What do you use your garage for? Integrated or detached?

[ChocoTrio]

Just that. Looking for ideas! List so far is: home gym or storage unit!

Do you prefer the garage integrated or separate from the house? It seems like it’s more useful when it’s integrated or maybe I’m thinking the grass is greener on the other side?!

Anyone converted garage into office space or downstairs bathroom or anything like that?

integrated if you can - it's a lot nicer not having to go outside to access it.

Ours is for motorbike, storage and gym . Cars live on the drive.

Have just remembered that we put down a great cheap flooring made from those large foam interlocking mats like kids playmats but in black (from B&Q).
Pretty cheap and made it a lot warmer and cleaner, have recommended them to loads of people as dead easy to fit

@wohmum

Already bought the house and just moved in. It's a detached garage.

I asked in the OP because I think whether it's integrated or detached makes a difference to how people use it. It has been great having a separate out building for the tradesmen to work in for all the messy jobs.

Now we're settling in and want to make good use of what is like a 2nd building on our land. What can we do with it?! We want to maximise the space!

before we had the extension we had to access eth garage from outside - only a couple f meters, but was definitely more of a pain, especially as we used it for a gym and coming out in a cold wet winters night wasn't pleasant .

if fully detached garage . i'd use it more for storage, workshop etc - maybe a teens hangout room with pool table/ old sofas etc

Detached. And has a car in it O hadn't realised how apparently unusual that is. Also has tools, garden tools and a lawnmower.

House we are buying is integrated, and will keep the same stuff in it.

Many garages these days aren't really big enough to put a car in realistically unless you are very good at limbo dancing.....
Mine is used for storage (I have never been in my loft since moving here - my old house loft was filled with 18 years of crap and I swore never to have to deal with it again).
If you're serious about using the space to be in, I'd suggest you get it boarded out with proper insulation and have an insulated ceiling put in too.
Garages are usually single-skin structures which do not retain heat well, so you will need to invest to make it comfortable.

Detached if using for grubby stuff, DH sorts his smelly fishing kit out in ours, he swears it doesn’t smell , it does, I wouldn’t fancy that as part of the house. If you are using for a gym or other cleanish stuff and not shed stuff then integrated is probably best

Double detached. Bicycles. Power tools. Hardware. Bicycle stand & pumps & accessories. Summer tyres (car). Power washer. Beach stuff. Spare bike wheels/tyres. Potatoes. Wellies. Tarps. Camping equipment & chairs. Ladders. Some is in the garage loft.

Garden things are in a separate shed.
The expensive bicycles are in the house.

Our garage has the family bikes, ladders, boxes of junk, tumble dryer, 2 chest freezers, and the boiler. Plus all dh's tools and garden equipment.
We also have a large shed in the garden, think the garden furniture is in there plus lots of spiders so I never go in 😂

We were thinking of getting the garage converted but we'd have nowhere to put everything that's currently there.

I don't like integrated ones as it would make me nervous to store the car or other things in there that could burn my house down (paranoid I know!). Mostly ours have previously been used for storage and the car, sometimes as a workshop. New house doesn't have one yet but we will probably build one, although we have an actual workshop for storage now so it would be for the car/TT table.

It would be a tight fit for the car. It’s long though.

We don’t have a huge garden so I’m eyeing it up for demolition and replacement with a shed. If we had kids at home though I’d be thinking of it as a games room. Darts, pool, etc. It would need some insulation though.

Friend made a proper pub in his, with taps, optics, darts board. It’s great.

Ours is overly packed with stuff, it’s hard to find anything, and other family members have got in on the act and are using it as storage.

Ours is integrated and we use it as a home gym and utility room. Plus storage. I would prefer it detached though as our house is top heavy in terms of living space. We are converting it into a proper room next year and will build a summer house type building in the garden for the gym.

Integrated.

Mainly full of motorbikes, spare parts, leathers and helmets.

Would like to squeeze a chest freezer in!

Bike storage (we have 14)
Camping stuff storage
Tools, paint, diy stuff
Washer/dryer are in there

Integrated - not wide enough to drive a car in and be able to get out easily.

Currently use it for storage, extra freezer, bikes and turbo trainer. Lockdown is making us seriously considering converting it though.

Detached double garage 2 metres from house, with an attached hobby room.

2 cars, Extra fridge freezer, gardening stuff, wheelbarrow, tools, electric wheelchair, and food, cleaning stuff I get when on offer. Lawnmower, petrol for lawnmower,

Oh yes - integrated all the way. We bought thus house because of the integrated garage, for the bikes, then rained up security.

Our garage is attached, but an add-on, so not integrated into the main house. It's beyond our utility room and had an internal door.
We use it to store 6 bikes, 5 canoes and canoe paraphernalia, it has all the camping stuff, cat litter box / carrier storage, tools, hanging space for drying tents, canoe gear etc plus I've got an extra fridge freezer for overflow of food plus extra space to store bottled water as we buy about 15-20 bottles a week
We'd struggle without a garage! We also have a shed lol - that houses all of the garden stuff though

Single detached. It's used for storage: bikes, bbq and building materials. None of our cars will fit in it.

It is due to be replaced with one that will fit 3/4 cars in it.

Ours is attached but no internal door. We use it for bikes. Bike storage and a bike workshop and dh has a turbo trainer in there for the winter (like a stationary bike).

Originally an integrated double garage but now it’s an integrated single and my husband has his own living room.

The garage is full of crap. Desperately need to hire a skip before Christmas and have a good sort out.

We have a detached garage, big enough for one car. We have never parked the car in it of course, but we have masses of off road parking. We have surfboards. wetsuits, canoes, bikes, camping gear etc all in it. It's not ideal and we want to pull it down (it's falling down anyway) and rebuild, possibly as a two storey with a studio above it. But we would still rebuild it as storage not a house for the car.

Double detached. Carpeted with cheap office tiles. Big wall storage cupboards for food spares, old toys, diy stuff, fridge, fridge freezer one side. One wall has running machine and bikes. Don’t use one of the up and over doors (handy to have two separate ones I think) and so behind that door is a rowing machine and weights. As the weather has changed we’ve put our patio furniture in there and we refer to it as our ‘inside out cafe’ so we can have socially distanced meet ups with elderly parents ina draughty cool place which isn’t outside. We have electrics, water and internet over there and projector screen! DD (23) uses it for screening Bake Off with two of her friends and occasional movie nights. Was a play space when they were young and weather was poor, now it’s a great escape area and entertainment space.....it’s really NOT that warm but folks wrap up and bring blankets and we can keep the door up so it’s almost an open space. Proving invaluable in the current pandemic and weather.

Spiders

Our garage was built detached, but with our extension it now integrated we use ours as a home gym, office, we also have a pool table. It’s a big double garage. Never been a car in it! We have a very large driveway with turning spot so we can always drive straight out.