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Old 09-01-2016, 09:36 AM
 
986 posts, read 1,260,956 times
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I live in an old neighborhood where the garages (thankfully 2-car) are not attached, but when a new build goes up, the garage is always attached (which I think is the norm in new neighborhoods?) We would love to attach ours, but are wondering how much value that adds to our house. I don't know how much it will cost, but I'm sure it will be more than the resale value increase.


Anyone want to weigh in? My thoughts are that an attached garage is a selling point in Houston, since running to the garage fridge to get a beer during a rainstorm is a real buzzkill.


Also, friends, lets do our best to not let this thread deteriorate into personal attacks and off-topic comments on religion, race, or immigrants.
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:58 AM
 
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It's not clear here, are you saying that you currently have a detached garage, and you would like to tear it down and build a new one up next to and attached to the house? In that case, the floor plan and layout of your house, designed without an attached garage, is likely not to work well with a garage right next to the house.

Or, are you talking about tearing down and building an entire new house and you're wondering whether to build it with an attached?

Or, are you talking about building something between an existing detached garage and your existing house?

I think the last alternative is quite reasonable if the layout of the house and garage permits it. I have mostly lived in older neighborhoods with detached garages and this is quite common. It adds convenience especially when it's raining, and if you make it a screened breezeway it also makes a good place for things like hanging out wet swimsuits to dry and so on.

Personally I much prefer the detached garage, since garages usually have things that can catch fire or emit noxious fumes and I prefer not to have those attached to my living space. If the garage were to catch fire I would rather lose two cars and the contents of a garage, than to lose two cars, the contents of the garage, plus my entire house and its contents too. If you do loud things in the garage, a detached garage provides some buffer between these and the inside of the house, too.

I doubt that whatever you do will affect resale (+ or -) unless you do something weird like block off all the windows on one side of the house by attaching a 2 car garage there.
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Old 09-01-2016, 10:11 AM
 
Location: Non Extradition Country
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Build a breezeway or corridor to connect the two. That would be the easiest.
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Old 09-01-2016, 10:45 AM
 
Location: Texas
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I thought an attached garage has been the desired norm for construction here and everywhere else for decades now. But, as someone who has lived in places where snow was an issue, I would think an attached garage would be more of a necessity of those types of locations.

turf3 does bring up some good points about the benefits of a detached garage, though.
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Old 09-01-2016, 11:22 AM
 
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The detached garage is old school and the norm in traditional Houston, and superior in the eyes of many. Attached is a cheapy approach, both by not constructing a separate building, and not taking up as much space (and fitting the home on a smaller lot). Some places have found ways of keeping the detached garage concept, but making the house have a smaller footprint, and requiring two stories to counter this.
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Old 09-01-2016, 12:08 PM
 
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Thanks for all the input. I am thinking of extending the existing small laundry room all the way to the garage. Perhaps make it a laundry/mud/"stuff" room. There is also a miniscule half-bath of the laundry that we could make slightly larger. So I'm not worried about the "flow" of the extension. For all of these reasons, we do not want to do the open breezeway. Is it impossible for y'all to give me a rough cost estimate? The garage is ~15 feet from the house.
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Old 09-01-2016, 12:34 PM
 
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If you can successfully attached a detached garage, it's the best of both worlds, IMO. You get the traditional look of a garage hidden away behind the house, plus the benefits of weather-protection and additional usable square footage.

We have a slightly angled detached garage, which makes matching up the rooflines harder. If we were to rebuild it (1960s), we would likely straighten it out and find a way to link it with the house. We toured a house a couple of years ago that did this, but brought the garage forward, partially meeting up with the side of the existing house. It was still set quite far back, but it allowed a bonus room and bath to go behind the garage (linked alongside the garage by a "glassed wall" hallway). It was very well done, but they had a wider-than-average lot in the area and could get a two-car wide driveway in whereas everyone else has a one-car wide driveway.
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Old 09-01-2016, 02:09 PM
 
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I like the idea of attaching an already existing detached garage to the house with a long, wide hallway with windows. That hallway can be a mudroom/sun room, insulated from the outside environment
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Old 09-01-2016, 02:34 PM
 
986 posts, read 1,260,956 times
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3ship - interesting. You say "hallway" and I picture something 3-feet wide and too narrow for any function. Can you find a picture? I'm intrigued, because it sounds cheaper, lol!
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Old 09-01-2016, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Non Extradition Country
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garage to house enclosed breezeway.

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