WHERE to put the lift

F

Frank_T

Member
Im in the planning process of building a 40x60 pole building for my Garage-ma-hall! I need to tell the builder where to put the thicker cement pad for the lift. I have an opportunity to put it at an entrance to a 10x10 door or facing the wall across the shop. The only reason Im asking is I saw Grumpy's garage pics and its across his shop in the corner away from the door. I assume that is because he only has two doors.
I have multiple entry doors. Two 9x8 and one 16x10 on one 40' side for parking daily drivers. One 16x10 on the opposite 40' side for entry of my property equpment (mowers, tractor, ATV). And the 10x10 in the middle of one 60' side. The 10x10 is strictly for lift work so I think the lift should be in front of the door....
Any thoughts?

Thanks
Frank
 
its a personal choice and a good deal depends on how you want to organize your shop,think it thru carefully, as you basically stuck with the results, in my case I wanted to place the lift so it took up minimal floor space and I could locate my tools, near it, have an easy strait, drive in access for cars, I wanted to work on, but have it not block access to the rest of the floor space when its either up or down
I still prefer working with a creeper under the car , for some jobs ,and when you do brake jobs ,etc. so 4 12 ton jack stands still get use.
a lifts great but its not required on many jobs
I also eventually hope to install a second lift so keeping as much floor space clear as I can is important to me.
because I mostly build engines and while I do repairs constantly, its basically an engine building, and engine tuning hobby for me!
If your planing on having a two post lift installed have a floor in that area of your shop poured a minimum of 8" thick with 3500psi concrete as a typical 2"-4" floor thickness with typical 2400psi concrete won,t correctly anchor a two post lift, , I had the whole east 1/2 of my shops floor poured 8"-10" thick and the west 1/2 6"-8" thick, all with 3500 psi concrete as I didn,t want problems and the cost was only a few hundred dollars more to do so. and its much more expensive to retro-fit lift base pads later. adding a couple inches to the slab thickness or specifying 3500psi-4000psi concrete adds only minimally to the total shop cost IF YOU DO IT DURING THE INITIAL PLANING/BUILD
 
I checked with the contractor and he already quoted the 3500psi concrete. He agreed to do the 8" for the lift area but said he's done dozens at 6" with no issues (even pro shops) but he didnt mind taking my money to be extra sure...:eek:)
The building goes up next week. If I figure a way to post pictures Ill post the progress.

Electrical planning will be next!
 
before you start planing the electric , plan on eventually adding a few more outlets than you think you'll need initially as that's a given, in any shop
youll need to contact your local electrical inspectors and before you install the first breaker or outlet, in most areas you CAN do the work yourself , sometimes only IF the plans are certified by an electrical engineer (THAT COSTS YOU SOME MONEY, LOOK TO SPEND SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS) and only after you have an approved and certified plan listing each outlet, breaker, and conduit, the length of each run, the amp load,, its height from the floor, each type of outlet and wire gauge you intend to use,ETC.
this can still save you thousands of dollars over the labor costs of having electricians install your shops outlets


youll need to contact the local building code guys to find out EXACTLY whats required, then get your electrical plans drawn out and approved before you start doing any install.
I chose to run everything in metallic conduit , it was more expensive but I wanted no problems,
youll need to have the wire gauge and length of runs listed and the amps on each circuit, and since you'll need to have it inspected its a good idea to get everything you can in writing and on their letter head with their approval before you start, then its a good idea to slightly EXCEED the minimum requirements, list on the main control box each circuit with the same number as on the plans, and discuss with BOTH the inspectors or your electrician exactly whats expected, as to outlets, locations wiring wire gauge and if its in conduit
I started out with a plan to install a 200 amp feed to a 30 breaker panel , and two 10 foot long copper ground rods
200.jpg

and run dedicated individual breaker controlled G.F.I. (GROUND FAULT PROTECTED) protected series of 10 groups three dual 110 volt outlets, so there was a dual outlet every 10 feet along the wall, each on a 20 amp (thats 10 breakers)

all 15-20 amp circuits used 10 ga wire and 3/4" conduit

breaker, and five separate 220 amp circuits
one 30 amp run for the lift
two 30 amp runs for the compressors
one 50 amp run for the MIG WELDER (4 gauge wire)( 1" conduit)
one 100 amp run for the TIG welder, 1 /0 wire) (1.5" conduit)
(thats 10 more breakers)

three 20 amp 110 volt circuits for fans
two 20 amp 110 volt circuits for lights
three 15 amp 110 volt circuits for motion detectors and alarms
leaving only 2 for future use
this at the time cost me about $7K in material, 2500 feet of conduit and 14 500 ft rolls of 10 gauge wire, I was quoted $21K, for less than this much electrical work but under my direction my sons with no experience installed this in under 6 long week ends, and it passed without problems


 
I was rather shocked but not really surprised at this video of horrible sub standard work on a concrete pad
 
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