My beautiful, half-tiled garage is cleaner and whiter and more sparse than an art gallery and my grubby 406 is not allowed inside until the temperature approaches freezing point. Even then, not until I've hosed off the snow and sludge from the underside. I waited a long time for a garage of my own and I'll be damned if I'm going to mess it up with cars, tools, bikes, hosepipes or garden furniture.
When it is in there though, if I reverse it tidily against the wall I can open my door to it's maximum stop.
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My garage has a utility area (washing machine and two cupboard) to one side which excellent for DIY and working at the front of the car. I also have stacks of high-level shelving. I too am one of the very few people on our road who puts their car into the garage. As the garage is integral to the house with a door to the hallway, uin the winter it stays 10°C warmer than outside.
The Mondeo would fit, but only if I removed the redundant, but working, freezer.
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Our garage is I think 4m 05cm long a tight fit for a lot of cars.
We had the MINI when we moved in and that fitted OK, as did the "classic" Mini we had for a while.
I had to borrow an MX5 before I bought one to see if it would do in - it does but you have to touch the back wall for the door to close! It took the Fabia and an A-Class too, but no chance of getting the C4.
I ours is a garage from a time when a Morris Minor was a typical sized car!
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My double prefab garage, located at the end of our garden, houses my '74 Ro80, lots of junk, lots of tools, and lots of bits of my other '75 Ro80, which is presently sat on the drive with a waterproof cover.
It would certainly not house two modern cars, neither would my parents garage built in the late 70s, but that used to house 2 family cars with ease when I was younger (say a mkII polo and mk II golf).
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The great difficulty these days is accommodating the amount of stuff and cars that people own, particularly garden paraphernalia and stuff bought on unnecessary trips to B&Q/Halfords/garden centre. I do wonder if those businesses did not exist or were not open Sundays if the junk quotient/landfill amount might be rather less.
I work in the urban design/planning area and accommodating the number of vehicles that the UK household owns is very hard without new housing estates resembling car parks with houses dotted through them. Parking restraint as it is known is a key part of trying to wean the population off car dependency and to allow higher densities (which has many positives - reduced land take, easier to get public transport to work, easier to support nearby retail/leisure mixed uses, providing more animated streets/better overlooking/safety) - it amazing how often we are arguing with developers with city centre sites who still want to put 1-2 spaces per dwelling when it's a 5 min walk distance to the town centre/station. I'm beginning to wonder if we need the Japanese approach of having to prove you have an off road car space for each vehicle before being able to tax it to just reduce the number of cars full stop.
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Just after I got the TF we fitted an electric opener to the up and over door of my garage which is in a seperate block to the house (I live in a nice courtyard type arrangement and you have to drive underneath next door's bedroom to get to the garages so it keeps them out of sight).
I insure the TF for driveway use but normally store it in the garage as it means I can leave the hood down until I park up somewhere public. I find the TF fits in brilliantly but then it's only a very small car, I doubt my Mondeo would and I wouldn't even bother trying, it's not worth it. The neighbours leave £40K cars out on the drive so I doubt anyone's gonna nick my tatty old Ford alloys. :-)
My parent's house was built in 1998 but was the last of the recently built estates where the builders didn't cram them in, there is lots of space between each house, they all have integrated double garages and reasonable size gardens. A shame that I doubt we'll see housing like that again in this country.
Blue
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My next door neighbour is a quantity surveyor for a major regional building firm. We were discussing this topic a couple of weeks ago.
He said that his firm, and most of the others he's in contact with don't bother with a garage anymore. They are a 'waste of space' when it comes to the value of the house, he claimed. People want more internal rooms, like a separate dining room or extra bedroom or a study, in preference to a garage. His argument was that it took the same number of time and cost of materials and the selling price/desirability was not as high to the average family if they used the space for the garage. Plus, a wooden shed could be bought from B&Q for garden clutter, wheras you couldn't have a family meal, or sleep in a garden shed.
Simon
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In reply to UK Beefy
Ouch.
Sounds like major social re-engineering of our society.
Yes of course my family of four would LOVE to live in a 2-bed flat or £600,000 new-build with no garden. The England of decent grounds and pretty gardens will become more and more restricted to only those fortunate enough to have the cash for something more pleasant.
Let's all pretend we live in Tokyo and pack everyone into tiny capsules instead. Public transport is just delightful, the environmentalists all use it (er, maybe not, George Monbiot moved out of his ivory tower in Central London, and found that having campaigned for massively higher taxes on car ownership, in fact you actually NEED a car in most of the country, so he bought one).
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Seems a strange solution. If we stop owning cars, then the Govt. will lose tax. The problem is we're over populated.
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ukbeefy, it's apparent that you have no conception whatsoever of how the other half lives ~ and which in most cases is not necessarily from choice but from circumstances forced on them. What a conveniently sterile life you must lead. You're the last sort of selfish person we need in urban design/planning.
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L\'escargot.
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I'm all for reducing car use.
But Public Transport desperately needs fixing. We came back from London on the train on Saturday night and it was like the wild west with football fans and passengers having a go at the guard, sorry rail-based-transport-human-resource-coordination-executive, because the train was running so late there were no connections to their final destinations up the line.
This turned into an angry nightclub full of drunk gangs of women and of men, peppered with teenagers who were desperately in need of (perhaps another) ASBO. I'm a good size and have had a few pies in my time, but found the whole experience intimidating.
Not to mention that when we got to our final station (on the last train there and only just), there were no buses for an hour an a half home (3 miles away) so we had to get a taxi.
By all means, I'd prefer to use public transport for a raft of reasons, but until it becomes practical and safe I'll be keeping to the car.
The world is full of people with great schemes for their little bit of the world (sorry ukbeefy, but I see planners in this) but not enough grasp of the whole problem or the issues around their solution to actually be viable or make sense.
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The problem in the UK is we have too many planners (Central and Local Gov't) who have their ideal of a wonderful society.. but it's not joined up and the end result is a shambles. See the whole episode on Flood Prevention and building on Flood Plains.
These are the people who try to force us into the stereotype they want society to be in, and neglect the unfortunate facts that people want a choice, that half the so called systems don't work (ASBOs, public transport, schooling , Dentistry etc) so people vote with their feet and move out to where they can buy what they want and commute.
By car.
So making the transport system worse.
Step 1 of solution. Invest in Public Transport.
Step 2: restrict entry of cars into cities.
is what we should do.
Reality is of course reversed...
As for ukbeefy, his solution is stalinist: central dictat what you can/cannot buy...
Choice is all. People vote with their feet or cars..
Of course SE England is too crowded but all the best jobs are there... IF the Government were serious about moving itself out of the SE.. but they are not (The ONS is proving a disaster in its move to Cardiff)...
The Government could encourage settlement outside London: double stamp duty inside a 20 mile radius, halve it say in the Midlands (as a suggestion... not thought out).. Anyone see any such measures? Nope. Instead they introduce HIPS - a clssic of how not to achieve anything and cost a lot more...
Want a decent sized house and garage? move out of the SE...but don't expect any time soon any sensible joined up Government thinking...
madf
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Want a decent sized house and garage? move out of the SE...
Possibly, but then the reality is that the £100k+/year jobs that make a big house w/big garage in SE achievable (it's going to cost £600k+) don't exist in the same way out of the SE. And of course the skiing holiday, trips to Maldives, cars, food, etc. all cost pretty much the same in the SE, so a 40% paycut to move to Leeds doesn't make sense - you might end up with the same house, but less money left over for everything else.
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Instead they introduce HIPS - a clssic of how not to achieve anything and cost a lot more...
Ah but the HIPs are just a way of introducing EPC's without too much uproar..
;o)
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Here in New Zealand, there are very few houses without some garage space. A good proportion of them have double garages, and it isn't difficult to find houses with more. I recently moved to a larger house, and the brief was four bedrooms, triple garage and a separate outside living area (what we call a sleep-out). We were kept busy on weekends for a few months looking at a number of properties that fitted this specification. We aren't well-off by any means, and the house was right on the average price (less than UKP 100K), but it shows that New Zealand is a much more car-friendly environment. I can fit my Mitsubishi Galant and Jaguar XJ in the double garage, with room to walk round both of them, so perhaps our garages are made to a sensible size.
When I lived in UK, I did wonder why they were still building houses to 1930s design specifications, with tiny or non-existent garages, small rooms and very few windows. Around where I lived (Derbyshire), you couldn't tell which houses were 1930s ones and which were 1990s ones. Keen motorists of the UK, emigrate! We need more good drivers here to offset the shocking NZ ones that have never learned to drive properly in the UK.
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There should be a law governing the minimum sizes of garages for new houses. I would suggest 20' x 10' with an 8' wide door for a single garage, and 20' x 20' with either 2-off 8' wide doors or a single 16' wide door for a double garage.
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L\'escargot.
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I just don't get it. I've just seen an estate agent's brochure for a house for sale and they give the dimensions of the two garden sheds but just describe the garage as being "single". Are most house buyers really more interested in garden shed dimensions than whether they can get their car in the garage?
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L'escargot.
Moved it in here, recent enough and still "warm"
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 07/10/2007 at 11:26
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Few people put their cars away in their garage these days.
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Given the number of garages I see converted to living accom, I'd have thought that the dimensions of the potential playroom/office/granny annexe were important.
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Few people put their cars away in their garage these days.
How do you know this? Do you have privileged information or something.
I certainly garage one of my cars and wished I had more covered space to garage the other one.
Personally, notwithstanding that modern cars are larger than they used to be, I cannot understand why people leave their cars in the open, if they have the opportunity of garaging them.
Basically it is laziness, or the fact that their garages are full of junk.
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In our road there are 8 houses all with double garages. The owners have 22 cars between them, only one car is ever usually garaged, and 1 occassionally.
I think that it is an acceptable statement.
Personally I don't garage my car on enviromental grounds - it looks better where everyone can see it!
Edited by hxj on 07/10/2007 at 10:56
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Every so often I have a clearout in my garage, shout at the kids for leaving a mess, and then I get my car in it. Usually when I have spent a lot of time polishing it.
However now faced with the dilemma that we are possibly going to put an extension on the side of the house which will mean that I won't be able to access the garage at the rear so the kids may well win out of it!!!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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In our road there are 8 houses all with double garages. The owners have 22 cars between them only one car is ever usually garaged ....
I prefer where I live to look like a residential street, not a used car lot!
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L\'escargot.
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Should have added, "all neatly parked on driveways". ;-)
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I had a bit of fun with my Accord Type S when I first got it. It went in perfectly length- and width-wise, but the up-and-over door wouldn't close without hitting the spoiler on the boot 'cos it was too high. I ended up having to make the bench at the end of the garage narrower and move the vent hose from the tumble dryer to provide enough clearance. I now have a black mark on one of the shelves - line it up with the wing mirror and it's okay.
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Could you not just have reversed it in and then the garage door would have been negotiating the front bonnet of the car instead?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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This thread also asks the question why put car in garage?
If you are in a dodgy neighbourhood, fully understandable.
But I leave my car in Central Glasgow all day and then return to my house where the crime level is very low (not aware of any incidents in my street in last 10 years).
So why bother garaging for a few hours each night when you could use the space for 24 hour use ie. a garage conversion?
Of course as long as the sofa can be moved when the frost starts......
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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When my wife was looking around houses 18 months ago she told me about one that had a great big garden, but small kitchen and one of three bedrooms was a bit small.
"What about the garage and driveway?" I asked
"The garage is a 'wide' single and is long enough to get two cars in and the drive can get five cars on it" she said.
"Put an offer in!" I said. She did and we've been here since last summer.
Happy Days : o )
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I can?t recall garage dimensions being given on any estate agent?s details that I?ve seen over the years- but such detail for a garden shed is, surely, unusual.
When I first bought there was a great deal of emphasis on the number of electrical sockets in each room.
Do they see you as a potter, L?escargot?
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Do they see you as a potter L?escargot?
Those that can't tell me the garage dimensions don't see me at all! I'm not going to do perhaps a 100 mile round trip just to find that the garage is too small.
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L\'escargot.
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I suppose I could, but the drive is about 80ft long and there's only about an inch of clearance each side so it's easier to go in forwards.
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>>I suppose I could, but the drive is about 80ft long and there's only about an inch of clearance each side so it's easier to go in forwards.<<
???????? but you've still got to back it out again later! and the Dimensions you mention don't change, or do they? ::cue spooky music :: ;-)
Billy
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