So today was a crappy day in the garage...
These are the fasteners that attach the lift to the floor. They came with the lift. The lift manual requires a 4" thick concrete base, this is where the problem started.
I measured out a lift location to allow room to walk around and have the car in the center of the garage. I drilled the first 5/8" holes 2 inches deep as the manual states, still no problem. I grabbed the 7/8" bit and started to drill down to 4" and sure enough the slab is only 2.5" to 3" thick, that's not the worst part, under the slab is nothing but air for a solid 10". Its still not clear to me if the entire garage slab is floating 10" in the air but I did drill the other post in 10 feet away and ran into the exact same situation.
All signs point to the fact that my whole garage slab or at least a large % of it is not in contact with the ground.
you can kind of see the void under the slab in these photos. I have a truck that tops out at 6000Lbs, no way i trust this lift to lift the truck, or even my minivan....Hell knowing what i know now i think it may be only a short while before the slab cracks under the weight of vehicles parked on it.
Anyway, here is what it looks like mounted. To bad I cant use it to lift anything I care about. (That's my friend Robb in the picture, he was there to try the tears...)
My plan of attack now is to cut a 2'x2' hole where each post will be, stick my head down there to see how big the problem is. If the problem is fixable i can put a footing down and pour new concrete a few feet into the ground and then put the lift back with new anchors...
Now I have to rent a concrete saw 🙂
Leave a comment