Advice on detached garage orientation

[rct]

Trying to plan for a detached garage this year. Problem is deciding garage orientation or alignment. House is on a pie-shaped lot. The house is slightly angled to face the street. Do I square the second garage to the house or square it to the closest lot line? Either way it is visible from the street and essentially straight back from the driveway. Pardon my 3rd grade drawing, but tried to show the house on our lot, the neighbor homes and possible garage alignment. Not to scale, the lot is 2 acres. Thoughts? Thanks, in advance.

 

[dfiler2]

Looks like you have lots of choices. I think I would need to square it with the house if it were going where you have it drawn. The lot you can't see so squaring it with that would just make it look crooked. Another option might be putting it further back and directly behind the house so it isn't visible from the road. It would mean a little longer driveway but not that much difference cleaning snow from a 100 ft driveway or a 200 ft driveway and a longer driveway means less mowing It might make a difference depending on whether you were building a nice looking garage to match the house or a pole barn.

 

[SALIV8]

I like seeing all the doors on mine from the house.

 

[rburke65]

Well ya asked for an opinion....id square it to the lot. All I see otherwise us some wasted space between the angled orientation and the lot line. Before I put a shovel in the ground, I had stakes in the ground marking out driveway, shop footprint, concrete apron, turn around radius..... A little work, but a lot better than ending up with something that doesn't work for you. Good luck.

 

[ddawg16]

Me? The *** end would be against the property line on the east (assuming North is up)

Garage door would be perpendicular to the house. This would let you be creative on the driveways.....and be able to see the garage from the house.

No doors on the north side....just south side...so you can see them.

This would keep people from seeing what you have in your garage when it's open.

 

[tff]

My situation is similar, but judging by the scale of your sketch, you have much more room and flexibility than I do. See my layout below. My builder did suggest placing mine square to the house, but that would move mine further back & into the back yard (reduces backyard size, more of an eyesore to my wife ). So I opted for square to the border, moving it as close to the border as possible (5'). In my humble opinion, after spying garages around town over the past months, perpendicular looks good if it doesn't overlap the end of the house (but I don't have the room to do that), but not as good if it actually looks like it's 'in the back yard'.
Frankly, in your case, it looks like you have so much room that either would look fine... but I'd probably opt to keep it somewhat closer to the house & therefore square yours to the house. Good luck.

 

[tarmy]

Me? The *** end would be against the property line on the east (assuming North is up)

Garage door would be perpendicular to the house. This would let you be creative on the driveways.....and be able to see the garage from the house.

No doors on the north side....just south side...so you can see them.

This would keep people from seeing what you have in your garage when it's open.

This...it is basically what I did...and you can add onto it easy too...cause that ain't a big enough garage you got planned there...

 

[6768rogues]

I like seeing all the doors on mine from the house.

Me, too.

 

[miragesmack]

I prefer the bottom drawing setup. The top alignment looks odd with the garage doors facing away from the house.

 

[Kaizen]

square to the house is typical around here. For mine to get the size I needed and where I could put it I had to square it to the lot line. you get used to either imo

 

[JDMopar]

I'd square it with the house, with the garage doors facing the back yard. I would leave enough room between the garage and the property line to make a circle drive around the garage, so you could get in & out a lot easier with a trailer if you have one.

 

[ddawg16]

Squared to the house is....well....to straight and normal.

Doing at an angle adds more 'interest' to the layout. If you want to square it to the house, might as well attach it to the house.

The only reason for aligning it with the property line is to make it easier to run a fence. A fence behind the garage where one corner is closer to it than the other would drive me crazy

 

[lakelandcat]

My detach is square to the house. I have a patio that I extended out to the fence line. It makes everything square. I also have a cove lot like you but I went down the long side. I had to make sure I was 15' from my lot line for code. I'm happy with my decision, garage door is a straight shot to the street. Shop is 16'widex20'deep. added a 8'x20' screened in porch for the wife. total 24'x20'.

 

[ddawg16]

Some of you guys are so 'square'

 

[tapered-pin]

which direction is true north?
orient the building so that your doors are facing north if possible, south if you must.

obviously, you want to be able to see the garage doors and that's more important than orienting for the path of the sun, but ideally, I'd prefer doors on the north.

 

[CraigStu]

Where is the existing attached(?) garage? On the right side of the house?

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Consider your usage of the garage. Are you going to park anything alongside it? Will you be adding a lean-to carport on one side? Would you want to add an awning over the garage doors? Can you easily get a trailer in next to it with room to negotiate around other obstructions or structures?

As for the visuals, traditionally the garage doors face the same direction that the front door of a house does. If not that, then towards the street. Personally, I would prefer the garage doors facing the house and not the street. Easier to set up for security, and provides a long space on the far side hidden from the street for RV/trailer/bulk storage away from curious or prying eyes.

 

[rct]

Side load garage on the right side of the house. Planning on the garage straight back from the driveway with doors facing the street.

 

[Jinks]

Had a separate shop/garage at our last house, thought it was great. This house didn't have room for an out building, so I had to add the extra space & shop to the house. Having had both I'll probably never have an out building again. Attached to the house with access without going outside is ideal! A door out the back into the shop, a covered walk way, anything to make access easy from the house is so much better than running through the rain, or walking back out just before bed because you didn't turn the lights out & lock up.

Attach it to the house, point which ever way works best, & pour drive to make it work.

 

[tff]

obviously, you want to be able to see the garage doors and that's more important than orienting for the path of the sun, but ideally, I'd prefer doors on the north.

I'm not getting this point (that others have also noted). Why so critical to 'see the garage doors'? And see them from where?

 

[MikeF2316]

I'm not getting this point (that others have also noted). Why so critical to 'see the garage doors'? And see them from where?

Folks want to see their garage doors from inside the house because they're worried about theft. They're easy to accidentally leave open and the easiest way to break into a garage.

And for the OP, it depends. For parking daily drivers, you want it close to the house, so I'd then square it to the house. If the front of the garage is going to fill most of the space between the house and lot line, I'd be tempted to square it with the street - angled to both the house and lot line. For a shop, I'd put it as close to and parallel to the lot line. And I like to see the garage door from inside the house too.

 

[Nowater]

A pdf of your survey would allow planning for a turnaround and other things. You can pencil in your two ideas. I like the idea of being able to see the doors from the house, and prefer the garage squared up to the adjacent lot.

Measure your vehicles, or allow a few inches over six feet for the width and 15 to 18 feet for length. A wye turn needs at least a ten feet radius, plus space for the vehicle.

You may want to allow a little more than minimum.

 

[abachman]

I would square it to the lot line and have a straight in driveway. Otherwise, every time you pull in or go out of the garage you will need some degree of turning the vehicle. This will be even worse if there is a vehicle parked outside the garage, in front of the door. Make it a straight shot and make it easy on yourself.

 

[lakelandcat]

Another consideration is if you are going to run power and or plumbing. Sometime extra footage can get expensive, not to mention extra work if you are going to bury cable or pipe yourself.