firemn131

Howdy all. Start building on new house in a few weeks. trying to figure out what 2 car lift has shown to be the best fit for a 928 and a 968.
Standard 2 car garage. 20x 22. total ceiling height is 9'9. with 8ft. to bottom of garage door track. if I need to I will change out doors to a roll up, or get the tracks to ride closer to the ceiling.

It is not needed, but I will try to have extra footers poured at the base plate locations.
I guess the main question is how far back from the garage door opening does it need to be anchored to give me enough clearance to have one car on the lift and another under, without hitting the roof with garage door.

But, I am looking for any and all experiences with lift installations, styles, and types..

thnx

John

V2Rocket

can the ceiling be raised?
one rennlister's setup had his garage built to accomodate 2-high parking with the lift. must be a 13+ ft ceiling.

do you have space for "barn doors" instead of a rollup?

fwb42

Yes, raise the ceiling as much as possible... I also think you can get overhead door hardware that will set very close to the ceiling. Check with your installer.

Van

Sounds like MaxJax territory... You need 12' ceiling for a full-height 2-post lift.

docwyte

I've got 13 1/2' in my center bay, can't wait to get a two post lift next spring!

firemn131

Not sure if iI can raise ceilings. This will be in an HOA **** rule neighborhood. I can get roll up doors. but they are kinda ugly. But, i can adjust the door tracks to be almost flush with ceiling.

homerj

i rebuilt my engine and swore i would never crawl under the car again. i bought a western lift from a dealership that was closing. minimum would be 13 ft ceiling to fit it. i put it at my shop. you can get a garage door motor that mounts next to door so you wouldn't have the track down the middle of garage. but if your ceiling is only 9' minus the height of car you would only have about 4' off the ground. depending on truss layout you could put towers in between trusses and modify the safety switch so u don't crush car on ceiling and on mine the towers sit at about the middle of my doors when its on the lift which is quite often

paul29

"HOA **** rule neighborhood " what type of neighborhood is that?

homerj

home owner association neighborhood or **** for short. they said i had to many cars in my driveway and can have only 2. so i have to park the others on the street in front of my house.

dmcampbell

Ah, the good ole **** HOA. I am in the process of leaving mine and will never live in one again. Mike

harveyf

In my heated shop with a 9' ceiling I can only use a mid rise lift. 2 car lift is out of the question at that ceiling height. But my unheated garage has scissors trusses, which I used to allow me a 4 post lift in the future.

So I would suggest you look at a 12:12 pitch roof with scissors trusses. From the outside, the eaves can be placed at a height commensurate with your HOA rules. On the inside, you can easily get a 14' clear space in the middle 2/3's of the garage depth. This will allow you to use a "standard" 4 post lift.

Google scissors truss. Basically, first 3 or 4 feet of the truss goes up at a 45 deg angle, then there is a flat ceiling portion. So on a 20 foot garage depth and starting at 9'9" on the edges, you could get up to 14' in a 4'3" of lateral distance. This would leave you 20' - (2)(4'3") = 11'6" of ceiling width at a 14' height. If you use a shallower roof slope, you get less clear space but the effect is similar.

If you use a 4 post lift, then your floor prep will be easy, as there aren't the overturning moments associated with a 2 post lift. If you can spec the lift before you pour the slab you can put in some footers under the locations of the 4 legs and maybe some cast in place J bolts. That said, cast in place bolts require precise placement and you have to lift the baseplate over the bolts during install. Not an easy job as these things are heavy. You may just want to stick with Hilti expansion anchors (KB3) which you can match drill and install through the baseplate for the lift.

Shipping on lifts can be brutal all though I see some companies now show free shippping. The cost is still there, it is hidden. There is a manufacturer of lifts in NC, around Greensboro, that you might want to use as closer to MD to save shippping.

As someone said, side hinged barn doors would solve your problem with the track getting in the way. The doors shown on my website (my heated shop) are actually tri-fold, where 1/3 of the door width is hinged normally as my standard access door but the other 2/3's can swing fully open when I need to move a car in. On my unheated garage doors (not shown on website) I use a "California door". They are a little more compact but still intrude on the space where your lift goes. The door is one piece and the hinges are on the sides. But if you use them with an opener, the opener still gets in the way. I don't use an opener for my garage doors for that reason and the fact that they don't get opening on a regular basis.

968gene

Don't forget the 220v outlet on the ceiling.

fwb42

Just for fun, you guys might like this suite. A friend of mine collects Chevy's and has 7 in a 3 car garage. If you open his suite and work your way down there is a video of how to gat 7 cars in a 3 car garage. Enjoy. Also the Fred in the video is not me.
http://philsclassicchevys.com/