Garage lift
 

I know a lot of you have researched this and some have one so if you could guide me I would appreciate it.

I have a garage with a 8 1/2 foot ceiling, if I get a lift what is the minimum height I need, there is an attic above the garage I can break into it to make a higher ceiling ... I think I’ll have to get the side garage door opener like FC has, is there a certain brand I should look into to.

Also any idea of what is a decent lift with a small foot print ... I only have a 2 1/4 car garage so I would like the least intrusive one.

I should say the reason for the lift is for storage of another car, not a lift to do work on my car.

You're talking about a 4 post lift, right?

The place I bought came with a 2 post Rotary model. Great to 'work on' cars. Not so great for storage.

I have been looking at a 4 post lift for storage though. Bendpak makes good ones - that I have been told.

I have a shop near me that I may use for when I get mine though - they run specials fairly often and are close - so delivery and set up / installation are easy....
See https://topsecretequipment.com/index...s/4-post-lifts

Sounds like a standard 4 post lift would work for you....
YMMV of course - good luck and have fun...

There is also Greg Smith Equipment which may be worth a look, and they're all around the country.

A good friend has a 4 post Atlas from Greg Smith Equipment that he's been pretty happy with for a long time. 4 posts are great for fitting in an extra car. Even if you don't plan on doing work, they can simplify some tasks. At a minimum, it lets you see the underside of the car which lets you keep an eye on things much more easily.

They have a bit of a footprint, but not much. The Atlases are 115" wide (including 10" for the motor which is raised). I'd probably want a garage at least 22' wide to consider a 4 post. I could fit one in my 19' wide garage, but that's too narrow for me to be happy.

What kind of ceiling height you need depends on a lot of things, but it's easy to figure out the bare minimum: Add the heights of the two cars together and add six more inches for the runways (the Atlas runways are 4.5", so 6" is a pretty realistic minimum clearance).

If we think about stacking one 51" tall 718 Boxster above a second one, that's 116". So, 8' 6" is probably too short. You also didn't mention whether the garage door eats any of that space.

FWIW, my lift is a Bendpak and it has been great - but it's a 2-post lift.

Sorry, too busy right now to look into it, But besides some minor anchoring (maybe) to prevent the lift from shifting, a 4-post lift is inherently stable.

This is probably nothing that isn't obvious or hasn't been mentioned, but the maximum vertical travel ought to be configurable, so just make sure the posts fit and that your vehicles' vertical stack-up (along with clearances) fits under the ceiling. And yes, you will need a wall-mounted opener for sure.

Alan, as others have noted the Greg Smith four-post would likely serve you very well.

Absolute minimum is about 10 feet. You will be a lot happier if you can get 12.

Do you want to be able to walk comfortably under? Most storage lifts will NOT go high enough to walk under.

Thanks for the responses guys, I don’t need to walk under it. This weekend i’m going to have to take a look at the attic over the garage to see how much room I have to build up.

Man I wish I could install a lift in my garage. The ceilings are 10'3" tall but I could probably bust through the ceiling if I wanted to.

But if I put in a 4-post it'll be in the way and make being in the garage miserable.

And if I put in a 2-post, then I'd be parking inside a 2-post lift every day when i get home from work. :speechle:

Fcuk me I need to figure out a way to build another garage somewhere.

What do you want to do with the lift?

If simple stuff like brakes, wheel/tire swaps, suspension work, oil changes etc, just get a Quick-jack like product. For the vast majority of work in small garages those work perfectly fine and aren't in the way all the time like a two or four post.

IMO four post lifts aren't very good for most typical work done on a car. Two posts are great but I agree I wouldn't want to park inside one every day. That would get annoying super fast.

You could also get a Max Jax, which is intended for the lift posts to be unbolted and rolled away when not in use. But that seems really annoying.

I agree. That's why despite funny looks, I decided to push the posts ~20' into the detached garage. That way the car(s) park in front of the lift unless the lift is needed. Yes, you need a deep garage for that to work (mine is 33'), but I like that arrangement.

A screen capture of my high-level wiring schematic below showing the rough dimensions.

I want it for storing my car if I get another sports car, I wouldn't be driving those cars everyday but it would be at least once a week each.


What do you guys think of this one post lift ?

https://aclifts.com/lifts/m-1-single-post-car-lift/

Sorry, I was asking Matt. For your situation (storage) the only thing I would do is get a four-post. Those one-post lifts creep me out.

That's nice enough packaging-wise, but if properly designed it's probably expensive. There is a lot of bending moment on that unit.

One thing to keep in mind is not just the height of the garage ceiling but the height to the open door when it is horizontal. THAT has to clear both cars and is likely your biggest limiting factor.

Stay with the mechanical engineers on this one... Even if the specs of the 1-post are good, the installation would have to be that much more perfect than a naturally steady 4-post.

OK I will cross that one off my list, thanks for all of the feedback.

Yeah, we have significant slab adjustments to accommodate potential future one post lifts. (I don’t know if we will ever actually install them.)

The one post lifts really aren’t that much creepier than two post lifts when you factor in the foot, but you need to be confident in your slab for them.

one thing that might be less day-to-day intrusive is one of the Bendpak double width four post lifts.

like this:
https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/fo...lifts/hd-9swx/

needless to say, fitting this is an issue, but it’d be relatively easy to live with every day. limited post intrusion into your parking space. enough height to stand under. etc.

I definitely don’t have room for that but I know a guy named Nick who does :D

if we decide to, the slab is reinforced for the aclifts one poster you linked to. :)

My slab was not reinforced, but it is 8" deep and made of 4000psi concrete. I also was OCD about keeping it wet during the curing process. Well, the first week (~90% cure). It will technically asymptotically cure for a bunch of years.

My slab is barely adequate for a two-post lift. It was poured in 1986 and most but not all of the holes had adequate depth for the anchors. :lol:

Everything I put on it is relatively light, though, and I have a cross-bar for the top of the lift posts that certainly helps a lot.

Are you sure that raising the ceiling height will be easy? It often takes ripping off the roof, replacing all the trusswork, etc, and putting a new roof back on. It won't necessarily take all that, but until you have someone that knows what they're doing take a look...

That’s what we had to do. But they were able to remove the existing trusses, extend the wall height, and then reinstall the same trusses.

I wonder if there are code differences from place to place that could have an impact? (dunno what code requirements are for that kind of thing here)

When I bought my house, one of the first things I did was pick up my concrete driveway and bag it for the garbage men to haul it away. :eek:

That probably influenced my decision to go overboard on the concrete for my garage floor - 24' x 28', 21 years old, no cracks. Oldies but goodies: Garage 1, Garage 2

You make a good point ...I’m going to have to ask my contractor who has done most of the work to my house to let me know his thoughts, then of course there is an easier solution, just get used to the 540 sitting outside.

So I checked into the single post lift by American Custom lifts and thought it might possibly be a good option but am I crazy to think the price is really high ...

The lift is $7k plus another $1k for shipping + $1k to 1.5k for installation plus they have extra's you are going to want to have like Protectors to prevent the ramps from scratching your floor $90., then another $250 for low ceiling applications, etc.


Basically when you are all done you're at at least $10,000 and this doesn't include the charge from an electrician to wire up 220v plus the cost to raise the garage tracks and to change over to a side mounted garage door opener.

Then I started to think about it and it would only be good on the left side of my garage which means I need to be super careful each time I open the drivers door.

A lot less than more garage. And you can reverse into the space.

A few thoughts:

AFAICT, you can afford to do whatever you want. Put in the lift, do all the garage mods to make it work, etc isn't going to hurt much. You just don't want to. I'm also guessing that financially, you can easily build a detached garage that would be exactly as you want or extend/expand the one you're currently using. I don't know if your property can accommodate and that may be the limiting factor.

You've talked about or alluded to not being happy with your garage space and car storage options quite a few times over a long period of time. Makes me think you really want to do something...and that eventually, you will.

So, the question is, do it now while you'll have the most time left to enjoy it or wait another few years and have that much less time to enjoy it while probably paying more for it?

The cost of this lift, the mods you'd have to do, and all that sounds like it would only be a fraction of the cost of any of the past 10+ cars you've bought. :dunno:

Also, if you get the wiring done for 220, you won't have to do it when you get an electric car that needs it. If you have to park in a way where you have to be careful of a wall, a foam pad stuck to the wall at a strategic location will protect your door. Lots of choices on Amazon in the $10-$20 range. Been using for the Camaro and it works perfectly.

It’s funny I just sent some questions to them as I was thinking about it this morning and then I came here and saw your post ...

You are absolutely right I am not happy with having only a 2 1/4 car garage, I was just having this conversation with my wife the other day but we love our house and don’t want to move.

I would love to build another garage but I am already expanded on both sides and don’t have the room for it, kinda sucks because I live on a little under an acre. One of the extensions is a 400 sq ft room that would make a great garage and my wife suggested we do this if I want but that room is a really cool theater room and I really don’t want to turn it into a garage.

I’m going to still check into this a little more ...

Are there any offsite storage options that would work for you? I'm thinking a multi-car garage location within 30 mins of your place that you could rotate cars in / out of. If that doesn't work, I think Clyde makes a lot of great points (many similar ones you were making to me re: the 911), stop waiting / brain f-ing the decision and do it. Once you've spent the money, it will not seem nearly as expensive and it will solve a problem that has bugged you for years. Also, I would NOT cheap out on something that will be holding ~4000lbs over top of my family and something else worth a combined $200k...

Do you actually use the theater room? And if so, is there anything preventing you from building, say, a theater room behind the new garage space?

Or, even atop a new garage? Or other creative solutions.

Too bad lupinsea hasn't been here in over a year.

If you want to build/add on to your garage, as Clyde suggests, my advice would be to wait for an economic downturn/slowdown in the housing market. The current boom has contractors short-handed and charging top dollar. The price of building materials is also escalating exponentially.

Believe me I have thought of any and every possibility of building another garage, directly behind the theater room (aka my dogs bedroom :D) it is completely finished with pavers, retaining walls, sitting area with a fire pit, plus my pool is after that.

My home is a ranch so I can't build up ... I considered that when my kids were young but I feel I missed that boat many years ago being the kids are older and not around as much and I really don't need more living space.


I've been giving this a lot of thought and I think the 2 things holding me back from getting a lift are:

1) I drive both sports cars multiple times a week, having access to them now is easy, with a lift I now need to move a car form the bottom, lower and then remove the car from the top and then pull the unused car back in ... I know myself I just won't drive whichever car is on the top because it is a PIA

2) I don't know if I am crazy about having this big lift in my garage taking up room, it changes the whole feel of it. It is only a 2 1/4 garage ...


Kind of like when I had the tire balancer machines, it sounded like a fun idea but I really did not like the fact it took up so much garaqe space.

Park one or two in the driveway :dunno:

It's not a space issue, my driveway can hold all the cars (currently 4 sit outside and 2 are in the garage), it's more of a spoiled want issue.

Also I completely agree Josh about the money part ...

So the company got back to me and there is no room to open the drivers door if I go with the single post which means I would have to take Phil's advice and back the cars in ... I really don't like the idea of that so I started to check out the 4 post option ... I would like the foot print to be as little as possible.

One option:

https://aclifts.com/lifts/voyager-4-post-car-lift/

It looks like I can get casters and make the lift mobile though I don't know if I would bother ... also looks like it is free standing so I don’t need to have it bolted down.

This one would run roughly $5k to $6K depending if I go with the Rolling jack which from my understanding allows me to change my wheels if I need to ... someone please let me know if I am correct on this.

Also I am considering this company since they are local
https://aceshopequipment.com/car-lif...dential-lifts/

I did contact Bendpak and will check out their products too ... any advice or feedback would be appreciated ... I really do not know anything about lifts.

Also just to add I am going to have the garage floor redone, I had it done about 8 yrs ago and they did a horrible job, the floor looks terrible so I found a place that seems reputable that will do it, it seems to be the same 2-3 day job I had before but their products hopefully are better ... they are charging about $3,000 which is the same I paid 8 yrs ago so I believe that price is good :dunno:

I think I would get the floor done first then have the lift installed ... thoughts ?

If by getting the floor done, you mean epoxy or some similar coating, do it after. They may need to do concrete work, depending on what lift you eventually end up with.

Also, living around a four post lift is HORRIBLE.