Hi all,
Both my wife and I want a three car garage and of course I want a workshop, but have to decide between adding on or building unattached and would appreciate your input and experiences to help us make some decisions.
We are not looking for to much detail, but were wondering what made you decide between adding on to your existing garage/house or building a new unattached garage/workshop?
We have a fifties style ranch home with a small two car garage attached via a nice size enclosed breezeway, this along with an addition previously put on the house is giving our commercial architect friend some trouble and concerns. If we add on to the structure the way we (or I should say I) would like to, the roof lines and valleys just won’t work without rebuilding half the house’s roof, which is not really in the budget.
We can get about the same results building a three car unattached garage about fifty feet from the house and make the present garage (not used to park cars) my workshop. We already have a small building for lawn equipment so no problem there either.
Hind site is always 20/20, anything you regret not doing now?
Has the snow or rain made you wish you attached the garage?
What is the smallest three car garage, in your opinion, we should build for just parking vehicles?
Thanks,
A & C
Replies
40x80
View ImageIf you have any poo, fling it now.
sweet shop man.
Is that the project you're working on with all the extra nuts and bolts you get from those cabinet jobs?
Looks like hell to heat though.
zak
If that's your personal garage...can I be your best buddy?
lol. Only if you fuel up the jet.
I wish it was mine.If you have any poo, fling it now.
Will your wife walk 50 feet to a detached garae in snow and rain??
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
I agree, why not let her keep her garage in the house, and build a detached garage with workshop.
If you use your workshop, your gonna make noise, and the further away from the main house the better.
The risk of fire from a work shop also makes it wise to keep away from your living quarters.
If you build an attached garage, don't let the garage visually overpower the house.
Likewise, if you built a detached garage, set it back on the lot some. You are likely talking about a pretty good sized building and if the detached g. is even with or "ahead of" the house, it may l look like a garage with a house to go with it...
If you build detached, if possible I'd recommending using the current garage for the primary use vehicle's parking - just as a convience factor - coming in at night - carrying in the groceries - coming in the house when it is raining - all that.
My wife and I have had two houses with detached garages--didn't really use either for everyday parking because it was closer to park on the street or under the carport (which was right next to the front door).
There are some code issues with attached garages like step-downs, fire doors and fire resistant walls--I assume you don't have to deal with those on a detached garage.
Our new house has no garage, but if we put one in it will be attached via a breezeway or something like that. If we do a 3-car garage, one side will have to be tandem parking due to setbacks. The nice thing about that is that we can use a single 16 foot garage door, versus two or three doors.
Aaron
I can't help much with the size of the garage, but I have had my shop both in an attached 2 car garage and currently in a detached 2 car garage.
Working in attached garage means that the dust, noise and fumes will work there way into the house. Also, many attached garages have 8 foot ceilings. If you plan on woodworking it's so much better to have 9 or 10 foot ceilings.
With this in mind I would think about using a detached garage for the shop. Besides, think of all the fun it will be planning your shop in the new building.
Richk1
also check on how you're taxed
my town taxes unattached highr than attached.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
Thanks for the responses so far, much food for thought. I ran across this article this morning about snout houses, made me rethink about building the garage out front of the house.
http://user.gru.net/domz/snout.htm
Twelve years ago, we were sort of in the same situation as you. We chose the to add the detached building and make it my shop. This was 1300 sqft. later, we added another 650 Sqft for a total of 1950 sqft. The nice thing about the detached part was the shop was totally separate from the house and helped keep the noise and dust down in the house. Because it was only 20' from the house, I could work when ever I wanted and not bother anybody. This also gave me the ability to have taller walls the first section was 10' walls and the second section was 12' walls
The resale was a real bonus for us and even better for the new owners.
The new owners have converted it into another home for not much money and now they have two residences on the property. The property is zoned for two res. on 2 1/2 acres, rural residential
We had a similar question. The answer we ended up with was to attach the garage and shop to the house, but leave a breezeway between the house and garage/shop. The breezeway is also large enough to serve as our primary entertainment area when we have guests.