Distance between house and Garage


  #1  
Old 04-27-04, 08:46 AM
JeeperDBC
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Distance between house and Garage

I am planning to put a new detached garage behind my house. Access to the back will be single wide at the side of the house. My question is what is the minimum distance between the back of my house and the two car garage?

I have a 10' building line for the house and a 5' building line for the garage. The garage has to remain perpendicualr to the house. I do not have room to **** the garage due to an existing courtyard fence (I have seen new home builders do this to improve the backout angle on narrow lots).

I appreciate any guidelines you can give.

Thanks,
 
  #2  
Old 04-29-04, 08:02 AM
JeeperDBC
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Smile

Does anyone have any thoughts on this yet or a reference book that might detail design guidelines?

the **** in the previous message is to pull out of and into the garage.

I appreciate any input you might have.

Thanks,
 
  #3  
Old 04-29-04, 09:42 AM
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JeeperDBC,

Each municipality has rules regarding this. Call your local Building department for distances required between the garage and home. This will be your minimum. I have one that says a garage cannot be within 10 feet of a home and another says , whatever distance is fine. They are neighboring cities!

Your "building line" I assume refers to minimum setbacks from property line, right?

Make a call and you'll have your answer.

Hope this helps!
 
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Old 04-29-04, 09:36 PM
JeeperDBC
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Doug,

Ok- I'll give the city a call. Rather than just a minimum do you have a distance you feel is comfortable so your clients don't "clock" the house on backup?

Yes- the building line appears to be the min. setback line.

Thanks, David
 
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Old 04-30-04, 05:24 AM
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David,

The question is simple to answer in one respect. I have a client that bought a home with a detached garage - single car, which before we added the addition, was about 20 feet from the home. Garage was 3 feet from property line with a concrete driveway that was 8 feet wide. This was fine until we added the addition making the distance from the garage to home 4 feet. This municipality requires 10 feet distance between home and garage. He currently has a 45 x 120 lot. We already planned to tear down existing and install a 2 stall garage relocating it to the extereme backyard. This will allow approx. 26 feet from the front of the garage to the home. The MINIMUM distance in front of a garage, so that you can easily manuever a vehicle into and out, would be 24 feet in my opinion. He will widen driveway once he is past the rear of the home.

I think you should consider the average length of a vehicle, approx 17 feet then give yourself another 7 feet, which isn't much mind you, to make the exit and entry into a garage easier. The key is what distance are we talking between garage to property line and then total width of garage in relationship to the home from property line? This space, "vehicle width" versus my suggested 24 ft from home must be looked at closely to feasibly allow the exit and entry of a vehicle.

Best thing is to sketch it all out and see what is dueable. It is true that narrow lots, detached 2 car garage makes it hard for the parking on the side closest to the home. Sometimes moving things way back is ok, then again design changes to garage could be done based upon MAXIMUM SQUARE FOOTAGE allowed by the city for a garage, MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE (if applicable) and of course your budget. You could design a garage that is 2 stall, one side is drive straight in with the other side at an angle, like 30 degrees to allow better exit and entry with no concerns with respect to the 24 ft minimum I suggested. Just a thought.

Hope this helps!
 
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Old 04-30-04, 09:21 AM
JeeperDBC
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Doug,

Great Ideas! We are in fact tearing down the existing garage to build a new one with quarters above but we do not have a super deep lot. We are adding a kitchen on the back of the house and phase two will be to build a new garage further back than the existing. We are moving the laundry to the main house (that was prev. at the back of the garage). It will give us some more space to work with. I'm going to head out now to take some good meassurements.

Thanks again,

David
 
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Old 04-30-04, 12:08 PM
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David,

You're very welcome! I hope this provides better insight. What did the city have to say?

Glad to help!
 
  #8  
Old 04-30-04, 04:13 PM
JeeperDBC
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No word yet from the city. I had to leave a message. I'll try again Monday. I'll let you know what they say.

David
 
 

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