Building a stand seems really reasonable.

Just curious, why does it have to be so high?

Sam, typical wh stands are used to keep gas pilot lights 18" above a garage floor, as these are sources of ignition for gasoline fumes. Yours is electric so I'm guessing its a flood plain issue or another plumbing requirement.

1000 lbs may need an engineer's stamp.

@Jake The Wonderdog @Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor Correct.. flood zone issue. City of Tampa Design Flood Elevation is 11 ft. We have steps up from our garage into our house. All appliances including the WH need to be above 11 ft.

Fair point about potentially needing a stamp. And if you could get it pre-fabricated in steel, I would. At the same time, it's hard to imagine that you couldn't build a 5' tall stand out of plywood and 4x4 corners (treated with appropriate fasteners if you are concerned about water). You could park a car on that. Use standard post standoffs to provide 1" of gap at the floor to let any water out that might get in the box and to anchor at least 2 opposing corners to the slab.

I think we will probably save money and go with plywood. I’m not too concerned about flood waters. We are 1,500 ft from the bay so it would probably take a Cat 4/5 storm before we have any issue with water infiltration in the garage.

My wife claims Spaddy's Coffee Company has the best coffee, for what its worth.

@Mark Bischak, Architect Hah… our house build is only blocks away from Spaddy’s. To be honest, I’m a coffee snob and have quite the coffee setup at my house but I will give Spaddy’s a try! The beans I’ve been using lately are from Buddy Brew which is also very good.

I was there less than two months ago.

@Stax 266 lbs empty… I was estimating the weight with 80 gallons of water inside. I think I paid about $2,700 installed. Where do you see that it is discontinued?

I assume it's in the garage then to lift it equivalent to the main floor. Might as well make storage under it, so at that point it can be finished just as the other walls. I suspect you may have an airhandler there as well, so build the platform for all of it out of wood, heavy gauge metal studs/C sections, whatever was used in the house. Don't forget the pan.

@3onthetree Air Handler and Dehumidifier are hanging from the garage ceiling.