Fitting it all in
Lifts, vehicles, doors and walkways all need space. Drawing it to scale first catches problems on paper instead of on the floor.
Sample project
Full service-bay build-out
A shop moved into a larger building and needed every bay laid out, equipped and working. A look at planning a service bay from an empty floor.
- Shop
- Independent repair shop moving to a larger building
- Equipment
- Row of two-post lifts, air, power and fluid drops
- Time on site
- About two weeks, in stages
- Work
- Layout, lifts, air, power and storage
The job
The shop had outgrown its old building. The new one was an empty shell with a slab, a high ceiling and open roll-up doors. The owner wanted to open with the bays already working, not to build it up around a running shop.
The job was to plan the whole floor: where each lift goes, how vehicles move through, and where air, power and fluids are delivered.
How it went
Plan the floor
We draw the bays to scale: each lift needs clearance on its sides and front, and manufacturers publish minimums for every model. One common two-post model, for example, asks for about six feet to the nearest obstruction and seven to a wall.
Check the slab and the ceiling
Each lift location gets the same slab checks, and the ceiling must clear the tallest vehicle at full lift height. A ceiling around twelve feet is a common recommendation.
Install the lifts
The lifts go in one at a time, each anchored and tested.
Bring in air, power and fluids
Overhead drops carry air and electricity to each bay, and hose reels deliver oil and other fluids where the technician works.
Add storage and workholding
Tool walls, rolling tool chests and shelving go between bays so tools are at hand without being in the way.
Test and train
Every lift is tested with a vehicle, every circuit and air drop is checked, and the crew is shown how everything works.
What can get tricky
Power and air in the right place
It is far cheaper to place drops where the work will happen before the shop is full than to move them afterward.
Staging the work
We install in stages, so the first bays can start earning while the later ones are being finished.
What we did
- Drew the floor plan and the lift spacing with the owner
- Checked the slab and ceiling at every lift position
- Installed a row of two-post lifts, each anchored and tested
- Ran air, power and fluid drops to every bay
- Set up tool walls, chests and shelving
- Tested everything and trained the crew
The shop opened with every bay working. Because the planning was done first, adding another lift later is a short job rather than a rebuild.
Specifications vary by lift model and manufacturer. We always work from the manufacturer's installation instructions.
Photos
Tap a photo to enlarge it.
The finished shop Looking back from the far end A row of lifts Tool wall and air drops Overhead hose reels
A sample project written for this demo. The shop, timeline and details are illustrative and will be replaced with real jobs. AI-generated sample images for this demo, to be replaced with photos of our own installs.
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