Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

[Chuck G.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

At my old house in Maryland, I had a Superior brand 4 poster. Had it there for about 10 years with NO issues.

When I moved to Florida, I left my old lift in MD, and bought a Direct Lift at the NCRS Kissimmee meet in 2009. It was one of the lifts they used for a judging school. Got a great deal on it.

The Direct Lift is the same construction/configuration as my old Superior Lift.

I've had no problems with my Direct Lift. For several reasons, I do not like the Backyard Buddy design, with the sliding square tubes over the verticals.

I have a Liftmaster "jackscrew" opener on the garage door in the bay where the lift is located. When I built this house, "cathedral'ed" the ceiling in that bay, just to accomodate a lift.

Here are a couple of pix.

Chuck

[Edward B.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

If you're planning on using the spaces under the Corvettes for the daily drivers the parking between the posts will get old very quickly and you will wind up with the drivers parked outside as it's too much trouble to garage them.

[Dan S.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

I have been reading the advice given regarding garage lifts as I would like to purchase one as well. I would like to add a question about the concrete floor. From what I have read, I believe the recommendation is that the concrete floor should be 4 inches thick. Any of you with garage floors that are less than 4 inches?

[Ronald L.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

In this day in age of "ecological concrete" 4" is inadequate.

Modern concrete is about 99% ground up old concrete, it has inferior strength, spalding is very predominate, etc.

If you are doing this new,

6" thick, wire mesh reinforcement, and 6 bag mix minimum. Delta in cost is minimal.

[John H.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

I have been reading the advice given regarding garage lifts as I would like to purchase one as well. I would like to add a question about the concrete floor. From what I have read, I believe the recommendation is that the concrete floor should be 4 inches thick. Any of you with garage floors that are less than 4 inches?

Dan -

A 4-post lift doesn't require any special concrete floor; it just sits there, and with a car on it, the feet exert about ten pounds per square inch on the floor.

A 2-post lift is a whole different discussion; definitely requires a specially-prepared floor slab due to the anchoring stresses.

[Valeria H.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

The discussion on this thread has been fascinating. Thank you to all who have gathered their thoughts, experiences and photos (your garage photos put mine to shame) and then took the time to share them on the TDB. I always learn so much when I place a post. I am definately going with American made.

The height of my garage is 1 1/2 inches shy of 11' so I know that will not be an issue. I never thought about the depth of the concrete being an issue. My house was built approx 15 years ago. The depth of the garage floor looks to be at least 5 inches in depth. I hope that is adequate to hold the extra weight of the lift and another car.

Thanks again for all your input,

[John D.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

The minimum floor thickness required for my 2 post lift was 5"

The plate on the bottom of each of the posts on my 4 post are 8"x8" or 64 in^2. If the car weights 3200# and the lift is about 1600# that works out to be about 1200# on each post or 18.75 psi. Most compacted earth would carry this weight, so a 4" slab for a 4 post should work.

[Jerry W.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

Valeria....one more thing....can you post a pic of TRIXIE

[Michael F.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

To: Mark Tulley, what are your concerns with the backyard buddy type post and any other concerns you might have about lifts in general, thanks.

[Anthony P.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

I have an Eagle Lift that i have had fir 8 years. Works great and no problems at all. I use it for both storage and restoration/service work.

My main recommendaton is to go with the larger version of the Lift. Mine is the XL, which is slightly longer and goes a bit higher than the standard ones.

My ceilings are 15" high so I can raise a SUV way up to work on it.

Yes there is a corvette in the garage.. LOL

Now my question is for those of you with lifts. I have been considering putting a double lift in my double bay so I can easily park 2 vehicles under the cars. Does anyone have a double lift? I have seen a few, but none seem to be certified by the lift certifictaion orginizations, so I am still looking/

[Brad H.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

Anthony,
To change the subject a little. I really like the floor in your garage. May I ask what flooring it is and where you got it?
Thanks,
Brad Hood

[Jack P.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

The discussion on this thread has been fascinating. Thank you to all who have gathered their thoughts, experiences and photos (your garage photos put mine to shame) and then took the time to share them on the TDB. I always learn so much when I place a post. I am definately going with American made.

The height of my garage is 1 1/2 inches shy of 11' so I know that will not be an issue. I never thought about the depth of the concrete being an issue. My house was built approx 15 years ago. The depth of the garage floor looks to be at least 5 inches in depth. I hope that is adequate to hold the extra weight of the lift and another car.

Thanks again for all your input,

Congrats on the new car and up coming lift. I may have to make repair stop next time I come through Charleston.....

No wait , I mean Charlotte .........

So hello to Renny and Foiny

Jack

[Anthony P.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

Brad,

I got it from http://www.floorjunkies.com/ and it is a combination of their Block Tile Coin (Black tiles) and Block Tile perforated (grey tiles). Since I am in New England and use my garage in the winter for my daily drivers, the manufacturer recommended using some amount of perforated tiles to allow the concrete to breath and dry.

It was very easy to install. About 1.5 days to install 1400 sqft, and that includes all of the cutting, and even doing the stairs to match with black tiles.

Cutting was easy. Most cuts were done on my table say with a fine blade, and others with nippers. Also have a rubber mallet to help you interlock the tiles.

Note that your lift must be on the concrete so you need to trim around the post bases.

Hope this helps,


Tony

[Paul J.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

In this day in age of "ecological concrete" 4" is inadequate.

Modern concrete is about 99% ground up old concrete, it has inferior strength, spalding is very predominate, etc.

If you are doing this new,

6" thick, wire mesh reinforcement, and 6 bag mix minimum. Delta in cost is minimal.

All that a "6 sack mix" tells you is how much portland cement is in it. It's a very archaic term, and quite often is not right for the application, i.e. does not have sufficient strength. There's a lot more to a concrete mix than cement. Concrete should always be ordered by it's strength as determinied by ASTM standards.

Concerete in my area does not contain "ground up old concrete". All aggregates are virgin and the only filler type admixture is fly ash. Perhaps MI is different. Still, it does'nt matter because all of those mixes must pass the ASTM strength tests.

If you get spalling, it is because the water cement ratio was too weak. This commonly occurs at the surface of the concrete because the people who placed it worked (floated) it too much.

The only other time you see spalling is in monolithic pours where unprotected/uncoated rebar was too close to the surface. This happened a lot in past years in the northern U.S., where de-icing salts have been heavily used.

Finally, most residential building codes require a 4" slab thickness. Northern areas have other requirements such as fiberglass or wire mesh reinforcement. However, in reality the thickness can vary with how it was placed.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Needing an expansion of a 3 car garage to a 4 car garage

Paul, at a top level, I agree.

20 years ago I poured 6 bag mix, all virgin aggregate and it is and was greenish and never a crack, spalding etc.

Flash forward and you can't buy real stuff in MI unless you buy it a yard at a time or mix your own, both which I have done, contrast to the commercial stuff that they try to blow past you with smoke and mirrors. Issue is for a garage floor, even half, its too much to haul a yard at a time and or mix your own and you get the same garbage they are pouring for the roads, that one would assume the DOT verifies as I recall from decades past.

The quality difference is readily seen, 5 years later the roads are destroyed and need rework. Look at highways done new 1980-ish and they are solid as a rock. Spec or no spec the new ones are junk. They just redid a major interchange a couple of miles away - let's flash forward and I let you know when the road is spalding, pocked etc. My estimate is less that 5 years...