Machanics Pit

[bobforman]

Are these still much in practice. I'm building a new house with 8 foot ceilings in the garage. Since lifts won't do much in that environment I thought I could go underground without a lot of effort. If so, what dimensions, how many steps to the bottom, etc?

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/images/smilies/dunno.gif

 

[LS6 Tommy]

There are ventilation regulations for service pits that you may have to meet. You might not like the estimated cost involved if the AHJ looking at your blueprints requires them. You my also be forced into a different zoning, insurance or tax bracket. My grandfather wanted a pit in the garage when he built his house and the town told him he would have to get commercial garage insurance and pay the associated taxes.

Tommy

 

[Cyberbear]

Garage pits are old school and still work w/o much problems. Nowadays govt. has over thought their application and since OSHA began ruling our lives, everything is more difficult.
My old "Oil Store" company used pits in all of their locations for safety reasons and simply used a portable fan to exhaust any fumes. You'd never have to worry about being crushed to death in a jack slippage.

 

[OKDart]

Garage in ground storm shelters are popular around here and they don't have any ventilation other than a hole in the door.

 

[Jlbc212]

Any gasoline liquid or vapors that may leak from a vehicle inside the garage can settle into the bottom of the pit. You may not even notice the odor, but it is there. Any spark could ignite the vapors. The chances are rare that it might happen, but it can happen. A similar reason why heating equipment should be raised off the floor in a garage or some type of curb or fire rated wall should seperate the heating equipment or any spark producing appliance (like a washing machine, sump pump, water heater, compressor, etc.) away from an area where flammable vapors might settle.

 

[lakeroadster]

Re: Mechanics Pit

Ever use one?

They are kind of a pain to work in... my grandfather had one on his farm, built into a bank of dirt. I did a lot of oil changes and drive line work on my high school cars.

• Carrying parts down and then back up.. including tools... is a negative.
  
• Working in a confined space... is a negative.
  
• The stairwell takes up shop space.

Redesign your garage for a lift.. you'll be glad you did.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I have been down in a couple of them. the first one was Way too narrow.
then I went down into the pit at a friends oil change business. The pit in the oil change business was much nicer.

 

[DeltaWye]

We have one that came with the house. I'm sure it's at least 40 years old. It was clearly cut in after the slab was poured, they used concrete block for the walls and didn't reinforce them. Still, it hasn't caved in yet.

For me the biggest downside is not having a good place to jack the car up in the center when the wheels need to come off. I do have a way of doing it with a bottle jack and a steel column, but it's a little iffy, it's slow because the stroke of the jack isn't enough to do it in one shot and and I only just have enough space to set the jackstand so it's clear of the edge of the pit yet still inwards enough to be able to grab the subframe. If you don't mind using the pinch welds to jack the car up or set the car down on, this would be less of an issue.

Height? Ours is a little short for me if the car is on the ground, okay when it's on jack stands. Better to be too deep because you can always add wood and a rubber mat to stand on.

Another problem is the water table. I had to install a sump pump because it will sometimes have six inches of water in it after sustained rain. I also had to cut a trench into the concrete to run the drain line to an outside wall (but this allowed me to run a conduit for future electrical). I should have run an air line too but I was in a hurry to get the concrete done before the winter.

You also have to straddle the pit every time you put a vehicle in that space, a pain if it's a 1-car garage, which ours is. At times we contemplated filling it in for this reason.

Yes, going up the steps to retrieve tools is a pain. The best solution to this is to have a helper. You could also put storage in the pit but at some point it may be in the way.

Lack of light is another problem. I did buy light fixtures to aim upwards but haven't put them in yet. They'll need to be protected from impact and chemicals and I'm still working out how I'll be doing that. For now I use a halogen work light on a tripod.

Advantages? One thing that I really like about using the pit is that if you are doing a job that needs access from both above and below, you just go up and down as you need to, the car stays put. Also, easy to get someone to get in the driver's seat and pump the brake pedal, turn the steering wheel, turn the engine over or run it while you're underneath doing whatever.

I would put a pit in a future house, yes, but I would make some changes.