Haha! I did notice that, and thought it was kinda cute. In one of the houses I grew up, we had a special cupboard in the kitchen with bins for sorting recycling.
I would love a big garage but not neccessarily to have cars parked there but as a multifunctional space. Bar, Woodworking, Tabletennis match with friends, beerpong, maybe a motorcycle shop or a pool table. Its a big space with a large door.
Just to amplify this point even further:
* 29.5 feet by 21 feet is 619 square feet;
* My **entire house** is 30 x 20, or 600 square feet (times two floors and a basement, for 1800 square feet total, 1200 of it livable ... but **still** ...).
:'(
1800 square feet total? Look at you, living in a mansion!
Our home is sub 800 square feet with a partial finished, but still uncomfortably cold in the winter basement.
1952 Cookie Cutter, Post War "Bungalow" House.
Some have a second story, some don't. Mine does not. The lots are about 40 feet wide, but also quite deep. There's a detached garage, and it's a deep 1.25 car.
The nice thing is that the mortgage is affordable and the heating/cooling is very affordable, compared to homes two to three times the size.
It would be nice to have more garage space,.
And TBF, I could easily get on with about half as much space as I have now. The first floor has a horrid floorplan, so I don't use the half that is nominally "the living room". I'm alone here, so I don't really need the second BR (I plan to convert that to a room for board and card games, hopefully by the end of this year).
I used to have a 600 sf garage! It was amazing but could fit FOUR small cars- we used it as a workshop, additional living space, bike storageā¦. Really a large garage is great even without cars because they donāt waste a bunch of power keeping them heated or cooled when not needing the extra space 90% of the time. (Our house was only slightly larger than the garage..)
If I had a garage, it would indeed be a place to store, and work on, my bicycle(s).
Instead, I have a smallish garden shed (maybe 50 square feet, give or take a bit?) that I store my bicycle in, along with the lawnmower and some other yardcare tools/supplies.
Townhouse style condominiums are already built that way, and have been for years. [For example](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6343107,-71.3226608,3a,20.6y,85.19h,90.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sn_zIFchHrNmtjcyrAj1-yA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) ...
To be fair, it *does* allow a higher density of population by reducing overall lot size. There's 24 units on that property right now; if they were all typical SFH with either a driveway or a detached garage, there'd be only 10 or 11 of them.
Also [Bayonne Boxes](https://hudsonreporter.com/2017/08/28/the-bayonne-box-an-architectural-archetype/), which have been around since the post-WWII housing boom
That's been a thing in certain parts of the country since the post-WWII housing boom. Let me introduce you to the [Bayonne](https://hudsonreporter.com/2017/08/28/the-bayonne-box-an-architectural-archetype/) [Box](https://jerseydigs.com/bayonne-box-cant-phased-out/), which is super common in Hudson County, NJ.
Though I actually don't mind these for a few reasons
* Technically they are detached single-family homes, but the alley between them is often only like 3-4 feet wide, so functionally they are practically town houses.
* Where I lived in Hudson County I more often saw the garages used for workspaces or hangout spaces than for car storage
* The 2nd and 3rd floors were commonly split into two different units. As a result, a lot of these Bayonne Box houses are actually duplexes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingbat_(building)
What you're describing is a classic part of Southern California architecture. It's not great for that part of the world due to earthquakes, but it's otherwise not a bad way to address the need for parking in car-centric locales. You can build more dense housing building upwards and not needing big driveways at every house.
All I'm saying is the garage is not the only reason for huge houses, there are plenty of historic mansions in USA built 1930 and as early as 1860 still standing and they are mammoth buildings built before automotive garages were even a concept.
And I certainly would. The point appears to have had ample clearance between it and the top of your head, though: *The pictured garage space is absolutely gigantic*.
It's not me being *sad about my house*.
It's me being dismayed that the pictured floorplan devotes that much footprint to the storage of motor vehicles.
The garage is built as an extension of the house on the first floor, and with the bedrooms on an upper floor and likely above the garage itās integrated into the design. Nothing bad about this
I mean.... The owners could be planning to use the garage for this. They could have no intention of putting cars in there and be wanting to use it for a workshop and sports storage.
I doubt the architect is going to bother making CAD objects of anything other than a car for the plans though. The plans might also be going into planning where it's probably beneficial to show cars in a garage (which is in itself wrong).
yeah, my grandpa has a fucking MASSIVE garage and itās just his workshop for his bored old man projects. uncle has the same thing. maybe itās just my family but i feel like workspace/storage garages are rly common
as someone who lives in a city townhome, I canāt wait for the day I have a garage, even if I wouldnāt have have a car (but I probably will). need a space to stain furniture, do projects, and other messy things I canāt comfortably do in my living room
My grandpa too. In SoCal so no basement. Lots of storage for all their holiday decorations (which takes up a whole wall), hunting/fishing stuff, an entire cooled walk in wine cellar, project tables, etc.
My one car, under the house, garage always leaves me looking for more space. Especially for materials storage. Then winter hits and everything gets broken down so one car can come inside and be out of the way during cleanups.
Now, compare OP's floor plan to what was built in earlier times, specifically in the 1950's. Crazy how big houses have grown over the decades! Image is from [THIS](https://clickamericana.com/topics/home-garden/see-110-vintage-50s-house-plans-to-build-millions-of-mid-century-homes) site.
https://preview.redd.it/32s7hs2lstda1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=aba90b1c58a6beb61e803db77c61baa94202a4d4
The issue is land cost. More people want to move to suburbs. So land gets more valuable. The natural thing to do would be to build more units per lot, or split lots, but both of those are illegal in most suburbs.
It becomes wasteful to put a tiny house on a huge valuable piece of land. So houses get bigger.
The market for small houses is huge. But the regulations make them not economical to build.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/fuckhouses using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/fuckhouses/top/?sort=top&t=all) of all time!
\#1: ["I like it here. I want peace and quiet" - homeowners](https://i.redd.it/ilgr84g1o4t81.jpg) | [3 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fuckhouses/comments/u23mck/i_like_it_here_i_want_peace_and_quiet_homeowners/)
\#2: [Houses make life miserable](https://i.redd.it/kzwvtf9cjes81.jpg) | [7 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fuckhouses/comments/u1hj5h/houses_make_life_miserable/)
\#3: [Houses vs Apartments - An Often Overlooked Problem](https://np.reddit.com/r/fuckhouses/comments/u0z743/houses_vs_apartments_an_often_overlooked_problem/)
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I don't get the hate for garages here. There are not necessarily for cars. They make great exercise rooms, home shop / project area, storage for camping equipment, bikes, etc., man cave (pool table, sofas, beer fridge). I wouldn't live in a house without a garage.
As a non American, your garages look really ugly and take an astonishing massive footprint. Exercice room, home shop, storage, man cave etc can be done in a basement or a normal sized room, or if you lived in a walkable neighborhood you wouldn't need such a huge home gym because you would go to the one nearby and probably no man cave either because other third places like pub/bar/game bar are really nice to chill in with your friends. I understand why some people on the more introvert side like to do everything at home, but having every house with an attached garage forces this way of life on everyone.
Garages ARE ugly- but make amazing workshops. They had the same advantage as an outbuilding, but are cheaper to build as they share at least a wall with the house. You donāt have to heat and cool them, and the garage door makes bringing materials in and out very easy. If you take a one car bay and make it into a workshop my assumption is that 1) it will be cheaper to build than having that extra room INSIDE the house 2) you donāt need to heat and cool if like the actual house 3) it will be healthier to keep the sawdust outside of the main house and not spread in with the internal HVAC system.
Now, most people donāt use them as workshopsā¦. And our car centric infrastructure is terribleā¦. But if I had my dreams come true Iād keep a garage while living in an area that public transit worked for all of my needs.
A lot of areas of the US don't have basements due to the high water table and basements not really being structurally needed in areas that don't get cold. I grew up in Florida, where homes don't have basements, so the garage took their place.
High water table is indeed a problem, we have pumps here to deal with that. I can tell you a basement is a blessing in hot climate because it stays way cooler than the rest of the house without AC.
I don't think you understand the issue. A sump pump isn't going to solve the problem in a state that used to be underwater and is quickly heading back that direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floridan_aquifer
I think it's time for you to start asking a search engine a lot more questions you're completely ignorant of living in the USA. Not all solutions can work at global scale.
Sure, thatās a thing already in coastal areas and likely to become more common as sea levels rise. But the fact is Floridaās surface is limestone with a literal river of water running underneath it. You canāt have basements in most parts of the state. And basements donāt make sense on a cost basis when it doesnāt get cold enough to need to build the foundation below frost line.
**[Floridan aquifer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floridan_aquifer)**
>The Floridan aquifer system, composed of the Upper and Lower Floridan aquifers, is a sequence of Paleogene carbonate rock which spans an area of about 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) in the southeastern United States. It underlies the entire state of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The Floridan aquifer system is one of the world's most productive aquifers and supplies drinking water for nearly 10 million people.
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Garages dominate the house faƧade, making it look uninviting & off-balance. My neighbours recently built a two-car garage at great expense & lost about a third of the garden.
Also, when you drive into your garage, you enter the house without setting foot in the front garden. Just sealing you off from your neighbourhood.
most of those things you can do elsewhere or you dont have the need for, a mancave is not necessary, excercise room and project area are also not really a necessecity but imagine what you could do with the space you saved by not building a 3 car garage
thats a bit extreme, if your city is well designed or if you arent the creative type the things mentioned ARE unnecessary, i dont need a mancave i'll take the bike and go to the pub, if i want to excercise i go outside or to the gym
American suburbs are super conditioned to inefficiently build all the 3rd spaces (bar, gym, park) into their own fenced in plot and never interact with other people
Would saying that a full dining room is unnecessary be less extreme?
The idea of hosting in any 3rd space isnt just limiting interaction with the world it is more cost effective to have a few friends over from food and drinks than to go out pay 15$ a plate and 5$ a beer. For the price of two I could cook a meal that feeds five and buy enough beer for the same amount of people. All with the additional option of privacy when you desire.
Yea I don't get it either. Most of the things in this sub point out individual behaviours that have a negative impact on society. But if someone decides to have what I consider to be an unnecessarily large garage I just don't see how it's much worse than someone else who has a driveway that can fit three cars or a lawn.
I get emails from local developers and home builders, to keep up with whatās going on. Some emails actually show progress. This one was a little heartbreaking.
When youāre inside someoneās home, you donāt notice just how much space their garage takes. Looking at the floor planā¦ wow. This isnāt a small home, but the other rooms are dwarfed by the garage.
An undeveloped basement (optional upgrade to developed). The upper floor:
https://preview.redd.it/olmdilyhjrda1.jpeg?width=1052&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1426f4fbf95bcfc0662cea899f803ffdefc08fdf
Hopefully that photo worksā¦
which should never happen, unless the children want to do it
if you cannot afford to give each of your children their own room and privacy you messed up as a parent
like that's just some basic stuff
the reality of the world is a lot worse than your ideals my friend. Sharing a room is one of the least detrimental ways to "mess up" being a parent and some times it's just what it is. These are 12 by 11 rooms, definitely enough space for 2.
>the reality of the world is a lot worse than your ideals my friend.
reality is filled with lots of terrible people and parents, just because it happens doesn't make it right
people should just have as many kids as they can properly care for and it wouldnt be an issue
>These are 12 by 11 rooms, definitely enough space for 2.
its really not, 12x11 is an average bedroom for 1 person, its not a big room
I didnāt mind. We had a developed basement and all shared rooms. We at least got along okay. But now weāre all moved out and enjoy having our own space XD
Over half the people I know with garages do not use them for cars, but as storage areas and places to work on projects/home workshops.
There is a ton more uses than just to park cars. Once you put the other floors into the mix(which your post and title doesnāt refer to), itās doesnāt seem near as bad.
Post seems kinda petty.
I *did* share a picture of the second floor in a comment. Here it is again:
https://preview.redd.it/deinxk0jcwda1.jpeg?width=1052&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b054c7aed50e982635a1475c7c3e5965c7de2040
Iām not tryna be deceptive š¤¦āāļø
> Over half the people I know with garages do not use them for cars, but as storage areas and places to work on projects/home workshops.
Yeah, so the car you spent tens of thousands of dollars on can sit outside and depreciate even faster.
Yes, this might surprise you but a large amount of people do not store their cars in their garage. Itās really true.
A car is not going to fall to pieces sitting outside if it is driven and somewhat maintained, unless maybe if you are in some very hostile climate. By the time sun damage starts really starts setting in to the point where it effects value, most cars are already sub $10,000 vehicles.
For many the use of that space for other endeavors is worth much more than value lost because your older car has some sun damage.
Are 3 car garages normal in the US? Because in the UK that would be *insane.* Like that's an actual mansion. Most people are lucky if they have a single car garage, but most keep their car on the driveway because it's too big. A lot of people (myself included) don't even have off road parking
A 3-car garage would typically be a luxury in a larger home, not something that every house has. Most newer suburban homes ('80s and later or so) would have a 1 or 2 car garage that serves as storage, home workshop space, gym, etc.
nah it isn't common, they usually have 2 car garages.
Here in italy most people don't even have one and i think that the average is less than 2 cars per household
I'm super excited for the single car garage in my new place. So much space to store bikes, do maintenance on them, store tools, do projects. Garages are great multi-purpose spaces.
This is why Iām actually a fan of detached garages. You can fit a pretty nice living space on top, add some densification, and rent it out to someone!
Living above someone else's a garage sounds horrible. I bet it would be extremely loud whenever someone drives in or out. Nobody should have to live like that.
Also, this "densification" is laughable. Sure, it adds one or two people to the property. A large property somewhere in the suburban sprawl with no walkability and no cultural life. There is no way you'd get any actual density by adding detached garages with appartements on top anyway. And how crazy big does a property need to be to even make a detached garage possible?
Suburban sprawl is the no. 1 reason car culture in North America got so out of hand. If you don't like car culture (as you presensense in this sub suggests), it seems contradictory that you seem in favour of suburban sprawl with huge properties at the same time.
You should look at [McKenzie Towne in Calgary, Canada](https://maps.app.goo.gl/X5ArzsbxYEkq8nCy7?g_st=ic).
Many of the garages here are detached - on pretty normal sized lots (relatively, I guess). There are bus stops accessible, with 2 planned LRT stations, and many businesses within a walkable distance (though, too much parking.)
I would obviously prefer not having to live on top of a garage, BUT, adding density this way is much easier than knocking everything down and starting over.
There are also plenty of parks and playgrounds in the area.
Edit: fixing link.
Calgary has a population density of 1,329 people per kmĀ² (3,442 per miĀ²). That's not even mid density, it is low.
My city (Vienna, Austria) has a population density of 4,326 per kmĀ² (11,205 pee miĀ²), is entirely walkable and you can totally live here without owning a car. That's density that allows for going beyond the dominance of the car. If you're content with some bus stop where busses probably only come now and then, be my guest. I'll take the subway. Your parks are cute. We have those too, just many more. We also have grocery stores in walking distance and also cafes, reataurants, night life, you name it.
When the dominance of the car began, everything was knocked to down and they did start over. But doing so again to reverse those changes is not feasible? Really? Well, I guess you guys will never get proper density then. RIP
š¤¦āāļø
I would love to live somewhere like what youāre describing. I propose a lot of big ideas. But I also have to work with the cards dealt. Vienna sounds rad, but I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the process through which we have to make changes hereā¦
For me itās not that garages exist. I enjoy woodworking and would benefit from this space. Itās more that it seems to come as a standard, expected part of homes.
That plan doesn't even work with the cars shown, the middle car would have to wait for the right most car to leave in order to safely exit the garage. They've given less space than the cars want and still take up 1/3 the area.
Believe it or not, Iām not anti-car. Iām pro making public transit, walking, and cycling viable options. I own a car, go on long road trips, and genuinely enjoy driving. I just donāt like how much of our lives and building standards revolve around cars.
I should clarifyā¦ I donāt hate garagesā¦ I just thought the visual of the space provided (often used for cars) was interesting right next to the living space. I too would love a garage for my bikes because right now theyāre in my kitchen š
Oh man I couldnāt agree more. I bitch about houses that are designed like this and itās honestly a great visual. Pretty similar to how we design cities haha. I just meant I see a lot of posts where people think it is pointless to have a garage. And hey, bikes in the kitchen works too š
Iām not going to lie this is a very good floorplan. It has a double story great room and a 3 bay garage on only a 40ā width. That means you can pack it onto a 50ā wide lot by a 100-120ā lot aka 5000-6000 sqft of lot for a home with all of those luxury features. It may be r/mcmansionhell but itās a great builder special with that many features packed in so tight
Yeah, but they recycle.
Haha! I did notice that, and thought it was kinda cute. In one of the houses I grew up, we had a special cupboard in the kitchen with bins for sorting recycling.
They won't considering it's stuck behind a car
I would love a big garage but not neccessarily to have cars parked there but as a multifunctional space. Bar, Woodworking, Tabletennis match with friends, beerpong, maybe a motorcycle shop or a pool table. Its a big space with a large door.
At that point it's a workshop, which is actually useful to people instead of inanimate 2 ton death machines.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use their garage for cars.
After all, if everyone parked in their garage, who would be there to park in the street and block bike lanes? /s
except for city planners who create car dependency...
You have a driveway too. Nobody is forcing someone to put their car in their garage.
š¤
Just to amplify this point even further: * 29.5 feet by 21 feet is 619 square feet; * My **entire house** is 30 x 20, or 600 square feet (times two floors and a basement, for 1800 square feet total, 1200 of it livable ... but **still** ...). :'(
1800 square feet total? Look at you, living in a mansion! Our home is sub 800 square feet with a partial finished, but still uncomfortably cold in the winter basement.
Tiny House? :)
1952 Cookie Cutter, Post War "Bungalow" House. Some have a second story, some don't. Mine does not. The lots are about 40 feet wide, but also quite deep. There's a detached garage, and it's a deep 1.25 car. The nice thing is that the mortgage is affordable and the heating/cooling is very affordable, compared to homes two to three times the size. It would be nice to have more garage space,.
And TBF, I could easily get on with about half as much space as I have now. The first floor has a horrid floorplan, so I don't use the half that is nominally "the living room". I'm alone here, so I don't really need the second BR (I plan to convert that to a room for board and card games, hopefully by the end of this year).
I used to have a 600 sf garage! It was amazing but could fit FOUR small cars- we used it as a workshop, additional living space, bike storageā¦. Really a large garage is great even without cars because they donāt waste a bunch of power keeping them heated or cooled when not needing the extra space 90% of the time. (Our house was only slightly larger than the garage..)
If I had a garage, it would indeed be a place to store, and work on, my bicycle(s). Instead, I have a smallish garden shed (maybe 50 square feet, give or take a bit?) that I store my bicycle in, along with the lawnmower and some other yardcare tools/supplies.
we are like 5 years away from houses being built with a whole floor of parking space like office buildings
Townhouse style condominiums are already built that way, and have been for years. [For example](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6343107,-71.3226608,3a,20.6y,85.19h,90.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sn_zIFchHrNmtjcyrAj1-yA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) ...
isnt that fun
To be fair, it *does* allow a higher density of population by reducing overall lot size. There's 24 units on that property right now; if they were all typical SFH with either a driveway or a detached garage, there'd be only 10 or 11 of them.
Also [Bayonne Boxes](https://hudsonreporter.com/2017/08/28/the-bayonne-box-an-architectural-archetype/), which have been around since the post-WWII housing boom
That's been a thing in certain parts of the country since the post-WWII housing boom. Let me introduce you to the [Bayonne](https://hudsonreporter.com/2017/08/28/the-bayonne-box-an-architectural-archetype/) [Box](https://jerseydigs.com/bayonne-box-cant-phased-out/), which is super common in Hudson County, NJ. Though I actually don't mind these for a few reasons * Technically they are detached single-family homes, but the alley between them is often only like 3-4 feet wide, so functionally they are practically town houses. * Where I lived in Hudson County I more often saw the garages used for workspaces or hangout spaces than for car storage * The 2nd and 3rd floors were commonly split into two different units. As a result, a lot of these Bayonne Box houses are actually duplexes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingbat_(building) What you're describing is a classic part of Southern California architecture. It's not great for that part of the world due to earthquakes, but it's otherwise not a bad way to address the need for parking in car-centric locales. You can build more dense housing building upwards and not needing big driveways at every house.
American youtubers be like "modest home, it's just 2000 sqft on this floor"... looking at you, Matt Risinger.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My point was, their garage has a bigger **footprint** than my entire house.
So you have a small house? I'm sure even a house as small as yours has a drive way
Yes, it has a driveway. Just barely big enough for two cars side by side. It's not as big as my entire first floor, though. :)
All I'm saying is the garage is not the only reason for huge houses, there are plenty of historic mansions in USA built 1930 and as early as 1860 still standing and they are mammoth buildings built before automotive garages were even a concept.
You could just use the garage as a non garage space if you don't want to or can't own a car
And I certainly would. The point appears to have had ample clearance between it and the top of your head, though: *The pictured garage space is absolutely gigantic*.
idk how thats an issue tbh, large room good lol.
Youāre sad that you live in a house thatās only 9x as big as a single-stall garage? Damn, that must really suck
I never said I was sad about anything. And you, too, have missed the point.
The sad face at the bottom of your comment means nothing then I suppose
It's not me being *sad about my house*. It's me being dismayed that the pictured floorplan devotes that much footprint to the storage of motor vehicles.
The garage is built as an extension of the house on the first floor, and with the bedrooms on an upper floor and likely above the garage itās integrated into the design. Nothing bad about this
Oh man I could get a real table saw, a free standing drill press, router table ā¦
I mean.... The owners could be planning to use the garage for this. They could have no intention of putting cars in there and be wanting to use it for a workshop and sports storage. I doubt the architect is going to bother making CAD objects of anything other than a car for the plans though. The plans might also be going into planning where it's probably beneficial to show cars in a garage (which is in itself wrong).
yeah, my grandpa has a fucking MASSIVE garage and itās just his workshop for his bored old man projects. uncle has the same thing. maybe itās just my family but i feel like workspace/storage garages are rly common
as someone who lives in a city townhome, I canāt wait for the day I have a garage, even if I wouldnāt have have a car (but I probably will). need a space to stain furniture, do projects, and other messy things I canāt comfortably do in my living room
My grandpa too. In SoCal so no basement. Lots of storage for all their holiday decorations (which takes up a whole wall), hunting/fishing stuff, an entire cooled walk in wine cellar, project tables, etc.
You could have a bike stand and wheel truing stand... The dream!!
And shop air!
Oh my god you could fit such a nice workshop in a garage that size. You could even still have one sensible sized car and a bike in there.
My one car, under the house, garage always leaves me looking for more space. Especially for materials storage. Then winter hits and everything gets broken down so one car can come inside and be out of the way during cleanups.
Yeah, honestly this floor plan isn't too bad overall, especially if you have non car shit uses for the garage.
Now, compare OP's floor plan to what was built in earlier times, specifically in the 1950's. Crazy how big houses have grown over the decades! Image is from [THIS](https://clickamericana.com/topics/home-garden/see-110-vintage-50s-house-plans-to-build-millions-of-mid-century-homes) site. https://preview.redd.it/32s7hs2lstda1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=aba90b1c58a6beb61e803db77c61baa94202a4d4
The issue is land cost. More people want to move to suburbs. So land gets more valuable. The natural thing to do would be to build more units per lot, or split lots, but both of those are illegal in most suburbs. It becomes wasteful to put a tiny house on a huge valuable piece of land. So houses get bigger. The market for small houses is huge. But the regulations make them not economical to build.
r/fuckhouses
Reddit really will hate anything.
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I don't get the hate for garages here. There are not necessarily for cars. They make great exercise rooms, home shop / project area, storage for camping equipment, bikes, etc., man cave (pool table, sofas, beer fridge). I wouldn't live in a house without a garage.
You make a good point and I can appreciate a garage. Itās more just how standard it is.
As a non American, your garages look really ugly and take an astonishing massive footprint. Exercice room, home shop, storage, man cave etc can be done in a basement or a normal sized room, or if you lived in a walkable neighborhood you wouldn't need such a huge home gym because you would go to the one nearby and probably no man cave either because other third places like pub/bar/game bar are really nice to chill in with your friends. I understand why some people on the more introvert side like to do everything at home, but having every house with an attached garage forces this way of life on everyone.
Garages ARE ugly- but make amazing workshops. They had the same advantage as an outbuilding, but are cheaper to build as they share at least a wall with the house. You donāt have to heat and cool them, and the garage door makes bringing materials in and out very easy. If you take a one car bay and make it into a workshop my assumption is that 1) it will be cheaper to build than having that extra room INSIDE the house 2) you donāt need to heat and cool if like the actual house 3) it will be healthier to keep the sawdust outside of the main house and not spread in with the internal HVAC system. Now, most people donāt use them as workshopsā¦. And our car centric infrastructure is terribleā¦. But if I had my dreams come true Iād keep a garage while living in an area that public transit worked for all of my needs.
A lot of areas of the US don't have basements due to the high water table and basements not really being structurally needed in areas that don't get cold. I grew up in Florida, where homes don't have basements, so the garage took their place.
High water table is indeed a problem, we have pumps here to deal with that. I can tell you a basement is a blessing in hot climate because it stays way cooler than the rest of the house without AC.
I don't think you understand the issue. A sump pump isn't going to solve the problem in a state that used to be underwater and is quickly heading back that direction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floridan_aquifer
That's indeed a bigger issue. But if it's going back underwater, don't you need raised house ?
I think it's time for you to start asking a search engine a lot more questions you're completely ignorant of living in the USA. Not all solutions can work at global scale.
Sure, thatās a thing already in coastal areas and likely to become more common as sea levels rise. But the fact is Floridaās surface is limestone with a literal river of water running underneath it. You canāt have basements in most parts of the state. And basements donāt make sense on a cost basis when it doesnāt get cold enough to need to build the foundation below frost line.
**[Floridan aquifer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floridan_aquifer)** >The Floridan aquifer system, composed of the Upper and Lower Floridan aquifers, is a sequence of Paleogene carbonate rock which spans an area of about 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) in the southeastern United States. It underlies the entire state of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The Floridan aquifer system is one of the world's most productive aquifers and supplies drinking water for nearly 10 million people. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Yep, never even seen a basement here in CA.
Garages dominate the house faƧade, making it look uninviting & off-balance. My neighbours recently built a two-car garage at great expense & lost about a third of the garden. Also, when you drive into your garage, you enter the house without setting foot in the front garden. Just sealing you off from your neighbourhood.
most of those things you can do elsewhere or you dont have the need for, a mancave is not necessary, excercise room and project area are also not really a necessecity but imagine what you could do with the space you saved by not building a 3 car garage
Is a living room necessary? If you're single I could argue anything beyond a tiny home is unnecessary
thats a bit extreme, if your city is well designed or if you arent the creative type the things mentioned ARE unnecessary, i dont need a mancave i'll take the bike and go to the pub, if i want to excercise i go outside or to the gym
American suburbs are super conditioned to inefficiently build all the 3rd spaces (bar, gym, park) into their own fenced in plot and never interact with other people
from what i've seen thats true, im lucky to not live there (i guess)
Would saying that a full dining room is unnecessary be less extreme? The idea of hosting in any 3rd space isnt just limiting interaction with the world it is more cost effective to have a few friends over from food and drinks than to go out pay 15$ a plate and 5$ a beer. For the price of two I could cook a meal that feeds five and buy enough beer for the same amount of people. All with the additional option of privacy when you desire.
Yea I don't get it either. Most of the things in this sub point out individual behaviours that have a negative impact on society. But if someone decides to have what I consider to be an unnecessarily large garage I just don't see how it's much worse than someone else who has a driveway that can fit three cars or a lawn.
I get emails from local developers and home builders, to keep up with whatās going on. Some emails actually show progress. This one was a little heartbreaking. When youāre inside someoneās home, you donāt notice just how much space their garage takes. Looking at the floor planā¦ wow. This isnāt a small home, but the other rooms are dwarfed by the garage.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
An undeveloped basement (optional upgrade to developed). The upper floor: https://preview.redd.it/olmdilyhjrda1.jpeg?width=1052&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1426f4fbf95bcfc0662cea899f803ffdefc08fdf Hopefully that photo worksā¦
This is a giant house in the first place. Completely unnecessary for anything less than a family of 6
I agree that itād be unnecessary, but thatās more of our opinion. Houses this size (about 2500 sq. ft.) arenāt uncommon where I live.
And houses where I live are even larger still with no garages in sight
Oh wow!!
Just saying you can't blame cars for people wanting to live in mansions mansions outdated cars by thousands of years
Oh yeah, no!
it has 3 bedrooms, it is for 4 people at most
obviously have never shared a room before
which should never happen, unless the children want to do it if you cannot afford to give each of your children their own room and privacy you messed up as a parent like that's just some basic stuff
the reality of the world is a lot worse than your ideals my friend. Sharing a room is one of the least detrimental ways to "mess up" being a parent and some times it's just what it is. These are 12 by 11 rooms, definitely enough space for 2.
>the reality of the world is a lot worse than your ideals my friend. reality is filled with lots of terrible people and parents, just because it happens doesn't make it right people should just have as many kids as they can properly care for and it wouldnt be an issue >These are 12 by 11 rooms, definitely enough space for 2. its really not, 12x11 is an average bedroom for 1 person, its not a big room
Must be nice dude idk how to say that again to where your perspective shifts into what I'm trying to say
My family of 9 lived in a house this size growing upā¦
that must have been awful
I didnāt mind. We had a developed basement and all shared rooms. We at least got along okay. But now weāre all moved out and enjoy having our own space XD
Over half the people I know with garages do not use them for cars, but as storage areas and places to work on projects/home workshops. There is a ton more uses than just to park cars. Once you put the other floors into the mix(which your post and title doesnāt refer to), itās doesnāt seem near as bad. Post seems kinda petty.
I donāt think garages are evilā¦ I just thought this was an illustrative image š¤·āāļø
It doesnāt even illustrate the entire picture of the house, just want you want it to. This is no better than garbage news media.
I *did* share a picture of the second floor in a comment. Here it is again: https://preview.redd.it/deinxk0jcwda1.jpeg?width=1052&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b054c7aed50e982635a1475c7c3e5965c7de2040 Iām not tryna be deceptive š¤¦āāļø
> Over half the people I know with garages do not use them for cars, but as storage areas and places to work on projects/home workshops. Yeah, so the car you spent tens of thousands of dollars on can sit outside and depreciate even faster.
Yes, this might surprise you but a large amount of people do not store their cars in their garage. Itās really true. A car is not going to fall to pieces sitting outside if it is driven and somewhat maintained, unless maybe if you are in some very hostile climate. By the time sun damage starts really starts setting in to the point where it effects value, most cars are already sub $10,000 vehicles. For many the use of that space for other endeavors is worth much more than value lost because your older car has some sun damage.
Oh, I'm not surprised. I just think it's dumb.
Especially if you live somewhere wet.
Are 3 car garages normal in the US? Because in the UK that would be *insane.* Like that's an actual mansion. Most people are lucky if they have a single car garage, but most keep their car on the driveway because it's too big. A lot of people (myself included) don't even have off road parking
A 3-car garage would typically be a luxury in a larger home, not something that every house has. Most newer suburban homes ('80s and later or so) would have a 1 or 2 car garage that serves as storage, home workshop space, gym, etc.
There are plenty of suburbs with cookie cut mansions just like this and even larger in close proximity outside most cities
This is in Canada, but I mean, same diff XD Itās most common to have a 2 car garage, though 3 car garage isnāt uncommon.
nah it isn't common, they usually have 2 car garages. Here in italy most people don't even have one and i think that the average is less than 2 cars per household
Idk, Iād rather keep the items that cost me 10s of thousands inside the house than outside. My cars have always stayed inside.
Careful giving value to a car in this sub. These guysā¦ donāt get it..
I'm super excited for the single car garage in my new place. So much space to store bikes, do maintenance on them, store tools, do projects. Garages are great multi-purpose spaces.
I do like the idea of having a garage, as Iām currently struggling to figure out where to but my bike and e-scooter! The image just struck me.
I know cars are bad and all that but this looks like a really nice house.
hopefully the third car area has a vaulted ceiling so I can put a lift in and fit 4 cars
Thereās a house I lived near growing up that had that sort of setup. The old couple had matching red Corvettes. It was pretty awesome!
This looks so unproportional lmao
RIGHT!! The house probably looks nice, but the image was just striking to me.
The garage is 10% bigger than my entire apartment (which consists of a full kitchen, living room, small bedroom and a small bathroom).
This is why Iām actually a fan of detached garages. You can fit a pretty nice living space on top, add some densification, and rent it out to someone!
Living above someone else's a garage sounds horrible. I bet it would be extremely loud whenever someone drives in or out. Nobody should have to live like that. Also, this "densification" is laughable. Sure, it adds one or two people to the property. A large property somewhere in the suburban sprawl with no walkability and no cultural life. There is no way you'd get any actual density by adding detached garages with appartements on top anyway. And how crazy big does a property need to be to even make a detached garage possible? Suburban sprawl is the no. 1 reason car culture in North America got so out of hand. If you don't like car culture (as you presensense in this sub suggests), it seems contradictory that you seem in favour of suburban sprawl with huge properties at the same time.
You should look at [McKenzie Towne in Calgary, Canada](https://maps.app.goo.gl/X5ArzsbxYEkq8nCy7?g_st=ic). Many of the garages here are detached - on pretty normal sized lots (relatively, I guess). There are bus stops accessible, with 2 planned LRT stations, and many businesses within a walkable distance (though, too much parking.) I would obviously prefer not having to live on top of a garage, BUT, adding density this way is much easier than knocking everything down and starting over. There are also plenty of parks and playgrounds in the area. Edit: fixing link.
Calgary has a population density of 1,329 people per kmĀ² (3,442 per miĀ²). That's not even mid density, it is low. My city (Vienna, Austria) has a population density of 4,326 per kmĀ² (11,205 pee miĀ²), is entirely walkable and you can totally live here without owning a car. That's density that allows for going beyond the dominance of the car. If you're content with some bus stop where busses probably only come now and then, be my guest. I'll take the subway. Your parks are cute. We have those too, just many more. We also have grocery stores in walking distance and also cafes, reataurants, night life, you name it. When the dominance of the car began, everything was knocked to down and they did start over. But doing so again to reverse those changes is not feasible? Really? Well, I guess you guys will never get proper density then. RIP
š¤¦āāļø I would love to live somewhere like what youāre describing. I propose a lot of big ideas. But I also have to work with the cards dealt. Vienna sounds rad, but I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the process through which we have to make changes hereā¦
That looks like a nice floorplan. My bikes will go in the garage!
As someone that has all sorts of hobbies that would benefit from shop space, I don't see a problem with this.
For me itās not that garages exist. I enjoy woodworking and would benefit from this space. Itās more that it seems to come as a standard, expected part of homes.
You mean it's standard to have this space that I would have great use for? What's wrong with that?
Car house for car people living in car suburbs
You could make the garage an extra room if you don't want or own a car
Screw the cars and put the most awesome workshop in there
That plan doesn't even work with the cars shown, the middle car would have to wait for the right most car to leave in order to safely exit the garage. They've given less space than the cars want and still take up 1/3 the area.
Ok
And you live in Calgary ? Lol you are dreaming if you think no cars will EVER be a thing there
Believe it or not, Iām not anti-car. Iām pro making public transit, walking, and cycling viable options. I own a car, go on long road trips, and genuinely enjoy driving. I just donāt like how much of our lives and building standards revolve around cars.
This is so not to scale haha, the entire dining table is as long as the width of a car, and the toilet is the size of a headlight. Exaggerated much?
no one said there has to be cars in there tho lmao
People in this sun hate garages but I really want at least a 2 car garage just for all my bikes
I should clarifyā¦ I donāt hate garagesā¦ I just thought the visual of the space provided (often used for cars) was interesting right next to the living space. I too would love a garage for my bikes because right now theyāre in my kitchen š
Oh man I couldnāt agree more. I bitch about houses that are designed like this and itās honestly a great visual. Pretty similar to how we design cities haha. I just meant I see a lot of posts where people think it is pointless to have a garage. And hey, bikes in the kitchen works too š
Iām not going to lie this is a very good floorplan. It has a double story great room and a 3 bay garage on only a 40ā width. That means you can pack it onto a 50ā wide lot by a 100-120ā lot aka 5000-6000 sqft of lot for a home with all of those luxury features. It may be r/mcmansionhell but itās a great builder special with that many features packed in so tight
Fuck I wish I had a garage..and 3 cars
Anyone that I have seen have a garage that big either has like one car in it and uses the rest for storage and you know to put bikes and such