I have a 40 x 60 shop, with only the front 3/4 having a concrete on the floor. The back drops off to sand (the main "soil" around here). I have 16' walls and ceiling, which is way high enough for a lift, but I like the idea of a grease pit. More traditional, if nothing else. My first plan was to dig it so the car would still be level with the floor. However, after playing MAFIA on PS2 (((YOU GUYS GOTTA PLAY THAT GAME! It's all OLD cars!!!))) where I saw a cool one that had ramps about waist high. How cool! The pit only has to be waist deep, and once the car is on the ramps, you can stand at ground level and work on wheels and the lower portion of the car without bending over, and in the pit, you still have room to stand-up. I'm pretty sure that's how I will build mine, but thought I'd ask if any of you guys had any ideas on construction or cool features. Thanks, JOE
Just about every one I ever saw had water leak in. Even the good ones.... I like the 4 post lifts........and they are fairly reasonable now.........about 3 grand for a Backyard Buddy......I would love to have one but the ceiling is not high enough in my shop.... .
I would have the car sit on level ground so you could roll it by hand.. my brother inlaw put one in his shed, (it's louder than shit in there with the 440 uncorked) he also put a single beam hoist over it good combo, two guys can work on the car at the same time, one under and one above. Paul
[ QUOTE ] ...so you could roll it by hand. [/ QUOTE ] Real good point, and one I hadn't thought of... JOE
Mine is ground level for the reason 60's stated. Much easier to get dead cars over it. I lined it with concrete block, pored concrete on the floor with a six inch sump in the lower end. My shop is not high enough for a lift. I do not have water problems but we get less then 10" of rain a year.
I built a pit for my dad in his shop.( dug it out by hand!)I built a wood lid on it so you could drive over it,the shop was only 20x30 so space was limited.And if you can beleave it, the wood would hold a car on it! but now I would go with metal.But that pit would leak water and if he stiil had the place i would put a pump in the buttom of it.
Ground level. In a corner. You are not going to use it all the time and when it is idle you will want the option of parking someting over it and out of the way. Curb or ridge around the hole to keep things from rolling in. Plywood cover to keep you from falling in. Electrical outlet wired under floor. Couple of switched light bulb sockets. Compressed air line run under the floor. Floor drain to daylight. Or a sump pump with the discharge plumbed under the floor. In other words - dig and line the grease pit first. Run all of your electrical, compressed air and drainage lines and the finish the floor.
Man o man I have had to work in a grease pit before and thats the LAST thing I would consider building, grease pits suck. I'll crawl around on the floor before I build one of them. But thats just my take on it. You would be happier with some kinda lift i would think.
Yeah, ground water's a big problem for most of them, but they're illegal to use around here, because they're dangerous. Heavier-than-air vapors (i.e. gasoline fumes, cleaning solvents, etc.) can collect at the lowest point and can concentrate to form an explosive and/or toxic mixture. My advice is NOT to use grease pits. Maybe I'm chicken-shit, but I lived this long and I'd like to stick around to see how it ends.
I was thinking of some type of fresh air exchange... if I go with a floor level pit. And with this sugar sand base, I don't see water being a problem (for me, anyway). In regard to the half-pit with ramps... I was already thinking of finding some pre-fab flat metal trusses. You know... the kind made of back to back angle iron, about 3 feet high? Mounted permanantly, it would work great. But, in thinking about the ground level one being unintrusive, I just thought of this... I'm thinking I could hinge both ramps, so they fold inward, and they could be closed over the hole, add four removable expanded metal grates (2 in each side made of 1x1x1/8 sq tube) which can be placed in the bottom of the hole when it's open to walk on...over the hole when it's closed. That way you wouldn't actually have to cement the floor of the pit, either. The incline ramps could be stored inside, too. An electric winch on the crossbar would solve the problem of dead cars. The material could be three or four uprights on each side, made from 4x4x1/2 sq tube welded to a frame. I like this half ramp for the way you can work on tires, wheels, brakes... without bending over... I'm getting old you know...? Look for my floor jack soon on Ebay...
I built my 4' X 5' X 16' grease pit when I was building my shop --- after pouring the concrete footings, actually. I dug 5' down and poured a concrete floor to the pit, including floor drain (The ground was sandy and gravelly at that depth so it drains easy when I hose it out). Next I framed up and poured the concete sides with the tops coming up almost to the grade that I would pour the shop floor at. Then I backfilled around the edges of the pit with dirt, tamped it hard and poured the concrete shop floor so it overlaps the tops of the concrete pit walls. The concrete pit walls are anchored to both the concrete pit floor and to the shop floor with rebar. I left just enough ledge along the pit sides that I can cover the pit with 2' X 12" planks when I choose to, which is most of the time. I have my '34 Ford parked over the pit, so most people who visit my shop don't even know there's a grase pit there. I love it!
I work in a pit at work, it's not all that bad, we painted it bright white and it is well lit. There is a french drain in the bottom. All it is used for is greasing cars and and oil changes. A lift would be better, personally I'd like both.
"Skinned Knuckles" was (and maybe still exists) a "How To" magazine for restorers. They published plans for a pit several years ago, but with warnings about their use for the reasons TagMan stated. The only exception would be if an explosion proof motor ran an exhaust fan to circulate fresh air.
Ventilation please! Remember that CO is heavier than air and seeks low points. That is why grease pits are not as popular as they used to be.
The other concern is the use of incandescent or unshielded light bulbs. If accidentally broken, the spark can ignite vapors. This can occur "above ground" too, but it's not as likely as in a pit where the heavier-than-air vapors may concentrate.
SNAKES!! My brother has a outside pit in Florida and always has to look for Snakes in it. Biggest so far was a 12' Rattler.
In a British car mag I saw a do-it-yourself grease pit kit that was really slick. The pit was a one piece fiberglass affair, with built in stairs. That would keep the water leaks out. There were lights in the upper sides of it. Looked really cool. I don't know if it is available stateside.
My father used to be the U.S. Consul G in Stuttgart, Germany, and the consulate had its own garage with a magnificent and enviable grease pit, built with limitless German thoroughness and limitless US Government money, for the ex-Afrika Corps mechanic. Here's what I remember: The pit was several feet wider than the floor level opening, allowing both extra space for the mechanic and srorage for hundreds of jerry cans (probably there to evacuate the place if the Russians started over--Stuttgart was a MAJOR fulcrum point for the NATO armies.) The opening was beautifully finished with a steel channel to support the lids and a really heavy piece of railroad track or some such down each side, supporting a stout steel trolley capable of supporting transmission jacks or any kind of heavy lifting anywhere under the car. The lid was made of stout cross planks reinforced with steel, made in sections about three feet long so any amount of opening could be covered or opened. Lights and plumbing were well supplied, and give German legal obsessions, I'm sure there must have been ventilation in there too. If I had a pit like that, I'd probably toss in a mattress and a couple of book shelves and live in it!
[ QUOTE ] SNAKES!! My brother has a outside pit in Florida and always has to look for Snakes in it. Biggest so far was a 12' Rattler. [/ QUOTE ] ahaha! i had a pit at my old house, water was only a problem during winter, when i would park a car over it with smow stuck to it and it would melt off, but refreeze at the bottom of the pit, it stays cold down there! fumes should not be a problem if you don't have children, i don't recall ever lying down in the pit to take a nap or anything, you're generally standing upright, so your head is right at floor level to the shop. do steps to get down in the pit at the front, with large poles or something spaced far enough away, sticking up, so in a worst case scenario, if the car rolls forward or anything, you cannot get trapped down there! i found the pit to be one of the handiest things ever! at the time, all the cars i drove were "too" low, they drug on everything, and were a big hassle to get a lack under, so the pit was great! just roll over it to change fluids, or just to check out the weeks road rash, and look for damage, etc. made it much easier to deal with those little things that just aren't worth blocking, jacking, blocking, jacking some more, etc. to get a low car up. and be careful! i did "lose" a car once in the pit! oops! was pushing my old riviera in, wasn't running for whatever reason, just me pushing by myself, didn't pay close enough attention to where the front was going, and a wheel dropped in! i tell ya, it's kinda scary seeing your ride hanging at a 45 deg angle half down in a hole! hooked a chain up and gave a gentle pull, and got it out, amazingly, with not a scratch! lucky.
[fumes should not be a problem if you don't have children...] The issue is not BREATHING fumes, although that could be a problem, it's that the fumes lay at the bottom of the pit and may be EXPLOSIVE.
Yeah, and probably six volumes of legal code and inspections three times a year! Those Germans love their regulations, and are now expanding them to the rest of Europe! We had a fancy house with a dumbwaiter from kitchen to other floors. The door on each level had an engraved, very large metal plaque with a page of regulations on legal and illegal use of the dumbwaiter!
I was involved in a NATO program in Germany in the '80's. We had several reps in residence there, who bought Mercedes and BMW cars. They used them there, then many brought them home. The German safety organization (TUF, I think it was called) was in charge of vehicle inspection, which was required annually. The inspectors had much latitude to interpret as they saw fit. One rep had to completely replace his Mercedes brake system (at GREAT expense) since there was a patch of light surface rust on the outside of one of the brake lines.
We went throgh all sorts of absurd teutonic hoops to license our '63 Plymouth there--had to install a drain hanging under the gas tank (which was illegal in the US!), add fuses near the tail lights, and finally remove the red light from the high beam indicator and replace it with blue! We felt MUCH safer when we were in compliance...
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