If you’re breaking ground on a new facility, a solid new shop build checklist is the difference between a shop that runs smooth on day one and one that gets ripped apart six months later to fix mistakes nobody caught early enough. We’re Auto Lift Services, based in Ames, and we’ve walked into more half-finished shops than we can count where the concrete was already poured before anyone called a lift installer. This article is the checklist we wish every Iowa shop owner had in hand before they signed off on architectural drawings, so you spend your budget once instead of twice.
Whether you’re pouring your first slab or moving to a bigger building, we’ll walk your plans before the concrete trucks show up.
Start The New Shop Build Checklist With Concrete, Not Equipment
Every new shop build checklist we’ve ever helped a customer work through starts underground, not with the lift catalog. Concrete slab thickness, rebar placement, and cure time all have to be locked in before a single lift anchor gets drilled. A two-post lift needs a slab that’s thick enough and properly reinforced at each column location, and a four-post or alignment rack needs a flat, level pad across its full footprint. We’ve seen contractors pour a standard 4-inch slab because nobody told them lifts were coming, and that decision alone can force a shop to saw-cut and repour before a single car gets lifted.
Talk to your lift installer before you talk to your concrete contractor, not after. We routinely review site plans for Iowa shops still in the design phase, marking out exactly where columns, runways, and anchor bolts need to land relative to bay doors, drains, and support columns. Getting this step right the first time saves real money and real time, and it’s the single most common gap we find when a shop calls us after the building is already up.
Power, Air, and Utility Planning
A new shop build checklist has to account for electrical and compressed air needs long before drywall goes up. Two-post and four-post lifts typically run on 220V single-phase circuits, but heavier scissor lifts, alignment lifts, and in-ground systems can call for three-phase power depending on the model. If your building doesn’t already have three-phase service and your equipment plan needs it, that’s a utility company conversation that can take months, not days.
Air lines matter just as much. Tire machines, brake lathes, impact tools, and pneumatic lift releases all need drops placed where techs actually work, not wherever happened to be easiest to run during framing. We recommend mapping out every bay’s tool needs on paper first, then having your electrician and plumber rough in conduit and air lines to match. It’s far cheaper to add an extra outlet or air drop during framing than to fish new lines through finished walls a year later. This is one of the checklist items that gets skipped most often because it feels like a small detail early on, but it shapes how efficiently every technician works for as long as the shop is open.
Ceiling Height and Bay Clearance
Ceiling height is one of the most overlooked items on a new shop build checklist, and it’s one of the most expensive to fix after the fact. A two-post lift raising a full-size pickup or a lifted truck needs real clearance above the vehicle at full rise, and that number has to include the lift arms, any roof-mounted equipment, and lighting fixtures. We’ve measured shops where the trusses were set two feet too low for the exact lift the owner already had picked out.
Bay width matters too. You need enough room between columns to open doors fully and enough side clearance for techs to move around a raised vehicle with a cart or jack. If you’re planning four-post lifts for storage or alignment work, factor in runway length plus the vehicle’s actual bumper-to-bumper length, not just an average estimate. Building a mezzanine or loft storage area above bays cuts into clearance further, so that decision needs to happen at the same table as the lift selection, not as an afterthought once framing starts.
Drainage, Lighting, and Floor Layout
Floor drains, trench drains, and lighting placement all belong on your new shop build checklist right alongside the lift layout. Drains need to sit where fluid actually collects during service work, not just wherever plumbing made it easiest. Lighting should be positioned to avoid casting shadows directly under a raised vehicle, which sounds minor until a technician is trying to spot a leak in dim light for the third time in a week.
Floor layout also determines how many bays you can realistically service at once. We walk through traffic flow with shop owners constantly: where cars enter, where they wait, where they’re serviced, and where they exit, so lifts aren’t fighting each other for space. A well-planned layout lets two technicians work side by side without tripping over air hoses or lift arms, and it keeps your shop from feeling cramped even when every bay is full. Getting this piece right up front means you won’t be repositioning lifts or rerouting foot traffic a year after opening.
Choosing Lift Types Before You Build
The equipment side of a new shop build checklist should be settled before final drawings, not after. Two-post lifts work well for general service bays, four-post lifts suit alignment and storage, and scissor or mid-rise lifts fit tight spaces or quick-service lanes. Mixing lift types across a shop is common and smart, but each type has different anchoring, clearance, and power needs that affect the building itself.
We always ask new shop owners what kind of work they expect to do in five years, not just on opening day. A shop that starts general repair but wants to add alignment services later needs runway space reserved now, even if the alignment lift isn’t purchased for another year or two. Planning ahead like this costs nothing on paper but saves a full remodel down the road. If you’re still deciding between brands, our team sticks with proven commercial lines that hold up under daily Iowa shop use.
Permits, Inspections, and Compliance
No new shop build checklist is complete without the paperwork side. Iowa cities and counties each handle building permits, electrical inspections, and lift installation sign-offs a little differently, and skipping a step can delay your opening by weeks. Lifts also need to meet ANSI/ALI safety standards, and inspectors will check anchor bolt specs, slab documentation, and installation certification before signing off on occupancy in many jurisdictions.
We handle installation to code as a standard part of every job, and we keep documentation on hand for inspections so shop owners aren’t scrambling to prove compliance after the fact. If your building department requires engineered drawings for lift anchoring or slab thickness, we can supply the specs needed. Building this into your timeline early, rather than treating it as a final rubber stamp, keeps your opening date realistic instead of aspirational.
Bringing It All Together Before You Break Ground
A complete new shop build checklist ties concrete, utilities, clearance, layout, equipment, and permitting into one plan instead of six separate decisions made by six different contractors who never talk to each other. That coordination is exactly where most delays and cost overruns happen on new shop projects across Iowa. The shops that open on schedule and run efficiently from day one are almost always the ones where the lift installer got a seat at the table during design, not after the walls were up.
If you’re in the early planning stages, our shop build lift planning guide and shop layout checklist go deeper into specific layout math. We’re happy to look at your site plan, mark out lift placement, and flag anything that needs to change before it’s poured in concrete. That one conversation early on is worth more than almost anything else on your new shop build checklist.
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