Basement garage build

[Belgique Basterd]

Vehicle weight will be carried by the lift runners. This means the floor does not have to be engineered to carry a lot of weight on it's full surface. I think heavy gauge "1.5 x 1.5" (40mm x 40mm ?) square tubing run crosswise on 16" (500 mm?) centers and topped with 20mm decking plywood would do the job.

When the lift is in the down position the top deck closes up the hole in the ground level house floor, that way the ground level garage can be used whenever the basement lift itself is not in use.

The hole measures 3.2 mtr wide/ 5.8 mtr long so quite a span, I was thinking some kind of plywood/steel honeycomb structure?

 

[christopher7390]

good luck!

 

[lakeroadster]

I'd suggest you emulate the deck and support structure found on a 4 post lift that is rated for 8000#. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Design it such that in the lowered position the weight of the vehicle sits on the concrete floor in the basement, not the scissor lift.

Basically just like a 4 post lift, but no cables or hydraulics.
_____
John

 

[Belgique Basterd]

Update, the builders are working on the house itself now, so can't get much done on the lift. Don't want to get in their way and slow them down!

Did make some ramps to close the gap between the lift and the concrete edge. The reason that the lift is not flush against the concrete is that my truck's total length is longer that the lift length.

Ramps slide up an down on the skateboard wheels along the concrete wall at an angle and level out when it reaches it's top position.

 

[tacostand]

Did make some ramps to close the gap between the lift and the concrete edge. The reason that the lift is not flush against the concrete is that my truck's total length is longer that the lift length.

Ramps slide up an down on the skateboard wheels along the concrete wall at an angle and level out when it reaches it's top position.

Congrats on the builders and the overall progress of the job.
The house is looking great. I love the thread and thank you for bringing us along for the ride.

I think the ramp idea is ingenious but problems are possible.

I understand your truck is longer than the lift and you're using the ramps to close the remaining distance between the lift and the hole in the garage floor.

I realize it's late to make this suggestion, but could you cut 4"/100mm from the house end of the garage slab?
Then you could add that 4" back to the garage door end of the opening with steel angle or whatever you like.
*Then* you could simply make the lifting platform longer.
That would eliminate the need for articulating ramps who have moving parts.
This way you're not 'driving' the ramps up and down the front wall of your basement each time, counting on the wheels/bearings to do their job. If anything ever picks up dirt or grit and then sticks open or closed it could be a nuisance.

Just my thought on the ramps.

Good luck with the build. Looking forward to seeing this space progress.

Dave

 

[Bib Overalls]

Ingenious!

 

[Belgique Basterd]

Congrats on the builders and the overall progress of the job.
The house is looking great. I love the thread and thank you for bringing us along for the ride.

I think the ramp idea is ingenious but problems are possible.

I understand your truck is longer than the lift and you're using the ramps to close the remaining distance between the lift and the hole in the garage floor.

I realize it's late to make this suggestion, but could you cut 4"/100mm from the house end of the garage slab?
Then you could add that 4" back to the garage door end of the opening with steel angle or whatever you like.
*Then* you could simply make the lifting platform longer.
That would eliminate the need for articulating ramps who have moving parts.
This way you're not 'driving' the ramps up and down the front wall of your basement each time, counting on the wheels/bearings to do their job. If anything ever picks up dirt or grit and then sticks open or closed it could be a nuisance.

Just my thought on the ramps.

Good luck with the build. Looking forward to seeing this space progress.

Dave

I've tested the lift and ramps with this 3 tonnes machine (don't know the english word for it ) and both performed without a problem. Ran over the ramps multiple times and the skateboard wheels still rolled without problem. I'm pretty confident they will hold.

You are right that the wheels will leave marks on the concrete, but that's not an issue for me.

 

[Belgique Basterd]

And now the cry for help , as mentioned in previous posts I was able to buy this lift rather cheap. Extra high lifts don't come by often on the second hand market here and to buy them new they are ridiculously expensive for a hobby garage like mine.

The problem is that my original plan was to add some kind of 'roof' to the lift, so when the lift is in the bottom position the garage above it would by closed and could then be used as a normal garage. My truck weighs 5000 pounds, the lift has a 6000 pound capacity which leaves me with 1000 pound for the 'roof' construction. I figured that was plenty, so went ahead and bought this lift at a bargain price, well I figured wrong, 1000 pounds is nothing when dealing with wood/steel . Big mistake on my part, but it is what it is.

One of my friends suggested instead of using a roof on the lift, use a hinged cover mounted to the concrete instead of to the lift . Some kind of contraption that i can winch up when I use the lift, problem there is that the lift posts protrude about 50 inch out of the floor where they will be in the way for the hinging cover.

Anyway I am open to any and all suggestion, no matter how crazy or far fetched

A picture of the current situation and a sketchup I made, as you can see on the sketchup on the left and the back of the lift there is a steel I beam, on the right and front it's reinforced concrete.

 

[lakeroadster]

What kind of capacity (lbs/sq-ft) are you wanting for the cover?

 

[Belgique Basterd]

What kind of capacity (lbs/sq-ft) are you wanting for the cover?

Sorry forgot to mention the most important piece of information , a normal car around here weighs around 1.7 tonnes, so add passengers and some extra I'd want the capacity to be around 2.5 metric tonnes.

 

[Belgique Basterd]

Hey guys, back with ... no update

Actually been working on the main house itself and haven't done much in the basement workshop.

Will start working on the lift hole cover soon and need your guys help once again. The original plan was to mount the top cover for the lift hole on the 4 post lift itself as you can see in the cad drawing a couple of posts above this one. However this would exceed the total weight capacity of the lift (including my truck) so this plan is a no go.

I am now planning to make a hinged cover mounted on the concrete structure of the house, in fact closing the opening above the lift, but not mounted to the lift itself. The cover would open using a winch, now onto the questions.

- Would a 12/24v offroad car winch be suitable for opening the cover?

- I'm also having trouble finding good info on what the load bearing capacity of steel is, I have found a couple of tables like the one attached below, but can't make sense of it, can anyone explain? I would like to make the cover frame out of tubular staal covered with plywood.

http://www.staaltabellen.nl/images/stories/pdf/091.pdf


In short I need to know what steel to use for constructing a platform 230 inch long, 118 inc wide that needs to be able to carry a 2 metric tonnes car.

 

[wssix99]

My truck weighs 5000 pounds, the lift has a 6000 pound capacity which leaves me with 1000 pound for the 'roof' construction. I figured that was plenty, so went ahead and bought this lift at a bargain price, well I figured wrong, 1000 pounds is nothing when dealing with wood/steel .

You are thinking too hard about this. 1000 pounds is plenty. If you have that much weight for the deck, you are over-designing it and just need the help of an... engineer.

There are lighter materials you can use, like honeycomb, and as an additional benefit - you can get them in a rust-proof material: http://www.honeycombpanels.eu/15/sandwich-panels

You'll have to spend some money to get a workable light design for this and to get the more exotic material, but you will gain a lot of usable space over what you will have if you use a door/winch and getting something that is rust-proof will reduce your long term maintenance.

 

[Belgique Basterd]

You are thinking too hard about this. 1000 pounds is plenty. If you have that much weight for the deck, you are over-designing it and just need the help of an... engineer.

There are lighter materials you can use, like honeycomb, and as an additional benefit - you can get them in a rust-proof material: http://www.honeycombpanels.eu/15/sandwich-panels

You'll have to spend some money to get a workable light design for this and to get the more exotic material, but you will gain a lot of usable space over what you will have if you use a door/winch and getting something that is rust-proof will reduce your long term maintenance.

Is see and agree with what you are saying, but unfortunately 'exotic' materials are out of budget.

 

[70 140]

I think you're making it too complex by trying to design a moving platform attached to the lift. I would design it to hinge on the floor - probably along the long side against your wood framed wall. This puts the weight of the platform on your floor, not the lift. Use the lift to open and close the hinged cover; either with cable and pulleys or with vertical posts attached to one side of the lift to push the lid open.

 

[KELLHAMMER]

More!!

 

[Belgique Basterd]

I think you're making it too complex by trying to design a moving platform attached to the lift. I would design it to hinge on the floor - probably along the long side against your wood framed wall. This puts the weight of the platform on your floor, not the lift. Use the lift to open and close the hinged cover; either with cable and pulleys or with vertical posts attached to one side of the lift to push the lid open.

This is exactly what I tried to describe in my post but apparantly failed

All I need to know is what dimensions of steel I need for the platform and if a 12v24v 4x4 type offroad winch would be suitable to open the platform.

Found this online, I like the design as the winch is hidden underneath the platform.

 

[Belgique Basterd]

More!!

More of what?

 

[wssix99]

Is see and agree with what you are saying, but unfortunately 'exotic' materials are out of budget.

Your problem is once that has been solved and proven over 100 years by aircraft carrier builders and operators. They have used two options:

1) Doors

2) Safety Railings

No doubt, these ship builders had the same dilemma you do now. A platform lifted by the elevator is too heavy. With modern materials and not having the requirement to sustain battle damage, I do think you can pull it off.

Where you are in construction, I think your time to design in workable doors has passed. (They take up extra floor space and your hinge design will be another problem.)

Perhaps you could go with safety railings around the top, foregoing the use of a parking space with the lift down, until you have a remodeling budget sometime in the future? By then, maybe investing in honeycomb won't be as much of an issue and (no doubt) the cost should have come down.

 

[StefDS]

Hi,

Any update ?

 

[Belgique Basterd]

Update

About 2 years in and basement still isn't fully finished, still have some lighting, wiring and plumbing to do, but it's getting there.

Working out of a basement isn't ideal but it's a whole lot better than having no workshop at all , have to be honest the thing I miss the most is sun/natural light. On the plus side is there is no heating or cooling required it's always around 15°C in here.

Batcave in action video, sorry for the blurry pics, stupid autofocus phone

View My Video

Some pictures:

Overview from one end:

Vice versa:

Woodworking area, still a lot electrical, plumbing, extraction to do...

Old iron :

Metalworking area:

Cold saw station, worth it's weight in gold!!

4 post car/access lift area:

Truck needs some TLC badly

To be continued

 

[wssix99]

I'm looking forward to see how you decided to manage the top of the hole when you are using the lift. It looks like you put a sliding door or platform over it?