Anyone know if this is possible?

[AliceandMatt]

Our garden is on a hill and is split into 4 levels, the top one being the driveway which is accessed via an access road at the back of the house. There's no parking at the front of the house. We want to extend our driveway by about 2 meters because we can only just about get two cars on it. The problem is the extending that driveway on the top level will take away some of our garden (which isn't very big as it is).

So I'm wondering if it's possible to extend the driveway but somehow keep the space underneath as a sort of summer house spot, with doors that open so that we don't lose too much space from the garden area. I don't know if this is possible and if so what sort of builders would be happy to do it - would I need an engineer or architect to work out how much weight could be put on the structure? If so it sounds very expensive. Not sure whether it's worth looking into.

It wouldn't be cheap as you would effectively be building a platform that had enough strength to bear the weight of two or more cars (imo, it would also look quite odd). Your neighbours may also be upset if the top tier of your garden is extended so that it compromises their privacy. If you want to go ahead, you should talk to an engineer to start with who can advise you of the structural issues.

Yeah that was my worry. I thought it sounded a bit ambitious!

Our top level is at present set back further than everyone else's (they all have bigger drives), so there won't be any privacy issues and neighbours are happy for us to extend the space to match theirs.

I think though it sounds like a lot of expense for saving 2m of garden. There's probably better things we could spend it on! Thanks for your help :)

You are essentially building a multi storey car park! It will be mega expensive. We have part of our garden as a gravel area and can park cars on it. Would this be an idea? Multi use of the garden. Just don’t plant where a car will go.