to build a porch that blocks access to my own garage?

[BeautifulBlondePineapple]

We're planning a new kitchen extension to the back of our house and we'd like a door to it from the driveway at the side. I'm thinking about adding a small porch to this entrance with storage for shoes & coats but there is a double garage right at the end of the driveway and a porch would block access to one side of the garage.

We could still get a car in the other side, but we never park our car there anyway and we are planning to stay in this house for a long time, but you never know what happens and I would hate for this to put people off buying it if we had to sell.

Is this a really stupid thing to do? Would this put you off buying a house?

It would reduce the value of your house by the amount needed to remove it and make good.

Your house, though, and if it suits you, feel free.

You could block up one garage door (rerender to hide blocking up) and make it so that the house has a nice warm dry porch and a good size garage with extra workshop/storage space. Perhaps you could also change the driveway surfacing too, so there's an obvious footpath to the porch and separate driveway to the garage.

I personally think YABU. A double garage is a huge asset to a house and will make it attractive to a lot of buyers in due course - why would you sacrifice this for a porch?

If I wanted a double garage with full access, yes it would put me off.

if you are planning on living in the house for the next 15 years+ then get it built

I don't get this obsession with people considering if the property value is going to be affected, or if it's going to be harder to sell when they no plans to move

I do, you never know if your circumstances will change, and you'll need to sell up PDQ.

oh thats poo santa

I see a lot of it though -older people considering taking the bath out and putting a shower in to make their life easier but don't because it will make the family house harder to sell

allways ask them if they are planning on it

no but it will pass to the children

well it's their problem then

you should be comfortable in your own home and at the end of the day, a porch can easily be removed and the garage is still accessible

how many people actually park 2 cars in a double garage?
most it's 1 car and storage

Like the idea of bricking up half and changing the driveway/footpath to separate the areas.

Does anyone actually put their car in the garage anyway?

I'd be quite happy to have the half bricked up, that would be excellent storage space, with room on the other side to park a car. Perfect for me!

Does anyone actually park their cars in the garage? I thought the driveway was for that and the garage was for accumulated junk! It is in our house anyway.

I would be tempted to do as Abzs suggested as long as you have driveway parking.

think I would be tempted to try and incorporate the garage into the house design and make it a room

we park 1 car in our double garage

the other half is for freezer / tumble dryer / bikes / buggies / important stuff crap

we could and would never get 2 cars in cause where would we put all that?

I am sitting in what was our garage! and I have to say it makes a much better office than a garage :)

In our old house we converted half the garage into a play room as the garage was connected to the house. The house sold quickly and no-one cared that they could not put a car in the garage.

Nobody actuallly uses their garage for putting a car in, unless it's a fancy toy car (in which case it'll be small and probably fit past anyway)

or you are very old!

My inlaws put thier cars in the garage, but they are older.

My parents garage is full of bits of motorbike, then my dads actual bike and sidecar is on the drive with the tent and the two cars are relegated to the street.

Would you even get Planning Permission for that ?

We converted our garage into a study, put a window in place of the doors and bricked up the back half as storage/utility with a door on the outside.

It would be very easy to change it back. But blocking access with a solid structure ? I wouldn't do that.

OP would there be any way to move the doorway/porcah back a bit and connect it to the garage so you could access the porch via the garage and the drive?

Thanks for all the replies!

It's a steel standalone garage, so no way to incorporate it into the house or to convert it :(

I just want somewhere that the kids can leave their muddy boots & coats & schoolbags! I was thinking of having a small internal hall where we could do this, but DH is pretty set on the porch.

Have you applied for planning permission or submitted plans to a builder ?

Your idea of incorporating an internal boot room into the new extension is much better.