Digging a pit

[Mike Mitchell]

Is there any planning permission required for constructing an inspection pit inside a garage on a domestic dwelling?

MM

[David W.E. Roberts]

Also consider a ramp - easier (and probably cheaper) to construct. Much better access. No problems with drainage or gas build up.

Only problem is the headroom :-)

Dave R

[Mike Mitchell]

Plus, unsightly. Oh, how I miss the wonderful hoists we had in the Prototypenabteilung at Ford in Cologne!

MM

[G&M]

Don't tell me you did the Capri 3100s !?

[adder]

Can you tell me how? Would need one heck of a run up! I've often thought about making a metal ramp out of a couple of steel girders type things but then with a big jack under the shallow end to get he car up level. Not sure that'd be safer than a pit though!!

[Mike Mitchell]

Yep, all Capris. We had to dismantle prototypes after they had been round the test tracks at Lommel in Belgium. Once I had to remove blood-soaked sandbags from a car that had crashed and killed the test driver. Actually, the bags were filled with lead shot. We also built the Escort, Granada, Cortina, and Fiesta, which was based on the Fiat

127 bodyshell.

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

Exactly! That's why I would trust a pit over anything else, since a hoist is, of course, out of the question (unless I won the lottery!).

MM

[Owain]

"Capitol" wrote | Where in the various regulations does it specify that any | permission is required for fitting a pit into a garage?

It's more likely that fitting a pit would cause other regulations to be breached.

Owain

[usenet]

How do you 'fit' a pit? It sounds almost as if you go and buy one from a pit supplier and install it! :-)

[Mike Mitchell]

Cheap paddling pool for lanky kids?

MM

[Mary Fisher]

How would they know?

I'd forgotten that our garage has a pit, a) it's covered with boards and probably full of stored stuff and b) the boards can't be seen for all the stuff which lives in the garage.

I mean, how many garages are used for cars?

You can't even get TO our garage in a car even if you could get into it. Repairs are done - when they are (these days mostly the car goes to the professionals) by driving it on to ramps and jacking the other end.

Mary

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There are plenty of stories of pits collapsing.

Half decent ramps and axle stands on level ground are pretty safe to me.

[adder]

Don't go up to 6' though do they :-)

[Huge]

Have you tried holding your arms over your head for any length of time?

:o)

[:::Jerry::::]

Just about anything is safer than a pit you mean (certainly in the DIY sector), inspection pits have many hazards which is one reason why many workshop designs go to great lengths to avoid the use of pits.

[:::Jerry::::]

A second hand two or four post ramp does though....

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. ;-) You do get used to it - eventually.

[Mike Mitchell]

Maybe Dave's do, if he's worried about pits collapsing!

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

I'm sorry to be so brutally frank, but this is utter rubbish.

MM

[:::Jerry::::]

And I'll be utterly frank, you are a total idiot who know sod all if you think pits are safer than the alternatives, have you ever seen a fire in a pit cause by a petrol leak else ware in the vicinity, have you ever seen the injury that can be cause by someone failing into a pit, have you ever seen the damage cause when something like a car fails into a pit, there are problems cause by the vehicle being over a pit rather than jacked or otherwise supported off the ground with the wheel free - the list could go on.

Pits are dangerous, ask the H&S authority, one day you'll get a clue - hopefully before it's to late...