Can I have a MaxJax Car Lift?

This was once my wife's blog, well maybe it was just her idea and she never posted in it, but either way I posted it in and I figured why stop now?

With a future renovation on the house I realized that garage I have is going to be the garage I have to keep for quite some time. I wanted to come up with something to make it more functional. When I saw the MaxJax I had to find out more about it. The MaxJax is considered a mid rise two post lift that handles 6000lbs.

The first requirement is to have a slab with a minimum thickness of 4 inches. The only way I could think to test this was to drill a whole though the slab. I decided to drill a hole that was not near the edge of the slab and far away from where I would drilling other holes if things worked out. Many people helped with different parts of this project you will see shout outs as I go though. (Thanks Ben)

I used a hanger to measure the depth which was ~4.25 inches. Sweet!!, I wonder what's next?

Ok so it doesn't matter what's next, the slab is thick enough lets order a lift! I figure if I had it I would figure out how to make it fit in the garage. (Thanks Rob)

The garage section where the sliding barn doors are is ~20ft, there is no way to have both doors open and really almost no way to get two cars it in anyway so I figured I could convert it to a one car garage which would also give me more height .

I decided to cut the doors in half and to have two five foot sections on the back track that would stay to the outside (but can move if I want them to) and two five foot sections on the front track that would be in the center that would essential be the doors I use to get the car into the garage.

 Doors cut and rehung (Thanks Rob)

I found trolley hangers on amazon that fit perfect.

 There was not enough height in the garage even with the fact the the lift only goes up 45 inches, so I decided to raise the collar ties, This was my first test install of a trimmed 16ft board. (Thanks Ryan)

These are the 14ft boards cut at the angle of the roof on both sides.  Wait a second didn't I say I used a 16ft board for the test? Crap, craigslist free here we go. (Thanks Me)

After another trip to home depot to buy 16ft boards I installed them and cut out the old collar ties. In theory I should now have six inches between the roof racks on the top of my wagon and the collar ties. (Thanks Cacky)

After the collar ties we raised I had to remove the center support and add supports on each side of the door. (Thanks Ed)

I originally had the lift delivered to work to save on shipping but this was the day I finally brought it home. It weights 800lbs, moving it was not easy.

Next was measuring out where the lift posts were going to go, we used chalk lines to make sure everything was square. We also decided to mount the lift posts 125 inches apart from the back of the base plate to the back of the other base plate. (Thanks Ryan)

These are like the wedge anchors that come with the lift, After doing a lot of reading and seeing people say check your wedge anchors before each use I decided that I wanted epoxy anchors.

These are the epoxy anchors the Danmar sells as an accessory for the maxjax lift. They looks great but they didn't like the way that they were going to work with a ~4in slab since these are over 5 inches long and there is 1.5 inches  of smooth area at the top so that didn't leave much left to epoxy to the concrete. (Thanks Marcel)

Eventually I found the Hilti his-rn line of inserts. They only have a half an inch of smooth metal at the top of them. However they are 6 5/8 inches long. The good news is that they take the same 5/8 bolts that came with the lift. These would have to be cut down to 4 inches (Thanks stadium ops) 

https://www.us.hilti.com/anchor-systems/anchoring-rods-%26-elements/258031

These are super expensive from hilti but ebay had some to offer.

There are three types of epoxy from hilti that are recommended.

Hit-re 500-sd

Hit re200r (r is regular set time)

Hig re200a (a is accelerated dry time)

The newest hilti epoxy gun that these work with is the hdm500. One color works with the 500 and one color insert works with the 200. I bought a used gun on ebay for a good price that is very resell-able.

Its time to mark and drill pilot holes.

I needed to drill a 1-1/8 in hole so there are three types of drill bits/drills that can be used 

Spline Drive which would be awesome but drill bits are $$$

SDS MAX which came out to replace spline drive but I didn't have an sds max drill

SDS Plus I had access to the drill and a bit was only $25 on Amazon. It was a surely a challenge to drill the hole this big with this size drill, but it worked. 

Using child labor to clean out the holes with a metal brush (Thanks Finn)

Using denatured alcohol to clean the holes

I drilled all of the way though the concrete so decided to buy 1-1/8 in wooden dowel to use as a false bottom so when I fill the hole with epoxy and push the insert down that it will ooze up the sides. I found it useful to twist the insets a little bit as I pushed them down. Not screw them in but just a slight twist.

Also vacuumed out the holes to get all the dust out. (Thanks Finn)

Lift bolted down!

Long Weekend = Lots of Work

This weekend Dan Allen camped out with us at the Chesterfield house. It was Dan's birthday this weekend and he decided to spend it working on our house. He is clearly a nicer man than I.
Let me start with that we are a bunch of Jack legs. I'm not really sure what that means means but I live in the south so I suppose I should using sayings that don't make sense at all. Maybe later on I can work something in that I can "shake a stick at".
In reality we did a fairly good job and everything we have done so far works well and is not a hazard in any way.
We started out this weekend with the goal of plumbing.  We wanted to get water to everywhere it needed to go upstairs and get the drains plumbed downstairs to the basement.

Below is the basement where we should have started.  We didn't.... but we should have.  We used 3/4 inch PEX piping to get the cold and hot water feed lines to upstairs. We put 1/4 turn valves in the basement so we can shut off the water to upstairs when we feel like it for future plumbing. PEX is awesome, anyone can do it. Putting clamping rings on plastic tube is soooo much better then trying to sweat copper pipes with solder.
We cut into the 4 inch cast iron drain line that goes to the street with a saw zaw and reduced the line that runs upstairs to a 3 inch line.

Cast iron is tough, however if you are going to cut it, we have only found one decent way. Milwaukee makes a blade called "The Torch" The blade was about shot from cutting through the 4 inch pipe twice, but that's all we needed it to do. This is an example blade not that one we used. ours was longer and costs about $17 at home depot. I was also very disappointed when my $9.99 saw zaw started smoking.  That harbor freight tool has actually been with my for quite a while.  Dan's real saw saw finished the job.

The floor cut away for the new plumbing.

The toilet plumbing

Shower plumbing

Sink plumbing

Vent pipe,
For those of you who do not know, the drain system in your house in vented to the roof. When you flush the toilet a rush of water is sent down the drain. It needs to be able to pull air from somewhere so the water can fall.  It's kind of like drinking from a plastic water bottle with your mouth all the way around the bottle top. (I know you have all tried it) The bottle starts to collapse because you have taken out water but have not allowed the water in the bottle to be replaced with air. Venting is a very important part of plumbing that can not be over looked.

The lighting is now functional and on switches and new wiring.

We were able to throw away all of the old electrical from upstairs... I don't miss you old wiring. Who ever thought it was a good idea to run electrical wires with cloth insulation through a metal jacket is a moron. Better yet after that they decided to terminate the wires in a metal box. I guess plastic wasn't invented back then?

The floor in the bathroom has been put back together. That was finished at nearly 11pm last night. Rock board and tile will cover all that is there at some point.

I also said I was post and update on the grass which is not great but doing better then it was. Yes, I know I need an edger. It's not perfect but compared to before there is more grass then you can shake a stick at < there it is!

I also wanted to give credit to my pregnant wife. Although she is not as active in the house construction now, she does keep us fed and do small jobs without complaining when she is asked. She has made sure that when we are done working that we have clean towels, clothing, and sheets to sleep on. We often times give her crap for doing nothing, but that's just to keep her on her toes. If we didn't give her any crap, who would?

Project Second Floor

I am on a roll today, might as well keep going and get caught up.
We started on the second floor a while back and this is now something that I need to get done as Baby H's entry to this construction sight is nearing. I figured I would start with the tour of the second floor, this is the last time you will see it like this as it no longer exists.

 There is actually a dormer behind the wall in the picture below. You will see it later.

 Cacky takes the first swing! Cooper assists.

 In between this photo above and the photo below Mark and Derrick were brought it assist in demolition

If you don't have a Dan Allen, you should probably get one. They are usually located in to the tool isle at Home Depot.

One full dumpster. 

Cacky gets her new mom mobile, might as well break it in at the Hope Depot.

Time to start raising the ceiling to a true 8ft.

Hey, there's that dormer, why were you covered?

Even the studs that were there needed to be taken out and replaced as nothing was square. You can't have anything that's not square if Dan Allen is involved. One day hopefully in a very long time when Dan is no longer with us I will make sure he is laid to rest with a 6ft level next to him.

 The framing is mostly done, the roof beams have been leveled. The lighting has been mounted and electrical is about 50% done.
These last 2 pictures were taken this morning so there is where things actually sit. I am actually looking forward to insulation and sheet rock! The may be because I am considering spray foam which someone else would have to do.