Appraiser

Our house is currently under construction and a typical modern suburban home means tiny garage. I'm "lucky" to get near a 10' ceiling height albeit with a mean 2' dropped cross beam through the middle of it, otherwise it's a 20'x20' cracker box and I've spent many sleepless nights contemplating what to do; wife needs to park her CUV, we've got safe, refrigerator, rack and tool chest that need to go somewhere in there and and that'll leave me with a few feet in front of the 911.

My best find was the Bendpak Autostacker. You'll need 220v (30a?) power and it'll have a 12' x 8' foot print but with only a 2.5" platform width and the lowest of the (5) height locks will just clear a 911 underneath it. Then you'll have all sorts of space up top for another sporty car; basically anything up to 5' tall. Only kicker is the price at $6k it's double a typical four post lift and it isn't conducive for DIY work. Then you'll also want to consider a direct drive-style garage door to clear up some air space; I think the Liftmaster 8500 is the NA standard and having the track go as far up as possible so that there won't be any interference with the garage door raised and the car up top. Add in delivery, taxes, installation and any electrician work and it's around $8,000 in the door. Turns out that isn't far off from a classic Fiat 500 or Sprite which could sit sideways in front of the 911 on dolly wheels with about a mm to spare. That's my current dilemma. Oh what problems to have.

Wayne Smith

Add $1500 or so for a couple of bridge jacks and that's why I went with a < $3000 two post BendPak Gran Prix. But that's not good for storage (hanging suspension).

captainbaker

Dont know, thus there is only one car parked in the three car garage hahah. The other three cars, including the 997 live outside. Since I have a close friend who does the heavy lifting MX wise, I gave up on the lift idea.

Petza914

My Backyard Buddy lift runs on 110. I'm sure it could run faster up if setup for 240v, but I actually don't mind it moving up at a slower rate as it lets you look at things while it's going up to make sure nothing is getting pinched anywhere, that the 4 corners are going up evenly, etc.

Coming down speed doesn't use the pump and is purely a function of the how quickly the valve lets the hydraulic fluid flow out of the ram that lifts the cables and back into the reservoir tank.

wc11

120 or 240 has zero effect on the height of your lift. I'm using a 120 Volt Direct Lift sitting atop Racedeck tiles with a 10' 6" ceiling.
High lift garage door on a Lift Master 8500 side shaft mount opener. Lots out outlets around including the ceiling.
Resnor ceiling mounted natural gas furnace, foam tiles on the lower walls (prevents door dings), LED strip lighting below, Electrical & air above, fridge, 2 in ceiling 120 cfm exhaust fans, TV, stereo with in ceiling speakers,double steel wall insulated garage doors, etc etc
Fun project and fun room.

dawgcatching

Thanks for the help everyone! There are lots of good ideas here.

It gets cold here at night; our average lows this time of year are near 20 degrees. How "warm" should I strive to keep the garage? It will be finished, but should I add some sort of heating system? My current garage is finished and seems to stay at around 50 degrees in the winter, for some reason. It probably has something to do with the furnace being located in the garage.

Petza914

Mine as a 4 car + a little.Since the foot above the garage is part of the finished house, I installed a couple of vents in the garage ceiling so whenever the HVAC above it runs, it pumps heated or cooled air into the garage even though there's no garage thermostat. In the winter I take the patio heater from the back porch and put it in the garage for the winter. With it already being comfortable in there, I can fire up the patio heater for about 15 minutes and it gets toasty. If the garage were smaller, I probably wouldn't do this since there wouldn't be enough fresh air, but since it's temperate where I live and just needs a warmer upper for a project it works for me. If I lived where it was colder or had a smaller garage, I'd install a wall A/C unit and indoor safe heat source.

wc11

If the garage is just being used as such, 50F/10C is fine. I keep mine there all winter. Then when I do go out there to work on whatevere, it only takes about 30 min to get it up to room temperature.

rap

Wayne Smith

Beware of local codes. In general it is not allowed to connect house air to garage air that is potentially contaminated with fumes. Likewise, the house access door needs to act as a fire break (solid wood). Fire break includes walls.