Garage floor prep for lift?

[logical]

I'm building a new house (acting as my own general contractor...everybody needs a hobby right?). The garage will be a 3-car+, about 1100 square ft with 12' 2" ceiling....with attached house. An 18 ft and an 8 ft door, direct access to basement. I have basement walls done, had the garage foundation trenched, footers and block done last week and the rough carpenter starts Monday.

If a 2 post lift is in the plans down the road do I need to do anything special with the garage floor?

Basic layout...the tractor will likely end up somewhere else:

 

[dmorale8]

.....currently building a garage 31'x40' with 12' walls. Had lift pads installed aprox 24" thick...turns out manufacterers minumum requirement for the lift is 4" thick on a 3,000 psi slab....so you should be fine without any extra preparation. You have plenty of height so you shouldn't have a problem with that.

 

[Roadster]

I'm building a new house (acting as my own general contractor...everybody needs a hobby right?). The garage will be a 3-car+, about 1100 square ft with 12' 2" ceiling....with attached house. An 18 ft and an 8 ft door, direct access to basement. I have basement walls done, had the garage foundation trenched, footers and block done last week and the rough carpenter starts Monday.

If a 2 post lift is in the plans down the road do I need to do anything special with the garage floor?

Here are the concrete specifications on the Bend Pak website...

http://www.bendpak.com/custom_page.isg?ref=bpakconcretereq

 

[DynoDave]

Here are the concrete specifications on the Bend Pak website...

http://www.bendpak.com/custom_page.isg?ref=bpakconcretereq

Good question, and good answers. Thanks for the Bend Pak link. I'm planning on a 4 post for storage at the begining, then wanting to add a 2 post later for work. My cement guy wants to go 7" thick in those areas, so I guess I'll be covered either way. It should easily outlast me!

 

[krooser]

My 9000# two post is on 4" 3,000 lb sq. in. concrete with fibermesh...no rebar...no wire...no problems in ten years.

The last dealership I worked at had to break up several areas around their old in-ground lifts because of oil contamination from leaking hydraulic fittings. They replaced the concrete with 4" fibermesh and installed 9,000 lb. two posts lifts in their place. Again, no problems years later in commercial use.

 

[Steve_S]

My floor is 6" 3,000 PSI with rebar. I installed it per manufacturer's specs for single post lifts.

 

[logical]

Thanks for the input...especially the bend pak link. I don't expect to go over a 7-9000 lb lift but I'll go a few inches deeper and reinforce a bit in that area just to be safe. It's a slippery mess out there with the melting snow and rain on the clay fill so the guys will have fun with the Sky Trak setting the steel beams (under first level, over basement) Monday.

 

[JoeKramer]

The guy that installed my 10K 2 post lift (BendPak) said that 6"+ is more than enough. I only have 4" and he says that should be fine...

Sounds like your set!

 

[sca037]

My garage floor is 3000psi with wire mesh, but I went in and dug out the area where the lift was going to be to 6" just for a bit of insurance. Our 7000lb 2-post lift has only been in place for a few months (house is almost 3 years old) with no problems so far.....

Best of luck
Brian

 

[sirstude]

You might want to think abour scissor type trusses. I have a 10 foot ceiling in my garage with 4 post lift. The garage is 28x40 and the doors are on the long side. I had the ceiling in the stall with the hoist changed to a rafter setup, so that I have 14 feet in the peek. When my 41 Olds is on the hoist, it just can be lifted to the top. The hoist is one of the tall ones (6'4") to the bottom of the ramps when it is at the top. The thing is, that extra foot or two with the scissor trusses might make a great difference later on. The cost is almost no difference.

Doug

 

[logical]

I thought about sissor trusses Doug but they just didn't work out due to the complicated roof line in that area.....at 12'2" I can get all but the really tall lifts in.

 

[logical]

Thanks for the input...especially the bend pak link. I don't expect to go over a 7-9000 lb lift but I'll go a few inches deeper and reinforce a bit in that area just to be safe. It's a slippery mess out there with the melting snow and rain on the clay fill so the guys will have fun with the Sky Trak setting the steel beams (under first level, over basement) Monday.

Quoting myself to set up this picture. Luckily the excavator was on site today to dig the septic field because before 10:00 am he had rescued the lumber company truck after he got stuck, the carpenter's sky trak (had all four wheels buried beyond the axles, two were out before I went to my truck for the camera)and my lumber, my steel beams, and his own semi with double trailers when he was pulling out onto the road after dumping a load of sand.

After the 2 hour circus they got down to business and got quite a bit done.