I was recently talking to our neighbor while in his driveway. You know, I never realized there was so much space between our houses–and how much distance sits between our house and the property line.
If we could just move our house a little to the left to take advantage of that space, there'd be more room to the right to add another garage bay....
Ive lifted houses before to replace piers. And once walked a 2 car garage ~60ft and then rotated it 90 degrees. You would be surprised how much you can do with some jacks and a whole lot of cribbing.
This is possible. And wildly expensive.
My dad once moved a 2 car garage 20 miles.
High lift jack and blocks until you could back the semi trailer under it. Set it down. Drive away
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Is it possible to make your garage double deep? This would require that there is nothing behind your garage currently. Also would mean you'd need to make the garage roof line much taller but that could lead to room for a lift or room for a walk-up attic.
More expensive but also yields two more spaces if you can really go that far back.
In reply to John Welsh :
We've thought about that, but we have a deck that stretches behind the entire house. We have a lot of deck, but I'd hate to lose any of it. Bring the garage forward? Not sure how that'd look. Still, things to consider.
But if we could go back in time and ask that the house be moved over just a bit....
I obsess over this kind of thing all the time. Just 6ft deeper with my garage (or 10' swoooon) would really hook me up for keeping 5 cars in there plus motorcycles. Unfortunately, one corner of the garage is already about 4" proud of the setback rules (25ft) in my town. I actually have a lot of property and could fit a 20X40ish somewhere else but I'm on a steep slope (upper level has an entrance door, basement is a walk out). It's nothing that couldn't be fixed with cubic dollars but I just can't bring myself to start down the path. Also: selling daddy's dream garage when I'm constantly pushing back on spending (wasting) money on the kitchen would probably not get much traction.
Dealing with this right now in California. I am about 17 inches to close to the edge of my cliff to build another bay. I could go out and add soil but they would notie that after the inspection. I just put lifts in and deal with the lack of space I need now.
Next house is going to be at least 8 bays and a few four post lifts for sure.
For both David and Weary, how much would you benefit from adding a small bay?
Popular in my community is the golf cart door. A smaller garage door. Sure, you might not have a golf cart but also great for riding mower, etc. Maybe add an original Mini or a Kei car?
Sample:
David S. Wallens said:I was recently talking to our neighbor while in his driveway. You know, I never realized there was so much space between our houses–and how much distance sits between our house and the property line.
If we could just move our house a little to the left to take advantage of that space, there'd be more room to the right to add another garage bay....
Add a small bay for all of the things in the garage that are not quite car sized and have more room for car activities.
Edit: Apparently I needed to read ALL of the responses. Lolz.
My father had to build a garage that was wider in the front than the back because his first house was built on an oddly shaped corner lot and was parallel to one side of the property but not the other. I never noticed when I was a kid, and didn't even know about it until 30 years after we moved.
Fun Fact:
One day when I was building my house, I found my father out in the garage with a tape measure.
When I asked what he was doing, he said, "Your new garage is bigger than the house you grew up in."
David S. Wallens said:We've thought about that, but we have a deck that stretches behind the entire house. We have a lot of deck, but I'd hate to lose any of it. Bring the garage forward? Not sure how that'd look. Still, things to consider.
But if we could go back in time and ask that the house be moved over just a bit....
If he's not using it, perhaps you could buy a 6-foot-wide patch of land from your neighbor? :)
John Welsh said:For both David and Weary, how much would you benefit from adding a small bay?
Popular in my community is the golf cart door. A smaller garage door. Sure, you might not have a golf cart but also great for riding mower, etc. Maybe add an original Mini or a Kei car?
Sample:
Mine is a 3.75 garage. So I have all my tools against the wall that protrudes. If I did a pony garage I would not get another bay but I would have space to get my mill and lathe out of storage and setup for easy use. But I would lose the spot my wife parks in. I think I was quoted about 35K all in with permitting to add the full sized garage so its a chunk of change but I will get 3x it back when I sell the house.
Neighbor is going through the motions to put a shipping container garage on his property and if he gets it done I can add a two car garage down on the end of the property as long as I don;t run power to i and only use it for storage. That is significantly cheaper and I could store the Baja down there along with all the 5 motorcycles which would open up a lot of space in the garage.
In reply to John Welsh :
I see those around, but I'd want space for a real car. We did have a classic Mini, though. It was fun. Riding lawnmower? Ours is leg-powered. :)
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:David S. Wallens said:We've thought about that, but we have a deck that stretches behind the entire house. We have a lot of deck, but I'd hate to lose any of it. Bring the garage forward? Not sure how that'd look. Still, things to consider.
But if we could go back in time and ask that the house be moved over just a bit....
If he's not using it, perhaps you could buy a 6-foot-wide patch of land from your neighbor? :)
I think they're using it but I like how you're thinking.
I am hyper fixated on this. Almost every house I see there is some level if "If they just did [very low effort design or planning change], the house could have [gigantic increase in efficiency, space, utility, etc."
In reply to ProDarwin :
FWIW, I have the original plans for the house. I believe there's a revision that did increase the size of the garage. So, by 1977 standards, it's probably fairly luxurious.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:David S. Wallens said:We've thought about that, but we have a deck that stretches behind the entire house. We have a lot of deck, but I'd hate to lose any of it. Bring the garage forward? Not sure how that'd look. Still, things to consider.
But if we could go back in time and ask that the house be moved over just a bit....
If he's not using it, perhaps you could buy a 6-foot-wide patch of land from your neighbor? :)
This was my first thought as well. Worth a shot to move your setbacks rather than your house.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
It's called a variance. A variance for an easement.
Most cities will work with you on getting one if they see it as an improvement. ( for them, not you .) drive around the neighborhood and take note of properties not adhering to set back lines etc. doesn't have to be the same side or reason. A pool a garden etc.
Just a few is all that's needed for precedence.
You may have to attend city/town meeting but your best approach is to get a few members on city council on your side first. Just ask them for 5 minutes and offer to buy coffee 1 at a time and don't be discouraged if at first they say no.
Around here houses are built on pilings. Mostly people lift them higher above potential hurricane flood waters, but they are moved too. I'm sure a small move wouldn't bee too bad. Lift her, jet new pilings, move it over the new pilings, set it down. Easy peasy!
My wife and I joke about buying one of our neighbor's lots (it's all these little 25'x75' slivers here so most homes are on multiple) to we can expand my garage and driveway. Our 1.5 car garage and single-car-wide driveway isn't optimal for three cars and a motorcycle...
My parents moved a house 3 miles on a barge in the 70s. The people they bought it from had built a new, bigger house behind the old one and wanted it gone.
They bought the house for $1000. It cost $3000 to move it, and another $2500 to raise it 14' in the air and build a 1st floor under it.
As to garage space, it doesn't matter how much you have it isn't enough. I went from a 12 x 16 shed to 25' x 50' and 4 bays. I still don't have enough room.
My father is in a 40 x 60 and a 20 x 40 tractor shed and could use more room. That's with one of his tractors stored in my 20 x 40 boat shed.
David S. Wallens said:In reply to ProDarwin :
FWIW, I have the original plans for the house. I believe there's a revision that did increase the size of the garage. So, by 1977 standards, it's probably fairly luxurious.
Mine is huge for 1976. 20X26'. I think the size was just an artifact of wanting the roof height/pitch/position to match another section of the house. It also enabled me to raise part of the ceiling to 11' 8" so it works pretty well with a lift. The other houses in the neighborhood that were built at the same time have more typically sized garages.
In reply to mfennell :
Ours measures 21x21 feet. I guess that's healthy for the time.
The plaster work on the walls is amazing, too. Plus there's a phone jack out there.
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