Garage or Conservatory?

vacheron

IAMIAM said:

The garages are put to a wide variety of uses but they all have one thing in common. No-one ever puts a car in one.

Why though?  I would not want to deice in the winter, I would not want to suffocate in heat in the summer and certainly do not want to have a massive wire across the drive charging an EV vehicle in the future either which i suppose a garage would resolve...

koalakoala said:

I would never buy a house without a large garage
I use it for my car every day
I never consider the garage to be another room of the house
I buy a house with enough rooms for my needs
it never ceases to amaze me how many cars are parked on the streets , when they have garages and driveways

Our house has more than enough roorms for our needs, we actually have a couple of rooms we hardly ever use, so we have kept our garage as a garage but keep both our cars on the drive.

For us there are plenty reasons:

1. Time and convenience beats weather exposure "risks":
   
   My car probably ices over at most 20 times over the winter months. I keep a large emply 4 pint milk carton under the kitchen sink in the winter. Before I leave I fill it up from the kitchen mixer tap with luke warm water, take it outside with me and pour it over all the car windows.
   
   This is more than enough water to defrost all the car windows even with a heavy frost, and it takes about 20 seconds to fill the carton + 20 seconds to walk round the car doing so. I then put the empty carton in the boot and drive away. Total time spent: About 13 minutes per year.
   
   Compare this with the time (assuming manual garage door) to park up, get out the car, open the garage, drive in, carefully squeeze out, leave the garage and close and lock the door. Say 200 days per year for a commuter, twice per day, 2 minutes per time = 800 minutes.  or just over 13 hours per year.
   
   When the car is hot when I get in, I open the windows or put the aircon on for the first 30 seconds of driving which sorts things out nicely. 
   
   
2. Parking your car in a garage generally increases your insurance premium compared to leaving it on the drive overnight.
   
   
3. Modern cars simply don't rust the way they used to. We have 2 cars, a (2012 VW and a 2013 Mercedes) which have both been stored on the drive every night since we bought them both more than 10 years ago and and the bodywork and underbody of both remain immaculate.
   
   
4. Having 1 or 2 cars on the drive when away from home (say on a foreign holiday) makes it look far more like people are at home while you are away.
   
   
5. I have an EV charger in my garage, but I would still charge my EV outside if I had one.
   I have no desire for a huge flammable battery (which still have somewhat of a reputation for spontaneously bursting into flames and are almost impossible to extinguish by regular firefighting methods) inside my house with my wife, pets, child and earthly posessions if it decides to ignite while charging!
   
   
6. Car security is much improved from 20-25 years ago to the point where and almost nobody steals "normal" cars these days. The garage can therefore be used for other storage of things that would get stolen, such as bicycles, motorbikes, seasonal garden furniture, power tools etc. 

....oh, and to address the OPs question, it depends where the house is. 

• On a hill with beautiful views of the Cotswolds or Highlands probably conservatory. 
  
• In central london in a concrete jungle with awful parking probably a garage.

  

Silvertabby

Over half of the houses (including ours) on our 30 year old estate have integral garages.  But very few actually park their cars in them.

We used to put our car in the garage, but it became harder and harder with each new improved/bigger model.  Finally threw in the towel when we bought our first VW T Cross (Polo on steroids) so we converted the garage into Mr S's dream workshop. Workbench, shelving, double side opening doors...he loves pottering around in there.

Most of the others seem to use their garages as storeage, although some have converted them into living space.  Doesn't stop houses selling like hot cakes, possibly because they also have driveway parking spaces for at least two cars.

Our conservatory is more of a hybrid orangery/conservatory, and is in use all year round.  

TheJP

It depends if the conservatory has a proper roof that isnt too hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. I prefer having a garage as we have a lot of things to store, an integral garage is great for access however we were burgled in December and they got into the house via the garage.

Maahes

Cairnpapple said:

Living in Scotland, it's very nice not to have to scrape the car on winter mornings. 

That's what heated windscreens are for. 

Herzlos

It very much depends. The vast majority of new (<10 year) builds seem to either have no garage or have had the internal garages converted into rooms.  But when I sold the everyone was more interested in the garage than the sun room though none of them wanted to put a car in it; it was already set up as a workshop with power. 

I can't imagine where I'd put all of my outdoor stuff without a garage, I'd need a pretty big shed. 

Murphybear

IAMIAM said:

The garages are put to a wide variety of uses but they all have one thing in common. No-one ever puts a car in one.

Why though?  I would not want to deice in the winter, I would not want to suffocate in heat in the summer and certainly do not want to have a massive wire across the drive charging an EV vehicle in the future either which i suppose a garage would resolve...

I have friends who have 2 cars.  They have a large garage and the cars are always put in the garage.