiling height without serious re-engineering and a hefty price tag. I went with an Atlas BP8000 lift and modified the columns to fit my ceiling. I can lift a car about chest height. With your low sport cars that may work for storage. Yes I may not be able to walk around under the car but it beats the hell out of jack stands. Plus if you buy one of those wheely shop stools it's perfect. Just giving you another option. But hey, if you have the ability to raise the ceiling I would go for it. That is the only thing I wish I could have done differently in my garage.

ewjax · Jun 11, 2015

The problem is that the floor for the upstairs room is actually part of the truss system for the roof. There was no way to engineer removing the truss section completely. By going higher by 16", they've changed the loads and had to change from 2x8's to ten 14" LVLs. Crazy. I took what I could get.

Plus, the value added of having air conditioned storage in Florida is a great feature as well. Two birds with one stone.

Chevy-SS said:
Looks great. But why go up only 20"???? Is there something preventing you from going higher? Kinda sounds like you are basically ruining the upstairs space (the lift section) anyway, so why not go all the way? The cost to go higher would likely not be very much. You can always use more ceiling height.

That way you can get a lift that has lots of height and you can comfortably walk around underneath without worrying about hitting your head.

Good luck!

-

Z06Joe · Jun 11, 2015

Turned out nice!! Can't wait to see the lift in place!

HemiRamOn22s · Jun 11, 2015

Wow... looking good! Love the racedeck! Really makes me want to go that route.

Mr. Roboto · Jun 11, 2015

Very nice! Ton's of work, but it will all be worth it in the end. That is one sweet shot of your trailer setup at night as well.

BeachBoy · Jun 11, 2015

ewjax said:
Here's a night time shot of my mobile garage before heading to Sebring:

wow, jawdrop

s.gaspar · Jun 11, 2015

Very nice!! Can't wait to see this progress

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

bry@n · Jun 11, 2015

Looks great. Congrats.

gtr cook · Jun 11, 2015

Really liking your garage, oh and loving the Porsches as well.

That's a really cool night shot of your "mobile garage". Could you post a few more pictures and details of it please?

ewjax · Jun 11, 2015

Thanks for the compliments! A few more steps to go, but it's close.

It's an ATC trailer that I pull with my F250. Have a Reese Load Distribution/Sway control and pulling it down the highway is a breeze.

dubber · Jun 11, 2015

Ohhh momma! Obviously i'm a big fan of the floor and love the garage mods your working on to create space for the lift. Cars and trailer are top notch. That night shot is stunning! :thumbup:

Trey T · Jun 11, 2015

That's quite a garage mod and I like the way you think!!

ewjax · Jun 23, 2015

The lift came in yesterday and we put the big parts together.

Few things.

1. Remove the sheaves (pullies) while the runways are still on the shipping hardware. Makes removing it much easier.

2. Don't try to slide the cross member onto the verticals by lifting it overhead like it says in the instruction book. Just lay the verticals down, hit the verticals with a little wd-40, and slide the cross members into the slots and down to the base. Then just put the verticals up. MUCH easier.

3. Wrap a bunch of paper towels around the inlet and outlet of the cylinder when you expand it to full open. This will keep oil from spraying your entire garage.

4. Read EVERY sentence in the instruction manual. It's all important - especially the part where they tell you that the cross members shouldn't be siting on emergency catches.

5. To remove the runways from the shipping apparatus, you'll need a couple of 2x4's that can go under the ramps and allow grown men to lift the runways (one runway at a time). One guy on each of the 4 ends of 2x4's, and lift/walk/place on cross members. They one with the cylinder is HEAVY.

I went with the Bendpak due to their certifications, dimensions, manuals, and other information available online. I also liked that I could order it in 110v, had a high limit switch, a self-charging air cylinder (for releasing the locks), and that I could get it in black. And that there were 4' aluminum ramps and free shipping (though i suspect I pay for that).

It's not bad to install. Just read the installation instructions twice. Then again as you install.

PCMusicGuy · Jun 23, 2015

I notice your race deck design doesn't match reality. What did you end up going with?

HemiRamOn22s · Jun 23, 2015

I used a forklift to put mine together... Looks like you might have to remove your ramps when the lift is not in use.

ewjax · Jun 23, 2015

PCMusicGuy said:
I notice your race deck design doesn't match reality. What did you end up going with?

I went with Race Deck. I'm not sure what you mean that it doesn't match reality.

dubber · Jun 23, 2015

PCMusicGuy said:
I notice your race deck design doesn't match reality. What did you end up going with?

The online designer tool won't look nearly as nice as the actual product. :thumbup:

Lift looks great!

Eagerly waiting for a pic of the stacked Porsches.

Nolift911 · Jun 23, 2015

Nice project and 911's. I am roughly at the same ceiling height as you although no room to go up. I am at 115 inches ceiling height or 9.7 feet.

My cars are 49 and 57 = 106. Tight. After two years of measurements pretty sure it will work - the HD9 is inbound and install is this weekend :eyecrazy:

ewjax · Jun 23, 2015

p-dawger said:
Nice project and 911's. I am roughly at the same ceiling height as you although no room to go up. I am at 115 inches ceiling height or 9.7 feet.

My cars are 49 and 57 = 106. Tight. After two years of measurements pretty sure it will work - the HD9 is inbound and install is this weekend

Thanks! And sounds good.

With 116" and one GT3, I have 65" of clerance above the car. So you should have about 65 inches as well.

Checkout my notes above - they'll save you a LOT of pain.

ewjax · Jun 24, 2015

Project complete!!!!

I now have a 4 car garage and can more easily do work on the cars.

The things I've learned here at Garage Journal have been very helpful in motivating me to transition the garage. From Race Deck, to Lifts, to lighting. Awesome!

55cadillacking · Jun 24, 2015

That's insane!

dubber · Jun 24, 2015

Not that this is a competition, butttt.............. you win! Epic job and final look.

PCMusicGuy · Jun 24, 2015

ewjax said:
I went with Race Deck. I'm not sure what you mean that it doesn't match reality.

I just mean your design doesn't exactly match what you ended up putting down in real life is all. Did you use all 12" tiles or do you have some 18" tiles in there too? It looks awesome regardless! :thumbup:

Nolift911 · Jun 24, 2015

ewjax said:
Project complete!!!!

I now have a 4 car garage and can more easily do work on the cars.

The things I've learned here at Garage Journal have been very helpful in motivating me to transition the garage. From Race Deck, to Lifts, to lighting. Awesome!

Wow - very cool. Thanks for the note btw. Also, I got two RJ45's with the air kit so I will let you know how that goes also. You mentioned the air bottle for self charging on the release, does that work well?

Our measurements look similar - keeping fingers crossed.

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