How much of an issue is a tandem driveway?

[hollyblueivy]

We have always had the luxury of parking side by side. Looking at a property where one car has to park in front of the other.

how much of an issue / inconvenience is this?

would anyone consider this a deal breaker?

It depends on work schedules, will you need to swap cars daily?

it would be a pain for me as I leave for work first but am home first so would always be swapping cars/ parking in road

It really depends on your situation, just get comfortable of swapping cars when it's needed.

We mostly work from home so we only have to swap cars a couple of times a week and that can be annoying.

My husband has said it's a deal breaker for a future house, I'm more relaxed about it.

Depends if you mind moving your car at short notice when needed. We try and be proactive and move it night before if one of us is going to the office, rather then try and swap cars during the morning rush of getting us ready and our toddler ready and walking our dog.

Partner leaves for work first then I’d come home and park in the blocked in position then he would come home and I’d need him to move so I could go to the gym. That would happen at least three times per week.

I’m fine with him driving my car but I don’t like driving his/.

I wondered about this before we moved in. It's been fine, but only really because we have a fair amount of easy on street parking just in front of the house. I tend to park mine on the road. DH's newer, electric car, gets the driveway - as it's handy for the charger.

We swap round fairly easily - it's not a major issue - well till he changed cars and I really don't like driving his new car - which is very beepy as it reverses on to the drive - but that's my problem...

Basically if you otherwise like the house, it's not a deal breaker.

We went from one where we could get any car out (and rarely be blocked in even with friends over) to now parking behind each other.
It’s annoying, but just that. It’s more annoying on bin day, and we try to time it so we aren’t in the neighbours way. I also use DH’s more and his mine. Teens are now driving so that’s an extra shuffle.

but that’s all it is, annoying. If the rest of the house is right, just accept a bit of shuffling.

I think it also depends on how much on-road parking there is - if we knew that we were going to be 'in and out' several times during the day, one of us would park on the street. Also whether the neighbours have a tandem drive next to you - there are lots of posts on here about the problems it can cause if the neighbours decide to drive across your side rather than swapping the cars.

Our last house had a driveway that was four cars long but only one car wide, and it was a monumental PITA. We ended up lifting some of the lawn to one side to make the driveway wider

Then I would say don’t do it! I would only do it if taking whichever car was at the front worked for both, it’s a pita to have to play musical cars every day.

Is there street parking too? If not I’d find it really annoying.

If one is a SAHP and the other goes to work it's no problem (or so we found). If you are both working it can involve shuffling cars if one of you goes to work earlier than expected.

If you are questioning something as important as this i would say, be really certain it's what you really want.
We once bought a house where the family next door had a campervan.
I said, I love this house but I'm not sure about the campervan.
It turned out to be a nightmare, they were always nudging it to park further down outside our house, blocking our view and light. They then dug out the front garden to park it there and he sat in it on a Sunday afternoon for hours revving it like Nigel Mansell to get the battery charged up. It caused a lot of arguments in our house and with the neighbours.

It'll depend who lives there! Sweet Susie, who is happy for each of you to have keys, and move them anytime it's a problem?
If the person is a jerk, you can see the issues.

We had this for 12 yrs. It was a bit annoying but not the end of the world. Sometimes we would just take whichever car was on the back of the drive. Or if we knew the other person would need to go out again we'd leave one car down the road on street, we had a little park near us so parked near that and not blocking anyone else's access. Now we have a lovely wide drive.....the cat still manages to sit where I want to park though.

Can he park on the street until you get back from the gym? Or can you get insured on his car and take that to the gym?

Depends how wedded to ‘his car, her car’ you are and if you can just take whichever is at the back.

This.

Until fairly recently, we were very much 'a couple who have two cars' and both drove both. Of course, that can also be a pain as you have to move the seat / mirrors / change what you are listening to, etc every time you set off.

I reckon EVERY house you move to has compromises. A tandem driveway would definitely be on the 'negatives' list for me, but if everything else were perfect......

We had this for 5 years and we did have to "move the cars" regularly it just became a thing we did took 2 minutes. We had a family car and a run around so the family car was used most amd run around was parked at the top by the garage and if we knew dh was going oit the next day and i had the kids we always made sure the cars were in the order they needed to be etc and move the run around to the side closest the road. I look back at it and firmly say it wasnt an issue for us and we sold the house 2 years ago and noonr raised it

We have this . It wasn't a deal breaker. We have a small front garden big enough to fit 2 cars we could pave but after 4 years it hasn't annoyed us enough to do it . We are in a cul de sac with plenty of on road parking free though. You do have to pre plan a bit but we havnt regretted buying the property we still love it

This was a contributing factor to us moving houses couple of years ago. We had 2 vehicles which you could get on the drive as it was single car to get on but then opened up to fit both cars, we then added one more vehicle in to the mix and it was annoying have to move a car every time someone wanted to leave.

After area, no. of bedrooms, garden size, garage, and age/state of property would come ... drive.

We’ve had a tandem drive for nearly 30 years, would I have preferred a side by side, absolutely but I wanted a 4 bed house on a particular development and had to compromise. We live in a cul de sac with easy on street parking outside our house. If I could go back I’d make the same choice again to get this house.

DH has always been very good at moving the cars, in the early years we had a family car which was mine, with the car seats in etc. and a 2nd car which was for his commute. If they were the wrong way round in the morning he would move mine out onto the road. The family car had to be at the end of the drive or on the road to get the kids in anyway.

Now our kids have left home we still have 2 cars and one that does his daily commute, he is so used to swapping them round it’s just what he does automatically, the only difference is he does it just before bed not in the morning. Weekends or evenings we just take whichever is on the end of the drive.

Thanks all I realise that it can be a pain from some of the posts, but I think enough of you have made the point clear that it’s workable and if the rest of the house fits the bill then this is a more minor compromise.

We have this, mostly is ok. We’re in a village where driveways are rare so count ourselves lucky really! It’s only annoying if DH forgets and goes out for a walk and then I have to move his car onto the street.
I think if you were on a street where it’s difficult to find parking it would become annoying, we usually have a few spaces on our street so if we know we’re going out again in a couple of hours will street park

Depends on how easy going you and your partner are nad if you can laugh about having to move the car Again!. Its going to be a pain a lot of the time but is workable especially if you love the house.