Lift platform for Garage workshop?

[BudgetSlasher]

Currently my workshop is limited to the loft space above our garage. Space is tight, all the space behind the knee wall is spoken for and all the tools, save for the drill press, are either benchtop or on roller bases. Sheet goods have to be broken down before they can go into the shop.

I would love to be able to use the garage as an as-needed workshop, while retaining the ability to park cars in it; with the space I have and tools I have simply pushing the tools to the side is not an option.

Anyways, a spendy pants co-worker just added a 4 post car lift to his garage and the first thing I thought was "frame up a platform on that and lift a garage shop over the car" (we have 11 foot garage ceilings) my second thought was "holy crap that is expensive" my third thought was "there must be something that can do this job that isn't built to lift 6-10,000 pounds and has a lower price."

So does anyone know of this magic "something" or have any other idea of how to share a garage that is already "tight" when the cars are in with a workshop?

[Fishindude]

I spent my entire career in construction and dragging the tools out of their storage areas, boxes or trucks, setting up shop and going to work every day, then cleaning up and putting things away at days end is pretty much the normal routine and not a big deal.   I would certainly do projects in the garage like this any day, before I would lug all that stuff upstairs, have to use partial pieces due to space constraints, etc.   Find some better ways to store things, such as some good racking, cabinets, etc. that don't get in the way of parking.   

The vehicle lift doesn't sound like a good idea for anything other than lifting vehicles.   The posts and drive on runners will be in the way when doing projects.

[lthenderson]

Why isn't moving tools at the end of the day not an option? I do a lot of woodworking and my jointer, bandsaw, tablesaw, and workbench are all on castors and can easily be moved to the side at the end of the day for both my vehicles to park in the garage.  In fact, after I finish my remodeling project I am working on currently, my plan is to put the rest of my stuff on mobile carts with heavy duty casters even though my long term plan is to build a dedicated shop in the future. They way I'm thinking, I can rearrange my heavy woodworking tools easily even when I'm in the new shop.

The problem I have with trying to utilize open space above your vehicles for a woodworking area is simply the vertical space. With 11 feet ceilings and probably a foot of that used up for some sort of platform, that leaves you with 10 feet of usable vertical space. 6 to 7 feet of that would be minimum for a lot of vehicles so that leaves you with 4 to 5 feet above. Not much of a work space if you have to crouch. I have 10 feet ceilings in my garage and I use every bit of that at times working with wood. For areas where I don't need the height such as above my cars, I use that space to hang things like bicycles and ladders to free up more floor space for my woodworking tools and other things not conducive to suspending over a vehicle.

[SwordGuy]

I had a workshop (not garage/workshop) at my old house.  I put in some racks that are mounted on the ceiling and can be raised or lowered.   They enable me to store things on them and get them out of my way when I don't need them.   They were about 4x6 feet in size and were a few hundred dollars.  I wouldn't try to put a band saw or table saw on them, and certainly wouldn't stand on them, but for storing lots of things off the floor they were great.

[BudgetSlasher]

I spent my entire career in construction and dragging the tools out of their storage areas, boxes or trucks, setting up shop and going to work every day, then cleaning up and putting things away at days end is pretty much the normal routine and not a big deal.   I would certainly do projects in the garage like this any day, before I would lug all that stuff upstairs, have to use partial pieces due to space constraints, etc.   Find some better ways to store things, such as some good racking, cabinets, etc. that don't get in the way of parking.

I agree if it were my career setup and pack up on a daily basis would not be an issue. As you said a garage shop is different. I generally get 2-3 hours after work to do projects; it is why out kitchen remodel (down to me building the cabinets from sheet goods) took as long as it did.

Many of my tools are not the lugging kind (band saw, hybrid table saw, jointer, floor mount drill press and the like). Right now plywood, or other sheets goods is processed to rough size with a guide and a worm drive saw before being taken upstairs for final work.

The garage has been optimized a few times. My lumber rack is down stairs and my old kitchen cabinets are upstairs. But, coupled with the other demands of the garage (bikes and kayaks from the room, lawn mower and snow thrower storage, the recycling sorting, wall of rakes and shovels, wall of cabinets, and two sets of winter or summer tires, and the random bits and pieces of other stuff that I or the DW deems as a garage item are on the first floor of the garage. Leaving my current shop in the loft.

Given the footprint of our garage, I was/am hoping to be able to use the space below the garage door tracks/openers as additional storage.

My attic shop is at the point where adding "stationary tools" would become space constrained.

The vehicle lift doesn't sound like a good idea for anything other than lifting vehicles.   The posts and drive on runners will be in the way when doing projects.

I agree the posts could get in the way. Though not as much as the 90 degree landing on the current stairs to the shop.

Why isn't moving tools at the end of the day not an option? I do a lot of woodworking and my jointer, bandsaw, tablesaw, and workbench are all on castors and can easily be moved to the side at the end of the day for both my vehicles to park in the garage.  In fact, after I finish my remodeling project I am working on currently, my plan is to put the rest of my stuff on mobile carts with heavy duty casters even though my long term plan is to build a dedicated shop in the future. They way I'm thinking, I can rearrange my heavy woodworking tools easily even when I'm in the new shop.

It is simply too many things in too little space. I gave a truncated list in response to Fishindude of what is on the first floor now. Some of it could move to the second floor if my entire shop moved down stairs.

Even with all my tools on casters/mobile bases; there simply is not enough square feet to move them to the side and be able to get our two cars into the garage and enter the house through the connected mud room.

Time is another factor. Most days that I work in the shop, it is 2-3 hours after work and before dinner.

The problem I have with trying to utilize open space above your vehicles for a woodworking area is simply the vertical space. With 11 feet ceilings and probably a foot of that used up for some sort of platform, that leaves you with 10 feet of usable vertical space. 6 to 7 feet of that would be minimum for a lot of vehicles so that leaves you with 4 to 5 feet above. Not much of a work space if you have to crouch. I have 10 feet ceilings in my garage and I use every bit of that at times working with wood. For areas where I don't need the height such as above my cars, I use that space to hang things like bicycles and ladders to free up more floor space for my woodworking tools and other things not conducive to suspending over a vehicle.

Rereading my original post, I can see how you could interpret my question as building a floor 1.5 into the garage. What I was envisioning, in my day dream here, was a platform that a series of tools that only need 4 to 5 feet of vertical clearance, by themselves, could be placed on while the platform the level of the garage slab and then lifted to allow for a car to park underneath; my though was not to try and use the raised platform as a work area, but as a kind of hide-a-workshop.

Whether I would use the new area to relocate up space in my existing wood working shop, or house new tools that do not need to be with the band/table/miter saws, jointer, planer, drill press, air compressor, dust collector, ect).

One day I would love to have the free time to learn to weld or take up 3d printing/cnc/laser work, but any growth in stationary tools at this point will make my shop, as it is, a little too cramped.

I had a workshop (not garage/workshop) at my old house.  I put in some racks that are mounted on the ceiling and can be raised or lowered.   They enable me to store things on them and get them out of my way when I don't need them.   They were about 4x6 feet in size and were a few hundred dollars.  I wouldn't try to put a band saw or table saw on them, and certainly wouldn't stand on them, but for storing lots of things off the floor they were great.

That might be a good idea to free up a little space in the existing cabinets or to reclaim the floor space that is used by a couple shelving units.

[SwordGuy]

Forgot to mention that I had two kinds of storage racks.  One kind is just permanently up on the ceiling, the other kind had cables that could be used to raise or lower the rack.   

[Fishindude]

I would definitely come up with a plan that didn't involve having a wood shop upstairs.   Total pain in the rear.
If you're handy enough to do woodworking projects you should be capable of building a garage addition.

[Papa bear]

How big is the garage and how many cars are you still trying to keep in it?

I’ve got a neighbor that is putting in a lift so that he can park one car on top of the other. (Small classic cars) So, in theory, you could just put those larger tools up there instead of a car.  Though for me in my garage storage/shop/tool staging/wife needs her car in the garage in the winter, area, I would think the lift would be in the way more often than not. 

Can you build a storage shed for outdoor tools and material storage?  That solved some of my problems, or at least allowed me to get 1 car in the 2 car garage, sometimes. 


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[BudgetSlasher]

I would definitely come up with a plan that didn't involve having a wood shop upstairs.   Total pain in the rear.
If you're handy enough to do woodworking projects you should be capable of building a garage addition.

Oh I could expand the garage, but it would be a total PIA to do it correctly. Rooflines and snow accumulation would be an issue if I went to one side (I've already lived one place where a steep roof transitioned into a lower slope roof ... never again) going forward, the other side is the house, the front is the driveway (pretty much a non-starter to tear that up), and to the rear is the well followed by a steep (30 degree plus slope). It would be simpler to build a seperate shop on what the prior owner's used as an RV pad (it already has 50 amp service), but I'd be looking at it from at least the master bedroom windows.

Any project that is visible from the exterior of the house, expansion or new shop would have to involve the town and all of their nonsense; whether work inside should involve the town is a different question.

The other issue is money. Any expansion is going to be more costly than finding a way to cram more stuff into the existing space. Given that the DW and I are considering moving in the next 3-5 years (I put our odds of being here in 5 years at less than 50%) I am not sure a new building or garage expansion makes sense. If we decide to stay longer it is definitely something I would look into.

How big is the garage and how many cars are you still trying to keep in it?

It is a 2 car garage with about 2 feet of clearance from the sides of the cars to the exterior walls, about 4 feet between the cars (that is where the lawn mower/snow thrower lives depending on the season) in from of the cars is the stairs to the upstairs workshop, my lumber rack, the recycling sorting, an inwards opening door, and the out of season snow thrower/lawn mower).

We keep two cars in the garage. The wife is about to replace her car with an EV and we already have a charger setup in the garage, so she will always need access overnight. I'd prefer not to have to leave my car out for extended periods of time; I have done that before and winter weather, acorns, pine sap, and the like is more than I care to deal with.

I’ve got a neighbor that is putting in a lift so that he can park one car on top of the other. (Small classic cars) So, in theory, you could just put those larger tools up there instead of a car.  Though for me in my garage storage/shop/tool staging/wife needs her car in the garage in the winter, area, I would think the lift would be in the way more often than not.

This was my line of thinking, except the lifts made for cars are a fair bit of money themselves and if installed as a car lift need concrete work (my co-worker had to add footers where the posts landed, which meant cutting through the slab). Also they are way overkill at 6-10k lbs rating for what I was day dreaming. And the motorized ceiling mount lifts that I have found are too small or lift too little weight (they seem more meant for boxes of christmas decorations or something along those lines).

Can you build a storage shed for outdoor tools and material storage?  That solved some of my problems, or at least allowed me to get 1 car in the 2 car garage, sometimes. 
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Yes, I could build/buy a shed. But, unless I (or the DW) relent and deal with a pine sap window in the summer and snow/ice in the winter we need 2 cars in the garage, every night. Which means not building a materials shed near the garage doors, but building a shop structure. Which, for reasons touched on above, I do not want to undertake.

[Papa bear]

I vote for the shed and then reorganize.

Or sell a car?
Or cut down the pine trees and park outside? 

Unfortunately, it’s a trade off. I keep my car outside and clean it off in the snow and let it sit in the rain.  And even then, I do most of my woodworking out in the driveway so I end up pulling it in the street.  I don’t have dust collection, so I’m much happier running my saws outside as long as its not precipitating. 


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[Car Jack]

So, I like your original idea and I think it can work with some caviats.  I'll start by saying that I've got a 4 poster in my garage, so I don't have to just think how things might work.

Building a platform on the lift so it's a complete, flat surface is easy.  You could either put 2x supports, then plywood over the whole thing or just do like 2x10's and fill the whole thing up.

What are you looking at that makes you think these are expensive?  Indeed, if you buy a genuine, US made lift, it's going to be expensive.  What to be careful of is the "Built in an American owned factory" ads.  That means you're getting a Chinese lift, priced way more than all the other Chinese lifts.  I have a Chinese lift and have had it for about 10 years.  When I bought it, they were easy to distinguish as the Chinese ones were well under $2k and the American ones were all at least $3500.  I did get in on a group buy and had to drive an hour and a half where a truck showed up with 15 lifts.  Putting it together was not difficult and I did it without help. 

Consider the footprint of the lift.  In order to fit a car on it, the posts are wide apart.  I could measure mine if you had continued interest.  But if you are tight with 2 cars side by side, you're likely not going to get 2 in side by side anymore.  Same goes for length.  Any lift will likely have all this spec'd out.

As for use.....if you do go through with this, when you raise your workshop, bring it past a safety catch, verify all 4 are past, then let it drop letting go of the safety release lever.  This takes the tension off the cables while the lift is raised.  I would imagine that unless you've got a Bridgeport and several other heavy machine shop kind of tools, it's overkill.  A regular car doesn't really stress anything.  My Wrangler, a little.  But just to ease the cables, I do this.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I use my lift all the time for usual auto tasks.

[BudgetSlasher]

I vote for the shed and then reorganize.

Thanks for the input, I'll revisit the shed. My first visit of it was that a basic shed may not move enough out of the garage to move the whole workshop to the first floor. Perhaps a slightly larger shed and convincing the DW to move the recycling out of the garage, but they I might as well just build slightly larger building and call it a shop.

Then I get myself into analysis paralysis with cost vs time of utilization; it doesn't help that I am the one that would like to move on from this area of the country.

Or sell a car?

As she is in need of replacing her car, I've had that discussion with the DW, the details are not really relevant, and as a couple are not willing, with our house and jobs, to become a 1 car household. For reasons I don't really want to dive into, moving or changing jobs is either not in the cards or wouldn't really help.

I'd love to be able to share 1 car and carpool or be able to walk. It is something that when we do move I will certainly be keeping in mind when we choose where to live next.

Now if Tesla had full self driving and it was legal to simply send it back and forth between the house, her work, and my work without someone in it ...

Or cut down the pine trees and park outside? 

DW rejects that for her car. I get the evil eye when I need the garage for a day or two to process a bulk order of sheet goods.

I probably would, but given my comfort level with tree work that is something I would have to hire out and the cost is not worth it. Plus, I'd lose some privacy/screening doing that.

Unfortunately, it’s a trade off. I keep my car outside and clean it off in the snow and let it sit in the rain.  And even then, I do most of my woodworking out in the driveway so I end up pulling it in the street.  I don’t have dust collection, so I’m much happier running my saws outside as long as its not precipitating. 


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Yup it is all compromises. I'd run through several ideas in by head prior to seeing the lift. I rejected them all for one reason or another; mostly it was the time and cost to undertake now, relative to the time I feel I have left in this home. If I saw myself here for 10+ years. I would build a separate workshop with all the space I needed or wanted (with room to grow) and move the tools there.

That lift just got me daydreaming that maybe there was a route out there I hadn't explored. I knew it was a long shot, but I had hoped someone would chime in and say something like "oh yeah they make a lift for go karts, that will do exactly what you want, at a reasonable price"

Worst case, I make a few more space utilization improvement in the current garage and carry on for a few more years. After all, I have the current situation to process all the lumber to make our kitchen (10 cabinets and 29 drawers). Though, I had to commandeer space in the unfinished basement for final assembly and finishing.

But, as you suggested I will revisit a simple shed (the type that doesn't need a "real" foundation) to see if that would free enough space in the garage to allow two cars to co-exist with the large tools.

I guess for now I will just deal with the fixer upper issues in our house.

P.S. I appreciate all the input everyone has given, even I come off as a little negative about some of the ideas.

[BudgetSlasher]

So, I like your original idea and I think it can work with some caviats.  I'll start by saying that I've got a 4 poster in my garage, so I don't have to just think how things might work.

Building a platform on the lift so it's a complete, flat surface is easy.  You could either put 2x supports, then plywood over the whole thing or just do like 2x10's and fill the whole thing up.

What are you looking at that makes you think these are expensive?  Indeed, if you buy a genuine, US made lift, it's going to be expensive.  What to be careful of is the "Built in an American owned factory" ads.  That means you're getting a Chinese lift, priced way more than all the other Chinese lifts.  I have a Chinese lift and have had it for about 10 years.  When I bought it, they were easy to distinguish as the Chinese ones were well under $2k and the American ones were all at least $3500.  I did get in on a group buy and had to drive an hour and a half where a truck showed up with 15 lifts.  Putting it together was not difficult and I did it without help. 

Consider the footprint of the lift.  In order to fit a car on it, the posts are wide apart.  I could measure mine if you had continued interest.  But if you are tight with 2 cars side by side, you're likely not going to get 2 in side by side anymore.  Same goes for length.  Any lift will likely have all this spec'd out.

As for use.....if you do go through with this, when you raise your workshop, bring it past a safety catch, verify all 4 are past, then let it drop letting go of the safety release lever.  This takes the tension off the cables while the lift is raised.  I would imagine that unless you've got a Bridgeport and several other heavy machine shop kind of tools, it's overkill.  A regular car doesn't really stress anything.  My Wrangler, a little.  But just to ease the cables, I do this.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I use my lift all the time for usual auto tasks.

Thank you for the information, the tips, and the offer to take measurements. Measurements won't be necessary as I would have to confirm those with whatever I bought and my garage. However, I do have 2 questions.

1) Did you install the lift yourself or did you end up paying someone to do it? (if did pay someone and remember the cost would you mind sharing a rough idea with me in a PM).

2) How did you address the foundation? My co-worker has a relatively new garage with a normal 4 inch slab and he ended up cutting out the slab under the posts and pouring real footers to bear the weight. While my workshop might not need this, I would rather do it properly.

The ones I had been looking at were in the 2.5-3 grand range. I haven't done too much pricing; I just started adding up the cost of wiring, lumber, the lift (and probably shipping on a chinese one) and the potential need to add 4 footers to my garage and it started to seem like too much money for a slight improvement for the limited time I hope to have left here.

Now, if I could get one to my door for under 2 grand, manage the install myself, and not have to modify the concrete work... it might be worth it to me; that is presuming as you point out, that it will actually fit in my garage.

[Car Jack]

4 post lifts need nothing special.  Footers are absolutely not needed.  Mine came with casters.  I put the casters on, drop the lift, which raises itself onto the wheels and I can wheel it anywhere in the garage I want it.  I've seen lifts like this in the south left outside.  It is fully self contained and needs only to sit on a level surface.  A 2 post lift would need footers, but that wouldn't do what you're looking for anyways and would be much more expensive and require pro installation.

I put mine together myself.  The post with the hydraulics on it is the heaviest thing followed by the driver side ramp.  I moved both with a cherry picker (engine hoist) at one end and lifting the other end onto my generic creeper.  I then rolled it out of my trailer.  Once in the garage, I lifted up the posts myself.  I had nobody help me at all.  I expect 2 people could lift the heavy end of the heaviest post and then put a furniture dolly under it.

Look around more and perhaps call dealers near you for a delivered to your house price.  With the group buy and remember this was 10 years ago, I paid $1680 all in.  There was no wiring.  The motor came with a 120V plug.  It literally could run from an extension cord.  The motor can be run with 240V, which I have in the garage and it would be faster.  I'm simply too lazy to do that.  My 240V compressor is 5 feet away, so there's certainly an easy tie in for me.

[lthenderson]

Thanks to your additional comments, I think I understand your dilemma much better. Honestly, I think even storing heavy tools on a lift out of the way would be a PIA just because they would be on a limited footprint and hard to get on and off the lift platform unless it could sink into the ground. I have an extra half bay to push all my large tools into and it sounds like you don't have that luxury.  As others mentioned, perhaps you can store whatever is taking up your wall space (you mentioned some cabinet units) up high and push your large tools along the perimeter or maybe build a car port outside so you vehicles are still out of the weather and freeing up the more conditioned space to woodworking. Definitely a small shed to store lawn mowers and seasonal yard work stuff might be in order to free up more space.

However I think there is a better option I haven't seen mentioned yet that I personally know several people in your position use. They rent a building elsewhere in town. I have a couple good friends who rent buildings or portions of buildings in other parts of town where they have their "shop" and then they just haul their finished projects home in the back of their truck, van, car with a trailer, etc. There are some drawbacks for sure since it isn't as convenient and depending on where in town you rent, you may have to invest in some theft deterrent camera gear but it can be fairly affordable. This could be a great temporary solution until you can add on or do something to expand your footprint back home.