When we built our gazebo from the Costco kit, the cupola is built separately. After that was constructed, the instructions said to "Put the cupola on top of the gazebo." That's the smaller roof section on the top. It weighs 150 - 200 pounds. So... just put it on top...

 

Just like the old swimming pool TV ads that were shown when I a kid back in the '70s. They showed a happy family standing in the backyard while dad unloaded the swimming pool from the back of his pickup and little Timmy standing around with his swimming goggles and flippers waiting for the pool to be assembled. The music started playing faster and faster as dad and mom started erecting the pool, then filling it and little Timmy and the family taking their first refreshing dips.

Cut to real life, I know this because my dad bought one of these pools. First, find a level place in the yard to put the pool. No such thing, you spend three days removing grass, digging dirt and leveling sand. Lots of yelling. Two days assembling the pool, another day reassembling pool because liner fell in. More yelling. One more day getting under liner because a big rock worked it's way under the liner somehow. More yelling. A day and half filling pool with garden hose. Waiting two days for the water to get up to temperature so you don't suffer hypothermia when taking your first dip. It sure didn't look like this much work in the commercial.

Oh yeah, after everything is up and working you have to spend $$ on chemicals and an enormous amount of time cleaning and taking care of the beast. I always say the best pool is your neighbor's pool.

 

Hey yeah...I got ripped off and bought one of those "CUT TO REAL LIFE" pools come to think of it...The pontoon boat came from the same darn place, I think...

Nice Gazebo Joe!

 

Thanks Jeff. I built a ramp out of 2x4s, and my wife, daughter and I slid the damned cupola into place. Then I climbed on top to shingle it.

 

I'm envisioning an Evil Kneivel style ramp.

 

I'm finally getting the space cleared in my shop to install the lift. I just have to figure where I can mount the posts on the floor. I have to figure how far from all four sides I have for clearance. I also have an expansion seam close to the area where one of the posts need to be. I have read many different posts on how far away from cracks and expansion joints anchor bolts have to be. So far it looks like 8" is the minimum. Anyone have suggestions or ideas? Any do or don'ts. I don't want to drill holes more than once.

 

Only piece of advice is to measure once, drill twice.

 

Yeah, nothing going to look worse than have an extra set of holes.

I'm just trying to figure out how much room I need to comfortably work around a vehicle. I have basically a 25'X 24' space for my play area. My daily driver, '04 Dodge four door with a 8' box is a good guide to use. It's going to be the longest vehicle I'll lift.

 

You can't go wrong by making it the focal point of the entire space by putting it directly in the center of the shop.

 

I put mine in my last bay, I think I only have a 3' from the wall and I have filled most of the wall with cabinets and nut/ bolt shelving. I also have a vertical steel rack there as well. What a pain in the asteric it is to work on that side of a vehicle! Lesson learned next time it goes in the center bay of the 3 car!

As for the floor whole thick is your floor in the area of the lift? When I built the house I poured the floor 6"-8" thick to fully support the 3/4" anchor lags in place. One other note when you drill in the floor go all the way through in the event later down the road you can simple hammer down the bolts instead of cutting them if your plans change down the road.

 

The building I have was specifically designed to have a lift installed. It has a 5" floor. The installation manual that came with the lift says 4" is minimum. I have to work around an expansion joint in the floor but it shouldn't be a problem. The installation manual doesn't mention any minimum distance from cracks or expansion joints but I've found dimensions on other lift web sites from anywhere from 6" to 8" inches. I can set it away 8" without a problem.

Good advice on drilling through the floor for the anchor bolts. I've seen that mentioned on some of the boards I've been searching through.

Here's the layout I plan.

 

What's on the left side that's a 1' something away??

 

The gray area are racking shelving. It runs down the center of my shop, divides my play area from the working shop area of my business. I can goose them out a little but not to far because it'll render my real work area impossible to bring things into the shop. I can't cut too much into my business area because that's the main reason for the building. Where I try to make the money to play with my toys.

The green represents the lift. The long rectangles on either side of the lifts are 3"X39" 1/2" angle that bolt to the floor and then the lift posts bolt to them. In addition there are mounting holes in the base of the posts. This beast is built, 1/2" steel support ribs and the posts themselves are made of at least 3/8" steel. This has got to be the beefiest unit I've seen.

 

it would be nice to have a lift in my shop

 

It's been some time since my original post about my lift.

First I was a little too busy at work to work on putting the lift in. I also spent a lot of time researching where and how to safely install it. I don't want this thing to start doing a galloping Gertie while I'm under it. I found out a lot of information that I didn't take into consideration when I first got it. I looked into what kind of lifts were good and bad before I bought it but it wasn't until after I got it that I started to look into where it had to be installed in relationship to joints, seams and cracks in the floor. I have a new building designed for lifts so I wasn't too worried about the thickness.

Anyways, I figured out where I was going to install it. So this last weekend the youngest son and I were going to install it. All we had to do is move a set of 3 pieces of small racking shelving over about 12". I thought I could just nudge them over with my forklift, no-o-o! We ended up spending half a day unloading, unbolting, moving and then rebolting them together and reloading them. Fine, that was done. Now to mark and drill the mounting holes. Simple, I did a CAD drawing of the shop (see previous post) and knew where the holes had to be. I found a few problems and made adjustments to the drawing. Laid out the angle iron brackets and marked the hole locations. I give my son the hammer drill I rented Saturday from the hardware store. He's a big boy, I'm getting to be an old man, he wanted to drill. He starts drilling and the bit falls out. I tell him to tighten the chuck using all three holes. He said he did and retightens the chuck. Five seconds later the bit falls out again. We try a couple of more times, the same thing. The chuck is junk. He calls his friends to see if any has a hammer drill. One does and my son heads off to his friend's house and returns with a cheapie hammer drill from a discount store. Cheap but at least it's a hammer drill. He drills four holes and the drill is overheating oozing grease out of it's seams. OK, I have a smaller hammer drill at home I got used from my dad when he died 20+ years ago, I figure I'll drill small pilot holes to save wearing the cheapie drill out. Drive home, get the drill and return to the shop. Plug the drill in and nothing, nada, zip, zilch, it won't work at all. Now it's 5pm on a Sunday night and we call it quits before something bad happens.

Just another one of those days. I seem to have a lot of them. Hopefully we'll have better luck next weekend.