Garage height for car lifts?

[Tripper]

Well... I HATE to move but it looks like the old Tripper may have sold our house & found another one. I'll be building a new garage & want to have a lift & an elec hoist. Anyone have a recommended ceiling height fo that?!

BoB

 

[flat6rick]

tripper

i would personally not build any thing less than 14 feet floor to cealings with as big a roll up door as i can. but look here even if you go 10 or 12 foot cealings and use rafters where you put the lift you'll be way better off than useing a convntual truss. use trusses for the rest. i think id truss every thing except about the 16 foot space i set the lift under. this way you have the with to keep a door open on the car. am i makeing any sence sorry about the spelling oh yeah your zoneing will tell you what you can have any way so even if you want to go 16 foot your roof hight is probably limited to your home roof

 

[Mr.Gussett]

My shop is 40x60 with 12ft ceiling! I have a 9000 lb Eagle two post lift and it fit tight to the ceiling.Works great and you really need no more height unless you want to heat/cool more space!

 

[Gastrick]

I guess if you are building the entire structure from scratch, adding in the height isn't that much of an issue. Here's what we had to do. Our shop (aka my dad's garage) had standard 8' ceilings. We had to have a hole cut, and the trusses reworked, so we could get a car on our lift. It's tight but it works. You can barely see it in the below photos but look close. The hole in the ceiling is deeper that it looks in the photos. It slopes up with the trusses.

My dad with his engine in this one.

 

[cantwell.colton]

Well... I HATE to move but it looks like the old Tripper may have sold our house & found another one. I'll be building a new garage & want to have a lift & an elec hoist. Anyone have a recommended ceiling height fo that?!

BoB

guess it depends how you want to be able to get underneath it .. i would say at least 12 feet though -- just think about the height of the biggest car you think youd ever put on it -- then add your height -- then add a foot or two headroom... [S < hes not confused hes mad he bumped his head

 

[35Mastr]

Bob,If you go 14 foot. You will be fine. Thats usually the norm for shops with lifts.

 

[darkk]

We just built a 30x30 garage addition on our house. The ceilings are 12'6" We just installed a new Bendpak 9XWD 4 post lift. It is extra wide,extra long and extra high. There is plenty of room under the lift and it will go all the way up with a standard height car. Bendpak also sells low height lifts for 10'1" ceilings. A little close but workable... [dr

 

[earthman]

So where are you moving to Bob. Still be in Houston?

 

[R Pope]

Just chop, channel, section, and slam your ride and it'll work with an 8' ceiling. HAHA !

 

[Gerry Moe]

I used 11 ft metal studs for walls, 4/12 pitch, w- trusses over work area, a scissor truss over lift,the scissor truss is 4/12 on top and 2 1/2 /12 on bottom, I can get my pickup all the way up. Heights will depend on the span.

 

[old lady's mad]

well the normal min for a regular asymetric lift is 12'6". if you going to lift a big van or tall truck you need more if you not lifting it on a lift with a top bar. you can get short lifts but about have to crawl around under them. i buit my garage with 12'6 ceillings just for that reason . with 10 x 10 doors

 

[35Mastr]

14 foot ceilings and you can lift a full size van. I would not do it any other way if I was building a brand new shop.

Why skimp on it now. Then wished you did it later.After you already spent the money on it and it dont work for you.

Been there and done it once. Wont do it again unless they are 14 foot.

 

[busch]

go 14' price was not much different than 12' use scissor truss if you go 40 ft span should give you 52" more height in center good luck