Question about lifting platform and rack

[armdrag101]

I cancelled my gym memebrship and have been working out in my garage for about 4 months now. I built a little lifting platform and then put the rack on top. I did not bolt the rack down to the platform, and in order to do so I would have to drill holes in the base of the rack and then secure it to the platform. If I went that route I'd prob have to take everything apart to bolt it properly. Is it even necessary to have it bolted? I'm not using crazy weight and haven't had a problem yet.
My other conern is the ceiling height in my garage. I live in a townhouse so the garage is small, and the ceiling pretty low. If I decide not to bolt the rack would I be better suited to get rid of the platform and lift off the concrete (maybe throw some mats underneath)? I probably should have thought of this before but I was just so pumped to finally be able to set up a home gym I just went full steam ahead. I apologize for the length of the post and would apperciate any similar stories or feedback. Thanks

[DanRug]

Are you able to do presses while standing on the platform without the plates hitting the ceiling (even with 45s on?). If so, and the rack fits on top of the platform without any problems, I don't see any problems.

I think 45 lbs. plates have a 17" diameter or 8.5" radius. So if you have 9-10" of clearances between your hands and the ceiling during a press you should be fine.

Alternately, if you own the property (or the owner doesn't care), you could probably make some height by removing unnecessary things from the ceiling. At least directly over the platform... Drywall, insulation and so forth. This seems a bit drastic though...

[armdrag101]

I can press with 45's without them hitting the ceiling, I was just thinking that if the rack doesn't need to be secured then the platform is kind of pointless. The ceiling issue mainly comes into play because the garage is small already, and about halfway through there's a lower ceiling with an automatic garage door thing attached to it.

So if I get right next to the rack I can do presses outside the rack no problem. But the space that the rack takes up along with the low hanging ceiling in the center makes any sort of olympic lift outside the clean almost impoosible. I own the property and am hopefully going to sell in a year or two so I don't want to do anything too fancy with it.

[DanRug]

If you need the space to do lifts, then obv go for it. I can't imagine a life that would be vertically taller than the press, but I take it you're saying you need more back and forth space to do some lifts? Seems like if there's enough room to press there should be enough to jerk and snatch (very little back and forth of the bar, especially at the top. (unless your concern is messing the ceiling up with a miss, which I can understand. I have to walk out sloppy cleans every once in awhile. I don't really do many other olympic lifts, but from footage it seems like those might need to be walked out more often. My concern with ditching the platform would be messing up the floor with a miss). If you must do the lifts and the ceiling is in the way, ditch it. A missed attempt might hurt the weights/your floor though.

Important questions to me would be: how big is the platform (height)? Would ditching the platform be enough or would the ceiling still be there?
and
Would dropping the plates fuck up your floor? Bumper plates on concrete garage floor shouldn't be too bad, but I'd imagine stuff breaks faster than with bumper plates on a proper platform.

Is it possible to move the rack to a different spot and then just do squats inside the rack, thus giving more room hopefully for platform?

[MazdaMatt]

I beleive Rip has suggested that all racks should always be bolted onto a platform. Ever seen a video of someone putting the bar on the ouside of the rack and the rack falling towards the guy? Bad news. What will stop your rack from falling if you have a weight on the outside of it and it gets pulled on or something?

[armdrag101]

Yeah, that makes sense about the rack falling forward. I guess I'll just drill some holes in the base of the rack and then bolt it down somehow. Im not too mechanically inclined, as there an easy way to bolt it down?

[MazdaMatt]

Are you cool with making holes in the concrete floor?

If you want to avoid drilling the rack you could probably run a metal strap over the footing and secure the strap to the floor.

[armdrag101]

Making holes in the concrete floor wouldn't be a problem. Would it work just as well if I left the rack on the platform and ran a couple of straps over the footing and then just secured the straps to the platform?

[MazdaMatt]

Not so sure that you're going to get a lot of support that way, but I'm not power rack engineer. I would think that you'd need to bolt and washer both sides of the plywood and I figure that would need space underneath for the bolts... someone who's done this before needs to pipe up.

[confuzzl3don3]

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, but on a similar topic my uni gym membership is expiring next week and so i'll be lifting full time in my little bedroom gym. The thing is I'm (mainly my mum) is worried that i'm going to break/damage the floor. I'm not on the second floor or anything (i live in a 1 storey house) but i basically just have a normal carpet floor. To give some context this is mainly in regards to deadlifting because powercleaning-wise i'm nowhere near using enough weights to damage the ground, and i don't drop the weights either. I just deadlifted 157.5kg yesterday and next week i'll be back up to going for 162.5kg. Again i'm not dropping the weight but you know how when the crap is heavy i don't really gently lower it back to the ground but rather controlled drop/guide it back down but it still does make quite a racket.

So basically my mum is worried i'm going to eventually break/damage the floor so i'm just wondering if this is valid and whether adding some mats or something where the plates are would be sufficient/useful in preventing this? I'm currently placing some pieces of cardboard under them but i know it probably does next to nothing.

(just to add that the plates i'm using are the rubber coated iron ones and not bumper)