Octahedron Cubed

    Home

 Contact

 Services

 Products

 Projects

Concrete floor repair or replacement for automotive lift installation

 

  So you have an automotive repair shop or home shop and have a 2 post above ground lift or want to install one … ok.

Lets start with the floor, is it cracked?  Seam or expansion joint close to the lift base or anchor bolt location?

Is the strength and thickness of the concrete up to manufacturers recommendations?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, so the concrete is bad for which ever reason and needs to be replaced, here is where the work starts.

First we need to know the minimum size requirement the manufacturer recommends for the replacement pads … lets say 4 foot by 4 foot square, this is a size used by at least one major lift manufacturer for a 10,000 pound capacity 2 post lift.

So, 2  pads 4’x4’ by 6” minimum thickness and at least 3500 psi compressive strength concrete. Layout the pads making sure to keep the anchors away from the edge of the pad … normally 4.5” or more to keep the expansion anchors from splitting the new concrete pad.  Here is the list of processes:

                          Layout

                          Saw cutting

                          Removing old concrete  ( jack hammer time )

                          Removing the debris

                          Digging to depth

                          Keying or pinning

                          Adding reinforcement

                          Mix design

                          Mix placement

                          Curing

  A thought about pads, my belief is the concrete surrounding the pads should be a very large section or sections, in other words, the lift will not stay standing on just (2) 4’x4’ pads, they must anchor to the concrete around the pads to distribute the load to the surrounding concrete. Small sections of concrete will not carry the load. If, for example you have a floor that is cracked and has seams in close proximity to the area you are going to place your new pad, and when you layout the pads, you end up with a strip 1’ wide and a jagged section 2’ by 3’, then you many want to enlarge your pads. If you need larger pads then do it now!

Saw cutting will give you a nice straight edge.  Now you may cut through the entire thickness if you have a saw large enough to do it, but keep in mind that sometimes there may be underground utilities such as air, gas, water or electric, etc, so be prepared, do a site survey to see what is coming in or out of the floor.  A bad day can be cutting a conduit with several circuits and very costly also!

Bad concrete, notice cracks running toward lift base plate.