DanG Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Not wanting to sound smug, but the States (or certainly our state) has got it right. If a garage is less than x sq feet then it is illegal to sell it as a garage. It has to be re classed as a 'workshop' and so the house is not worth as much.... this happend a few years ago, so developers are very careful now.. Mind you the garage we have now is about the same size as our old UK house..... the benefits of having a big country with more space I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garcon magnifique Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Ain't that the truth. What's referred to as a garage in the US would be advertised as "an extensive property with substantial grounds" in the UK... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shao_khan Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Dont forget that PPG3 specifies certain levels of housing density and I think recommends 1.5 parking spaces per house - this is central government legislation. As mentioned above to hit some of these targets then each garage built might need 100mm off of each dimmension - which tells when you try to use it!!! Havent tried a car in either of my garages yet specifically wanted doublt garage and 4-6 car drive, got both but only use the drive!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djcool Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 With any luck, I'll be buying my parents property from them in the south of France within the next 5-6 years. Its set in quite a bit of land, one tiny attached garage and one massive seperate boat shed. I want to demolish the boat shed, and build a 4-car garage (4 x single openings) which will be tiled inside and have a washing bay. Office behind the garage with storage space above. All I'll need next is some nice cars to put in it None of this new build malarky for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 ...and here was I thinking 5m x 8.5m was just enough for one car! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChadW Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Noticed this myself after looking at examples on the market. In the end did not bother to get a house with one as I knew for the car I have got it would be a waste of time. In relation to 'brand' new builds then yes they are a joke and only added on to make the property more marketable to new buyers even if they cannot use the ruddy thing! Farcical really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterb Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Dont forget that PPG3 specifies certain levels of housing density and I think recommends 1.5 parking spaces per house - this is central government legislation. [/ QUOTE ] Indeed - and I think you'll find that's a maximum of 1.5 spaces (not, necessarily, garage spaces). Greater than that and the developers might expect to get their planning application rejected. Further, there's a minimum housing density of 30 dwellings per hectare, with encouragement for much higher. Our current house was built in 2000, before PPG3 came in, and is the largest, with biggest plot, of a development of 13 house built at a density of 20 per hectare. Anyway, that's a bit off-topic. Our house came with a double detached garage, twin 7ft doors with a 2ft pillar between them. We removed the pillar and installed a 16ft door. There's loads of space for the RS6, A2, a freezer, three bikes, a couple of free-standing shelf units, wall shelves and a fair bit of other equipment. Unfortunately, there isn't quite enough space to squeeze the MR2 into! I do, sometimes, regret widening the door, though - my wife seems to think it's her right to park in the middle of the garage, leaving a gap of four feet to the wall, whilst I have to fit the RS6 into the space she deigns to leave - she didn't have that opportunity when there were individual doors! The house we're in the process of buying in Norfolk has a large integral double garage, about the same size as our current one. However, I plan to build a triple around the corner in the back garden - it'll still leave plenty of garden on the one acre plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] DOnt forget as its a persimmon home to do this you will need to increase the size of the piers at each side of the garage and replace the lintols over the openning [/ QUOTE ] Is it bad news that it's built by Persimmon then? I'd have guessed I'd need a new steel lintel but new piers as well. Hmmm. Starting to sound costly. The wife's granite worktops might have to take a dive down the priority list. The surveyor who did a home buyers report did say the garage roof wasn't attached to the walls. Whilst we're on the subject of new builds, what are the strange grey honeycombed plastic fillers between the bricks. We've got series of them at the same level (about 4' off the ground) every few metres around the house. I'm assuming they're some kind of vent for the cavity walls? Or possibly a lazy way to fill the hole after the scaffolding had come down? Only noticed them because I saw a couple of wasps flying in and out. Hoping there's not a wasps nest in the wall, as I hate the little feckers. Fell onto a wasps nest when I was a kid and got hundreds of stings all over and have had a pathological hatred of them ever since. Cheers, Matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChadW Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Doh! For 'Persimmon' read as ex-Beazer Homes! Not brilliant by any stretch, then again what new builds are these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saab Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] what are the strange grey honeycombed plastic fillers between the bricks. We've got series of them at the same level (about 4' off the ground) every few metres around the house. I'm assuming they're some kind of vent for the cavity walls? [/ QUOTE ] Yes - at least that's what I've always assumed mine are!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techieboy Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Doh! For 'Persimmon' read as ex-Beazer Homes! Not brilliant by any stretch, then again what new builds are these days? [/ QUOTE ] Oh. Thanks for that! I'll feel so much better over the weekend, knowing that I've just transferred £35k to the Conveyancers ahead of doing the deal on Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Newly built houses = small everything!! .....Unless it's individually custom built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_d Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Newly built houses = small everything!! .....Unless it's individually custom built. [/ QUOTE ] Good point mate, I found this out when looking at houses I walked into the master bedroom on one new build and said "so this is the spare room then?" "No sir, it's the master" "But you can't fit a king size bed in it, it's tiny" She then started waffling some crap about how the room was bigger than it looked, but it certainly wasn't bigger than it measured Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saab Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Newly built houses = small everything!! .....Unless it's individually custom built. [/ QUOTE ] Nonsense - we've got some big rooms in our house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shao_khan Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Persimmon arent bad - but they are a 'bulk' house builder so you pay going rate but dont get any extras without it costing. Also because they bulk build a lot of stuff is designed on the limits so with your garage for example, the piers were probably designed to accomodate a certain loading which would be different if you remove the central pier, so my guess is they would need beefing up. There is a lot better than persimmon, but there is a lot worse also. My current house is Persimmon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Newly built houses = small everything!! .....Unless it's individually custom built. [/ QUOTE ] Nonsense - we've got some big rooms in our house. [/ QUOTE ] ....I was generalising of course - How else can one discuss anything. It's simply an indisputable fact that nowadays rooms are smaller and ceilings lower etc due to developers' wish for greater profits. Same reason why this country has ridiculous ideas about valuing properties based on the number of bedrooms....generally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 We live in a house with an integral garage and the house is less than 20 years old. It's certainly true about the size of the garages. The 6 is quite literally bumper to bumper in there. It's nose rests 1cm (it all had to be measured out before I bought the car) from the top end of the garage and the garage door closes within 2cm of the rear bumper! I have a old cuddly toy that belonged to our 3 year old hanging from the garage roof. I ignore the front sensors when driving in. The reason being that the cuddly toy is lined up perfectly - so the moment it touches the windscreen I know that the car is exactly 1cm away from the wall and that the garage door will close okay behind it! When we move later this year or early next, a double garage will be one of the new things we'll benefit from. EDITED TO ADD: When I bought the 6 I also had to buy a new, and second, garden shed. It now houses the lawnmower and the other things that used to sit in the garage. A second fridge freezer that we had in the garage also had to be relocated to the utility room. The irony behind that is that I sold my Ducati so the wife could fit the fridge freezer in the garage - and now it's had to be relocated anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccombie_5 Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] He temporarily moved into a new build (2001) belonging to a mate ater that, and it had a "double" garage, he struggled to get the Rover 214i and a Vauxhall Belmont in, the Belmont had to be reversed against the right wall and the Rover driven hard against the left just so the doors could be opened enough to get in. [/ QUOTE ] Well I'm sure it was worth the effort - you wouldn't want to park two exotic vehicles like that out on the road after all. [/ QUOTE ] Very good! They were quite in demand with the joyriders of the area and that's where the Belmont ended up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccombie_5 Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 On the topic of smaller everything, I don't think a house can get much smaller than this, how this counts as a family home, I am unsure. The rooms are terribly proportioned. This room is alright generally, at 7'x11', my brothers room is less than 6' wide but is over 13' long. The house over all cant be more than 15' wide. The kitchen/breakfast room is ok, the lounge is small, we had to get rid of a fireplace to fit the three piece in. The bathroom has no window because it is neither at the front nor the back of the house, its in the middle, and we're in a "link" house (modern terrace). This house was built in 1978 Says it all really. Dad's house was built in the 1940s and is a typical three bed authority semi from that era, also shockingly small considering how big it appears from the outside! Lesson: Don't buy your council house! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntW Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 same size garages - bigger cars. Look at a new polo, its easily the same size as a mk1 golf. You have no chance if you have an old house as your garage was built for a morris minor Then nowadays why give people a big garage on a new house when you can squeeze another house on the land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterS Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] same size garages - bigger cars. Look at a new polo, its easily the same size as a mk1 golf. You have no chance if you have an old house as your garage was built for a morris minor Then nowadays why give people a big garage on a new house when you can squeeze another house on the land. [/ QUOTE ] Agreed, those two factors sum it up for me! Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilp Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 When we bought our house last year the garage was a big buying point as you can easily get two cars in there with the doors open and benching down both sides. Obviously in the past year I've filled it with as sorts and can't get a car in there anymore !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I have a old cuddly toy that belonged to our 3 year old hanging from the garage roof. I ignore the front sensors when driving in. The reason being that the cuddly toy is lined up perfectly - so the moment it touches the windscreen I know that the car is exactly 1cm away from the wall and that the garage door will close okay behind it! [/ QUOTE ] ....I have exactly the same! A MrSponget wearing shades and rigged up from the garage roof with fishing line. EDIT: My daughter has just corrected me: It's 'SpongeBob SquarePants'. I should post a pic in due course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccombie_5 Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 LOL Robin has Spongebob in his garage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] I have a old cuddly toy that belonged to our 3 year old hanging from the garage roof. I ignore the front sensors when driving in. The reason being that the cuddly toy is lined up perfectly - so the moment it touches the windscreen I know that the car is exactly 1cm away from the wall and that the garage door will close okay behind it! [/ QUOTE ] ....I have exactly the same! A MrSponget wearing shades and rigged up from the garage roof with fishing line. EDIT: My daughter has just corrected me: It's 'SpongeBob SquarePants'. I should post a pic in due course. [/ QUOTE ] Mine is a cuddly cat. You could have guess that, I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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