House with detached/integrated Garage 7 August 2011 at 8:43PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 20 replies 10.5K views

The_Palmist

Just wondering if people have any preferences with regards to garage being detached or integrated when buying a house.
I have never really parked inside a garage and I think I will be using detached garage for DIY projects and to store junk.
I can imagine the benefits of an integrated garage as it can be used as a living area later and it will be easier to carry shopping from car to house.

bristol_pilot

I hate integrated garages - it shows that some of the 'footprint' of the house has been wasted to accommodate a car rather than people, probably because the plot is too small for a proper garage.

laurel7172

An integrated garage always looks like a waste of house to me.

sonastin

My OH prefers the garage to be detached because he likes to do noisy work in there. We had trouble with building control on the house we purchased because one of the previous owners had attached it to the house. We need to demolish it to bring it in line with building regs but if we build it detached, building control don't need to get involved. Those are my 2 main reaons for voting in favour of detached.

gallygirl

My garage is below my bedroom, but there is no door from the house to it. That way I've managed to keep it reasonably tidy and am able to park a car in there. Having had an integral garage before with a door from the house, it was awful as you would just open the door and chuck & hope for the best .

No experience of proper detached one am afriad.

Ms_Chocaholic

I've never lived in a house with a detached garage so can't comment on that aspect but my current home has an integral garage and I like it, we can't get a car in it for all my OH's junk but we keep the freezer, tumble dryer and the wine in there and it's so useful to not have to go outside.

KateLiana27

Personally I prefer integrated, as it looks like it belongs with the house rather than an afterthought. I just like the look. However, I do use garages for parking cars and not for work/storage, so this might have something to do with it.

One of my pet peeves is a garage that you can't get a car into, even if you wanted to. We ruled a huge number of houses out when viewing for this reason. But I must be in a minority on this because so many people seem to have them...

Catblue

I also don't like integrated garages. I prefer houses to look balanced visually and often an integral garage just makes the house look lopsided. Even really expensive houses can look really ugly with an integral garage. As bristol_pilot says, they are usually indicative of a small plot.

A detached garage was a must for us when we moved - they seem to be getting more and more rare though as people convert them or join them onto the main house with an extension.

hazyjo

I quite like the look of integrated garages. I suppose it's 'marmite' thing, reading the posts above! My parents have a double integrated garage in their house. I've always thought it looks nice - and the house is bigger on the ground floor at the back so space isn't compromised.

Our two garages are outside our garden gate. It's quite a modern development, and there's a flat over the garages. I suppose I'm the lazier of the two of us(!) and sometimes really can't be bothered to go get something from the garage. Was cutting plants with scissors the other day as seemed like a lot of effort to find garage key, unlock gate, battle with Houdini cats who make a bid for freedom, fight off a panic attack when seeing spiders in garage, then come all the way back again with secca... cutty things that I can't spell. Would be nice to just open the door from inside the house like at my parents' and tada everything would be right there.

Of course, a shed might be able to house some stuff instead, but hubby won't have one in our garden. And I suppose they're just spider houses.

We did nearly buy a house in Epping with an integrated garage. I suppose I prefer them, but would hate the downstairs space to be compromised. Okay if a townhouse sometimes, or if there are extra downstairs rooms at the back of the house.

Jx

tyllwyd

I think the main reason houses are built with integral garages is space upstairs - if you build above the garage you can get an extra bedroom. But sometimes that means the house is a bit unbalanced, with the downstairs space being a bit small considering the number of bedrooms above. Also, I imagine that since the garage is not heated, potentially the bedroom above the garage might be a bit chillier.

crazycatlady1984

Personally I'm not a fan of integrated garages - think a house is for the family to live in, not the car! Although I do tend to prefer older, traditional properties as opposed to new builds, so it's something thats never been an issue for me as they obv don't have int garages!