You can do it yourself, but it’s a job that ideally requires specialty saws and blades. Assuming you don’t have contractor grade equiptment, you may be better off hiring especially after you factor in pricing. I rented a big saw from HD a few years back to cut ~3’ worth of sidewalk and about 6" into the job cursed myself for not having hired out.
I bought my house because of 13’ clear garage ceilings and my wife’s now sound deadened 13x22 music studio.
2 post clear floor vera-metric Forward Lift FTW. Sold off my tire machine & balancer due to minimal use and hearing people price shop mounting makes me want to punch babies since my time is well worth more than their $10-20 by far.
I cut a 4x4 hole for a cross drilled and rebared pad due to an expansion joint. Go to a legit rental place, get a floor saw, big hilti drill, and do work boss. I’ll come cut and build forms tomorrow if you mark the lines. Do work.
I’ve been searching for “high rise” scissor lifts. Most scissor lifts will not exceed your 40 inches. The high rise will go 75-80 typically. I got a few prices and it looks like ~$1,600 for the 2 lifts. I’m still trying to get specs or the manual.
I looked at the DK-30S ($1,400) and DK-35S ($1,600)…these are made in China. It looks as though US companies do not make high rise scissors lifts that can be mounted flush to the groud.
This is what I’m trying to figure out. I have no issue spending my time but if it’s going to be a huge pain in the dick I’d rather sub it out.
Your setup is super nice, but then again you use it for much more than hobby work. You got your own rock cutting gear brah? Bring it over and we can cut. I don’t mind renting if the work is reasonable to do myself, but I don’t know exactly what I’ll need (tools, bits, etc).
I need to look into this more.
I initially couldn’t find any either, but then I started looking a lot harder and found quite a few domestic ones. By domestic I mean they’re marketed and sold by a US vendor, despite probably being made in China.
Bendpak
http://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/specialty-lifts/sp-7x.aspx
Challenger. Absurd pricing for what seems like the same specs as the others
http://www.challengerlifts.com/DX77.shtml
I am most closely looking at this Atlas
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-SLP-7K-Full-Rise-Scissor-Lift
Stupid question… But are you planning on putting something over the top of the lift if it is in floor to keep that area clean? I just was thinking about parking over top of that in the winter time with a salty dripping car?
I have a floor drain already plumbed in the concrete in the very center. This is just an idea but if I were to pour new recesses in the floor for the lift I’d end up putting 2 smaller drains in the trenches, and tying them into the main drain.
Re-doing the entire garage floor with new drainage seems like a lot of work. Is having your own personal lift that valuable to you? I know you do a lot of your own work but this seems like a pretty big expense.
Do you have area on your property to build a garage area better suited for a lift?
That’s where the portable lift seems to work out pretty well.
X…
As much as I’d love more garage area I don’t know if it makes sense to spend the tens of thousands to build another bay in order to save a bit of cash by not having to lay 6’ total of PVC in the new concrete tying into the existing drain
see this post, very similar to my setup. this is the extent of what i want to do, just part of the floor. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=473500&postcount=1
That’s actually a pretty nifty idea. would you have to install drainage at the bottom of each “pit” for water runoff?
yes, i’d want to. Since I will be parking vehicles there year round I want to have a place for all the “crap” to go. More importantly I don’t want the structural steel of the lift sitting in a bath of salt water…
I’d think logistics of digging a drain that deep would be a chore. Enough pitch available?
Why wouldn’t you just get a mat to cover the in-ground lift when it’s not in use? Seems silly to dig drain tile, when you can just cover it with a couple rubber mats.
because then I have to deal with an eyesore of a sticky, shitty, sopping wet mat all the time. Then I have to drag it out of the way when I want to use the lift, and where do I store it then? Roll it up and lean it against painted walls? I’m really not trying to half-ass this. Since the plan would be to pour new trenches anyhow, adding a few feet of PVC is easy. Given the existing pitch of the slab, I have plenty of room to angle it to drain.
If anyone is serious I have a lock on a 2 pc in-ground full rise lift. They have a 3kg (6,600 lbs) and 3.5kg (7,700 lbs) option. Best option I have seen from DECA in China.
I will be ordering a lift within the next couple days/weeks…if anyone wants to jump on to try and save shipping costs PM me. I have all the info via PDFs I can forward to your email.
Even with some sort of drain I still cant get past thinking the in ground lift is going to be a rusty piece in no time with parking salty cars over the top of it all the time. I look at my garage floor now with all the brown salt, stones and etc on the floor and don’t think I would want that all over my lift and all of it’s moving components. I really like the floor lift, it’s very cool for sure. Just seems like it would be for warmer climates.
Where is the salt coming from?
I assume he would be parking the BMW he doesn’t drive in winter in that spot.
^ That’s what I was thinking. My garage hibernates in the winter.
If I was going to park over it after the Armageddon Salt Storm I would roll out a Indoor/Outdoor carpet and park on that. Done.
Then in the summer…roll it up and shove it in the rafters. No?
It is my assumption that it was a daily use garage/parking spot.
Edit: Never mind: I did read it, both your reading skills suck 
I would park the summer only car over the lift during 90% of the wintertime as most likely I’ll be doing some big ass project that requires it being in the air anyways. So I imagine that the lift will be occupied by a dry, non nasty vehicle for the most of the wintertime anyways, which solves the problem for the MOST part…BUT…
I’m just thinking about a scenario where I need to fix my beater or someone else’s car in the middle of winter, and want to use the lift. I’d pull my BMW out into the extra driveway spot, put my beater on the lift, and go to town. I am experiencing a perfect example of why I need this system right now - in the middle of doing headgaskets on my Subaru and it sucks pulling out heads from under the car (on jackstands) with stuff dripping in my eyes. The water needs a place to go regardless, as I occasionally wash cars in my garage during the winter.
If I’m going to tear out the concrete to pour new recessed slab portion, there’s no way I’m NOT putting in some sort of drain. It just doesn’t make any sense not to do that.
After revisiting some options I am also toying with the option of a 2 post lift - but my biggest problem is the fixed width dimension. From the outside of each post to the other, is about 124" (10’4"). The overall width of my garage is 220", so the middle parting line in the existing slab is at 110" exactly - meaning the post will intrude into the other garage bay by 14". Not too keen on this since I have visions of my fiancee pulling into the garage after work and scraping the column (or worse, hitting it and causing structural/safety issues).
edit: does anyone else locally have a 2 post in their residential double garage? I know Zac (spam16v) does, you got any pics man? I dug up some of your install stuff on GJ but maybe you can chime in a bit more since you went through the same thing.