What is the best car lift for home garage?

car lift lifting cars in garage

Finding your car lift

For Texans, the next best thing to owning a ranch with a herd of Long Horn Cattle would be having a custom garage with an auto lift! Yup, we spend our weekdays branding, riding, and roping, and our weekends working on our cars. How excited many of the regular joes around here would be knowing they could an auto lift for small garage of their own like the big auto garages on television?! 

At one time, a hydraulic auto lift and equipment that goes with a full-fledge auto garage was for professional garages only. Those garages where you pull up to the gas pump, a bell rings, and the guy came out to pump your gas. Today though, if you have a small garage behind your house, you can have your own auto lift. That is a dream come true for many of grease monkey guys and gals. 

Of course, as a homeowner, you’re looking around in your garage asking yourself, “Can I fit a car lift in my garage?”, and we’re here to answer that question and a few more.  The answer to that question is, yes, you can have an auto lift in your garage! There are different  auto lift types available today that fit and work in a home garage if it can meet certain requirements like a concrete floor with a minimum thickness and has a ceiling minimum ceiling clearance. 

So yes, if you’ve been wonder all those YouTube videos of folks working on their dream car on an auto lift were really at home in their own garage, yes, it is possible.  Even your garage may be eligible for a car lift. Keep reading, we have more answers to common and key questions. 

How thick should concrete be for car lift?

Make all your grease monkey friend envious, bring your garage up a big step and get an auto lift installed! In addition to making them jealous, you’ll also make your garage more efficient and keep your dream car safer too. Not to mention, how much easier it will be to turn a wrench standing under the car instead scooting around under it! 

Isn’t that just a dream and wishful thinking though, having an auto lift in your garage at home? No, not anymore, and it isn’t all that difficult either. No, you don’t need area underneath like the oil and lube place does where your wife gets her oil changed.  What you do need is a minimum 6” think concrete floor, 4” thick will work. Cause like everything in Texas, bigger is better, so a thicker concrete floor is better for a 2-post or 4-post auto lift.  

What if your concrete flooring isn’t that thick or it cracked and worn? You can modify and add to your existing concrete flooring to make it work for an auto lift install.  Don’t pour your own concrete unless that’s your paying job of course.   Here are the specs that auto lift manufacturers recommend for the concrete flooring to maintain an auto lift: 

  • Minimum  Strength: 3,500 psi
  • Minimum Aging: 28 Days
  • Minimum Thickness:
  • 8,500 pound – 10,000 pound lifts: 4 inch Minimum Thickness
  • 12,000 pound – 18,000 pound lifts: 6 inch Minimum Thickness
  • Along with those specifications, they recommend the following safety reminders too: 
  • Only install an auto lift on concrete that conforms to the specifications listed above.
  • An auto lift should never be installed on cracked, defective concrete. 
  • An auto lift should never be installed on expansion seams. 
  • All three-fourth inch diameter anchors must be eight inch from control joints, expansion seams, or other inconsistencies. 

NEVER install an auto  lift on hand mixed concrete. Professionally mixed and poured concrete only that meets the specifications listed above. An auto lift is a valuable tool to any garage. It is also equipment that needs the utmost respect to safety.  Other specifications may be required when your garage is inspected for an auto lift installation.

How much clearance do I need for a car lift?

An auto lift isn’t just for making working on your hot rod easier, they can increase your garage’s storage space too. With a lift, you can keep your hot rod suspended in the air during the weekdays and park the wife’s car underneath. Even if you aren’t a grease monkey at heart, an auto lift will give you a way to store the dirt bike up above and the ski-jets underneath, so the garage isn’t cramped. 

An auto  lift  optimizes any size of space you have already, from the roomiest garage to the smallest garage. All you need is a minimum of 11 feel height clearance. What about the auto garage doors opening and closing? No worries!  A professional auto lift installation will include modifying the garage doors to accommodate your new auto lift by extending the tracks for the  garage door to the ceiling. Then the ceiling-mount motor is replaced with a side-mounted shaft operator.

Is there an auto lift for low ceiling garages? 

What if your garage only a 9-foot ceiling? No problem, there are 2-post auto lifts that will fit your garage too!  BendPak is a manufacturer that offers three unique auto lifts, one is a 2-post that fits inside a nine foot ceiling garage giving you fifty-eight inches of workspace! 

What is the safest car lift?

If your passion is working on cars, an auto lift will take your home garage to another level! It will also provide you proper and safer way to work on your vehicles at home, comfortably.  Here are three options that is recommended by the experts for comfort, ease, and most of all safety: 

  • The Tuxedo TP9KAC-TUX: Offers asymmetric two post vehicle lift with  low profile 4-inch lifting pads and saddle pad adapters. Dual lock release with stackable height adapters will give you everything you dreamed of in your garage and keep you, your friends, and more important, your family, safe. 
  • The QuickJack BL-7000SLX: A portable auto lift that  features 14-gauge steel welded frames with quick-connect hoses.
  • The Tuxedo FP8K-DX-XLT: This four post auto lift is  deluxe in the lift/storage service it offer any home garage while staying within your budget. 
setting up car on a lift

Is a car lift worth it?

If you are a car-enthusiast, or a family that is all about anything with a motor and/or wheels, you know what it is like to work on the underside of the car. Or how crowded a garage can get!  Here are 3 reasons why your garage needs an auto lift: 

  • Double Your Garage Space: With a four-post auto lift, you can park the everyday car under the dream hobby car and keep the other bay open for a 2nd everyday driver. 
  • Protect Those Investments: There aren’t many other hobbies as expensive as working on antique or classic muscle cars. With an auto lift, those investments can be kept up high so the kids aren’t banging into them with their bikes. Not to mention the level of difficulty of anything being stolen when its up in the air! 
  • Easier Working Space: The biggest benefit of an auto is having room to work on the underside of your car. 

Even if your interest wains in auto repair, an auto lift will be an investment that you’ll enjoy for years to come. Call 214-494-9068 today for your custom garage needs in Haslet and Fort Worth, TX.