Tips on lift placement

[thammel]

I'm starting my 32 wide x 28 deep garage. It'll have 12' ceilings. I'll also have two 10' wide by 8' high doors. I need to pick the spot for the future lift so when I lay the pex I can avoid the attachment spots for the two post clear floor lift I'm planning. Any tips you all can recommend? Is it better to have it toward the rear? Centered front to rear? How about with respect to the garage doors? I'm planning insulated doors and will also pay for high lift to give max clearance. What about the opener? I've read about the openers that drive from the front wall so they aren't in the way.

Any and all comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Junkman]

Just start off with the thought that the garage size is usually the outside dimensions, and that the inside dimensions will be shrunk by the thickness of the walls. In most cases, this is a 6" wall, so your inside dimensions will be 1' less than the overall outside dimensions. To add an additional 2' to each dimension, might be the wise thing to do if you are figuring closely to where each item will be placed. My garage is 38' front to rear, and I come up about 3" short when trying to get my two cars in bumper to bumper. When I built the garage, I though that I had plenty of room. Now, I wish that I had another 2 or 3 feet of length and width.

 

[kvom]

I laid mine out so that my longest vehicle will be 1' inside the door when on the lift. It is centered on one of the doors, with ~18" of clearance to the side wall. I will also be using the Liftrmaster openers that attach to the jackshaft, hence no ceiling mount to obstruct.

I prefer to keeo the back wall free for cabinets, workbench, etc, with lots of room to move around.

 

[SteveU]

It would depend on whether you are going with a symmetric or asymmetric design lift. The asymmetric would need to be placed further toward the back. I would center it on one door and have it about 12-13' inside the door if it is symmetric which should give you some room to move around the lift with the garage door closed. I would not try to angle it very much but keep it as close to straight because it will make it more difficult to get all 4 lift points the sharper angle you have to pull into it.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

You need to figure out EXACTLY what lift you are going to use and get the footprint from the manufacturer. You'll want to do a scale drawing of how this is going to fit in your new garage so you can nail down the location of the post anchors.

When I did mine, I got it as close as I could and then left 4' X 4' post zones. I made sure I didn't put any PEX in those zones. THE OTHER thing I did in those areas was I cut out the styrofoam in those squares. That meant the slab ended up being 2" thicker (6" rather than 4") in those squares. Although 4" is the minimum for most lifts, I liked the idea of having 2" more under the post bases.

BTW an aysmetric lift is really nice in a bay you want to park in all the time. The posts end up being towards the far wall of the garage and don't interfere with opening the doors on a small car pulled to that bay. Also...you may want to consider going with taller garage doors if you can. If you have a 12 to 13 foot ceiling, a 10' door works better.

Phil

 

[rlme36]

going through the exact same process right now. I am planning on a Rotary lift asym. My slab is going to be 6" at 4500 through out, but have the lift area haunched like you mentioned. To avoid my pex tubing I am going to make the "lift pad" area 3' deep by 14' wide so I have a bit of wiggle room for and aft if I need to tweak it. The recommmeded space I think is about 10-12ft off the back wall to the center of the lift. this is what I am planning for at least.

I second the thought about narrowing down the lift that you are most likely to install.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

The recommmeded space I think is about 10-12ft off the back wall to the center of the lift. this is what I am planning for at least.

Mine is 10' off the back wall and is centered 8.5' off the nearest side wall. My garage is 28-feet deep (more like 27' on the interior). When I put my car up, it's pretty tight to the rear wall. I have a roll around tool box on that wall. If I wanted to put my truck up, I'd have to move the rollaround somewhere else to get the truck in far enough. I feel I've got the "perfect" placement for my lift with a 28-deep garage.

Phil

 

[SteveU]

I'm starting my 32 wide x 28 deep garage. It'll have 12' ceilings. I'll also have two 10' wide by 8' high doors.

Any and all comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tom

Tom, one thing I forgot to mention is the ceiling height, make sure you look into which ever lift you are thinking on getting and check the height requirements. There are a lot of lifts that require more than 12' & after the building is up & lift is brought home is a bad time to discover that. Mohawk lifts cost more but are 8'7" tall & if it keeps you from having to go to a 14' ceiling with another lift it might just wind up being cheaper over all.

 

[Matti]

I don't know why you can't leave the PEX out of a channel so you can adjust the lift placement fore and aft at a later date. As for the door opener, there are models that mount to the wall and drive the door directly. I think one is called the Liftmaster 3800. I just ordered one through my garage builder.

 

[thammel]

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm definitely thinking of a two post assymetric lift. I do realize the inside garage dimensions are about a foot less than the outside ones as, yes, I'm using 2 x 6 construction. And yes, I'm also keenly aware of the 12' (144") ceiling height and the lift height issue here. I've been checking the Greg Smith, Bendpak and Eagle sites and have identified some decent lifts. My floor is going to be 6" thick all over and I'll be leaving an area roughly 44" x 54" clear of pex for the two mounting areas. But a very good point about the assymetric lift and the fact that the car when lifted might not be centered about the lift.

Thanks!
Tom