Garage or drive

[Koffee123786]

Hi,

So we recently bought our house and are refurbing it. We currently have a very old dilapidated stand alone garage. We are going to knock this down as it's made from some form of wood.

Now my question is in front of the garage we have a driveway big enough to fit 2 cars side by side and a third in front. Do we rebuild a garage or do we leave it and make a bigger drive and tarmac it? (Probably fit 4 cars)
Does having a garage increase the value of the house?

Yes a garage usually increases the value of your house. It would be more valuable if you could join the new garage onto the side of your house?

Leave enough room for a sideway to walk through to the back of the house for garden maintenance purposes.

Even better add a doorway inside your house through to the garage. You can make good use of it.

Our garage is old, designed for 1 car family 100 years ago. Most of my neighbours have knocked through to make bigger living spaces. Ours is OH's tinker space. This is less substantial so you have lots of options,but do you really want 4 cars parked there? I know the importance of functional spaces often take priority, but more garden or a nice looking patio area could give curb appeal.

I would build one of the open oak cartlodges e.g
www.stourvalleyoak.co.uk/
as they are much better for car storage than garages, look nicer and are cheaper to construct

People like garages for storage very few put a car in
if you lose the garage make sure u have a shed

Go for a bigger drive. Very few people use a garage as a garage (cars are much more reliable these days). It's usually something else: dumping ground, workspace, converted, etc.
As long as you have some storage or workshop (eg a shed) then this should be sufficient.

FWIW our new neighbours have extended their drive to take 4 cars and have converted the integral garage into a wfh study.

Also consider car insurance. I don't know the difference, but they do ask whether the car is inside a lockable garage, car port, on the street outside your house or in a side street. Do some mock comparisons for your area and see if it makes any significant difference to insurance.

How big is your family? If there is likely to be a need to park 3/4 cars often, lots of guests that can't park on the street, older kids still living at home etc, then the drive is better. If say only 1 of you drive and your kids have moved out or are toddlers and you will likely move before they can drive- then a garage might be a better option.

IF you decide on a garage and plan to use it to park in- a remote door is essential IMO.

Be very wary of declaring you garage your car
Check the fine print
because my policy said if you park anywhere but in the garage when your within 500m of home it’s not insurance

Surely this depends on how many cars you need space for?

I wouldn't mind not having a garage if there was somewhere else to keep bikes, scooters, camping gear, garden furniture, BBQ, garden tools, DIY stuff etc etc.....
other than my parents I don't know anyone who actually keeps their car in their garage and a lot of modern cars are too big to fit in older garages.

Our insurance asks whether it’s garaged overnight, so having it on the drive during the day is fine.

We converted our garage but it was attached to our house however our drive has parking for 4 - 5 cars which is part of the reason planning allowed the conversion. Plus we retained a storage section across both garages for all the paraphernalia that comes with a house, lawn mower, strimmer, all tools, bikes are kept in a separate shed along with the BBQ.

A garage is just a room for a car and good storage can make it a very useful space especially if you use the height and have an automatic door on it for ease of getting in and out. The vast majority of garage owners do not park cars in the garage due to size of the garage and the car. You have to consider how wide a garage needs to be when you open your car doors on both sides or even just the driver's door. Drives take into consideration that a door sometimes opens over things like gardens even though you don't walk on the grass the car door may swing over it.

From the RAC more than half of all garages are not used for cars due to storage needs. 53% never use them for a car, 40% regularly put a car in them and 8% occasionally.

Having lived in properties with and without garages, I would go for a garage and make it big enough to garage a large vehicle. If I had a garage I would garage my car as saves scraping ice from windscreen in winter.