pontifex4

I really like the idea in that thread of undercutting the soil/gravel under your existing pad a little, so that the new pads support it from underneath and the old concrete holds the new down. Again, I am not a professional, and have minimal concrete experience. That just seems more complete to me.

Be sure to wet down the material you're compacting a little, or you'll frustrate yourself to no end. I have recent experience in this regard.

firesm

I hear what you are saying as far as the thickness of your exsisting concrete - might make for a challenge drilling into that, with the possibility of cracking/breakage.

Definitely key out underneath the exsisting slab.

The guy on garage journal also did 4'x4' holes and went 12" deep. As well, he didn't have any expansion cuts in his floor - just something to keep in mind. I've been standing in my garage when my wife drives her 4Runner in, and I've been amazed at the amount of flex at the expansion joint closest to where she drove in - so I guess there are pros and cons to tying in when there are expansion joints.

I know you're anxious to get this going - I just want you to be aware of all the options. A buddy of mine at work who is a contractor always says when someone's trying to get a job done quick: "There's never time to do it right - but there's always time to do it over..."

Good Luck!!!

petee_c

Concrete poured..... 12" deep, rebar in the bottom half, plastic on bottom, waiting for it to bleed out the water..... then will float it.....

P

pontifex4

Don't add water while you're floating, by the way, or your surface will get brittle.

petee_c

Success!! Sorry for the blurry iPhone photo.

Lift arrived from Costco on May 7th or so - Finally got a vehicle up on August 1st.

$500 for new concrete
$150 rental of SDS Drill (x2) and Concrete Saw x1.

9 out of 10 anchors went in 'perfectly', one gave me trouble and didn't seat fully until it was about 1/8 to 3/16" above the floor surface. Ground down the extra flush to the surface.

The sacrificial bolt is definitely sacrificed. Using it for all 10 anchors was definitely more than the threads could handle. It threaded into the anchors fine, but the area of threads where the nut was for drawing up the anchor were stretched to the point where it became very hard to turn the nut. Working in some oil on the threads helped for the last few anchors.

I used the angle grinder to grind down the bit of the anchor that was above the surface of my concrete. I left the sacrificial bolt turned in a few turns to not muck up the 1st few threads of the anchor.

It is very hard to get the holes perfectly plumb when using a very large Bosch SDS (max) Drill, with an 18" long bit. There is enough wiggle room in with the base holes on the lift to still line everything up and get all the bolts in.

Have to move the garage door openner to the side, so I can get the vehicles up to the 48" spot.

The 15amp circuits was enough to lift my Jetta (about 3200lbs) . The new $10 12guage 10' extension cord from HF sure came in handy. The CRV is the heaviest vehicle we currently have at about 3500lbs.

I need to extend the hoses. With the posts at 125+" apart, not much extra hose for the pump to clear the nose of the jetta. I would prefer to be a couple feet back when lifting the vehicles.

I greased the channels of the lift with chassis/wheelbearing grease that I had, and the couple times I lifted the Jetta, it went up pretty evenly as far as I can tell.

Not much reserve capacity for the hydraulic fluid reservoir. I have enough fluid I think so that I don't hear any cavitation with the lift all the way at the top. (I added a couple ounces extra) with the lift at the max, but when I lower the lift to the bottom, ATF comes out the fill hole. I may just need to shim up the front of the pump base so the fill hole sits a bit higher. Of course, I didn't keep track of the amount of ATF I put in the unit. I had 2 x 5L bottles.

Turbodan

congrats
enjoy