Building a garage - advice needed

How high are your ceilings? High enough for a lift to double stack cars in all 3 bays? I made the mistake and didn't make my ceilings high enough

 

How high would you consider high enough? I may be building a garage also and want to make it high enough to put a car on the lift and go all the way up to be able to get an SUV underneath if need be.

 

Thanks Tom. I do not want to get the ceilings too high so that the garage does not over power the house. I am thinking 10 feet and then doing a cathedral ceiling inside so the sports cars on the lifts can go heigher. I did this in a previous garage and worked well.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that when calculating enough height for a lift, second car on the lift, garage door rails to open over the second car, etc. - this just gets you to the MINIMUM ceiling height you need.

At minimum ceiling height, most lifts will still require you to duck to get in and out of the ground level car which can be a challenge if you're tall, have a bad back or something like that.

My ceiling is at about 23' which is excessive but if you are able to go higher (given code and expense) I say do it.

 

The other thing to do is to go with a high lift garage garage door which generally adds an extra pannel and rail track. You can also back the cars in and put the lift far enough back so that the garage door goes over the front portion of the hood.

We did this in ours. A bit of a pain to back the cars on the lift and get them straight but it works.

Good luck.

Drew

 

Add to the high lift door track a side mounted opener.

That way there will be nothing running down the middle of the bay where you plan to lift the car.

I have a lift in my current garage with 9 foot ceilings. It isn't anywhere near adequate enough. I can get my Mondial on the lift, only with a very small car underneath (or vice versa). It's not possible to lift the Mondial with a normal car underneath.

The other things to think about:
Adequate lighting -- Put ceiling florescent panels everywhere
Power - Run extra circuits in the garage, that have nothing else on them.
You might want to add a 220 circuit. Some tools/compressors/lifts can use 220
Floor - Have the concrete painted or covered.
If you are putting in a 2 post lift, make sure the floor concrete is thick enough.
Insulation - all walls, doors, ceiling. Purchase insulated garage doors.
This also helps cut down the noise tremendously. Keep neighbors happy
Network (or Wifi) - Gotta be able to watch youtube how-to videos when in the throws of fixing something.

Here's some nice-to haves.
Plumbing for a sink and toilet.
Plumbing for a washer and dryer (keep the wife happy by never washing "garage" items in the house washer/dryer.

Personally, I wouldn't put windows on the garage doors. The extra light is nice, but it also invites unwanted persons to look in to see your nice cars and tools.

That's about it.

Sid

 

Good luck finding a builder... I moved into Lucas 4 months back into a new home and I have been looking for a building to do a garage here and I have struck out... So I hope you have better luck then I'm having... Most builders I talked to werent interested and the few that were were ridiculous non responsive to emails and phone calls after my initial communications. So just very poor builders I have had to deal with in my area...

 

Run a gas line and 220 100 amp service...you will use both...

Finish the upstairs as storage... You will eventually need that too...

Bo