JakeKohl
Well-known member
As I near completion of my garage (my build thread is in dire need of an update), I've come across several reasons to have a car lift in my garage. 1) I like the idea, 2) I want to start some sort of car project (as opposed to a boat project) in the near future, and 3) my graphics business (located over the garage) may get into vehicle wraps and it would be incredibly nice to bring the bottom panels of the car up to a reasonable working height.
My delima is that I've designed my 24x36 garage space to be as flexible and modular as possible and I want to keep it that way. I work on my racing catamaran sailboats and like to pull them into the garage intact on trailers with the 30+' masts in their trailer configuration. I work on cars from time to time. I have the beginnings of a decent wood working shop and want to build some cabinetry here soon. While doing all this (except the wood working or other dusty modes) I like my little two seater Audi to nestle quietly in a corner. A two or four post lift is out of the question because it will seriously impact the flexibility of my space and I have height considerations with only a 10' ceiling.
So I've settled on something like the bend-pak SP-7X and I would like to have it recessed in the floor. The problem is that I didn't plan for this and need to re-work the slab to make this happen. The good thing is that I came to this decision before I tiled the floor. I would like to recess it like it is shown here in this YouTube video.
My question is for you concrete guys, what is the best method for me to cut the floor and re-pour the cavity for the lift to sit in? In the down position, this lift is only 5" in height - so I'm not talking about a super-deep pit or anything. Do I just cut out two rectangles and start framing up support for a bottom and side walls? Or, rather, do I cut out a larger section of the concrete and repour both the pit and a new section of flooring? I also need to cut a channel hide the pneumatics/hydraulics to a wall where I hope to mount the control panel.
My existing floor didn't get any steel re-enforcement...which I was a little disappointed in my GC for this. However, two years after the pour, I don't have any unplanned cracks (only in the relief joints as intended). Although I feel better about the future state of my floor, this fact does make me a little concerned about cutting two rectangles and introducing stress points that may propagate cracks. As it is, the approximate lift area would cross a relief joint at 90 degrees with one relief joint running between the two recesses. How would you plan this?
My delima is that I've designed my 24x36 garage space to be as flexible and modular as possible and I want to keep it that way. I work on my racing catamaran sailboats and like to pull them into the garage intact on trailers with the 30+' masts in their trailer configuration. I work on cars from time to time. I have the beginnings of a decent wood working shop and want to build some cabinetry here soon. While doing all this (except the wood working or other dusty modes) I like my little two seater Audi to nestle quietly in a corner. A two or four post lift is out of the question because it will seriously impact the flexibility of my space and I have height considerations with only a 10' ceiling.
So I've settled on something like the bend-pak SP-7X and I would like to have it recessed in the floor. The problem is that I didn't plan for this and need to re-work the slab to make this happen. The good thing is that I came to this decision before I tiled the floor. I would like to recess it like it is shown here in this YouTube video.
My question is for you concrete guys, what is the best method for me to cut the floor and re-pour the cavity for the lift to sit in? In the down position, this lift is only 5" in height - so I'm not talking about a super-deep pit or anything. Do I just cut out two rectangles and start framing up support for a bottom and side walls? Or, rather, do I cut out a larger section of the concrete and repour both the pit and a new section of flooring? I also need to cut a channel hide the pneumatics/hydraulics to a wall where I hope to mount the control panel.
My existing floor didn't get any steel re-enforcement...which I was a little disappointed in my GC for this. However, two years after the pour, I don't have any unplanned cracks (only in the relief joints as intended). Although I feel better about the future state of my floor, this fact does make me a little concerned about cutting two rectangles and introducing stress points that may propagate cracks. As it is, the approximate lift area would cross a relief joint at 90 degrees with one relief joint running between the two recesses. How would you plan this?
