Short steep driveway - can't get into my garage!

[doctorbonez]

I recently bought a house with a short steep driveway that goes into a detached garage.

The house is on top of a hill, the the driveway is sloped up from the street up to the garage. I have a lowered miata (that i purchased after the house purchase - didnt expect not to get it into the garage).. I need to attack the driveway at a steep angle to just get the car onto the driveway - but when I try to drive into the garage, the bottom of the car scrapes the 'ridge' where the driveway levels off leading into the garage.

here are some pictures of the garage/driveway.

Can anyone think of some creative solutions so I can get my car into the garage?

some solutions I've come up with:

Best/most expensive: excavate driveway/garage floor - may need to rebuild garage. (probably not an option - im guessing this will run in the 15-30k+ range esp if i need to rebuild the garage)

Cheap/ghetto/ridiculous fix: cut a notch in the 'ridge' so that the oil pan/exhaust/etc will clear the ridge and get into the garage. not an option for obvious reasons.

build or buy a custom ramp from the ridge to the garage that will gradually even out. the parkign surface in the garage will be raised (if i leave the middle open it can even give me a 'pit' to work on my car) - something like this: http://kwik-lift.com/uses.html or http://www.restorationramps.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/ramps?opendocument&part=3

Since I live in an area that sees a fair amount of snow in the winter - getting UP that driveway is probably going to be a problem also - so I was considering hiring someone to excavate the area between the driveway and the steps - and repave it into a flat area that is approximately level with the street so i can pull in during snow/freezing rain.

The problem will be how the excavated/flat will merge with the severe slope of the driveway... I can always build a retaining wall, so there is an abrupt drop off (with some kind of fence so i dont drive off of it) - but is there more elegant solution?

Any thoughts?

 

[plow]

Sell the car.

 

[70redbee]

Start your driveway more to the side where the steps are. Be careful of this as you will still need room to turn into the garage. The longer you can make the driveway the least amount of slope you will have. Do you understand what I am saying.

 

[doctorbonez]

Sell the car.

If I sold the car, I'd probably end up picking up a Z3 M coupe.. and would probably run into the same issues.

Do you understand what I am saying.

Yea, I understand what you are saying - however, even with a gradual slope, it'll make it difficult to manage in the setting of a snowstorm/icestorm. I have the type of job where I NEED to be at work when I am on - no ifs ands or buts (ie: can't call out, and there is no such thing as 'snow days'). so I was considering just excavating/flattening that area to ensure I have no issues getting in/out. (will be safer for the wife/kid as well since we can't access the house from the garage and need to walk outside.)

 

[Ron Fletcher]

In the bottom picture- right about where the car is sitting in the driveway- the driveway needs to be built up with blacktop. This would give the driveway more of a crown or a "hump" (so to speak) in the middle. That way it would be more of a straight shot into the garage.

 

[Ron Fletcher]

You might also want to try larger sized tires.

 

[BRIANBB]

How do you get to work in a lowered car with 10" of snow on the ground?

 

[GRN96WS6]

It should be criminal to make a driveway that unusable.

Short of redoing the entire driveway with a lot of fill and hoping it doesn't break down in the future I can't think of any viable options.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Get rid of the slope, flatten and level the area. Install four post lift. Use lift to get into garage, and to work on the car. Park two more cars on/ under lift.

 

[wssix99]

How about lower the floor, flatten the drive, and enjoy more headroom in the garage?

 

[BoostAddiction]

Easiest, cheapest solution, assuming you keep the car, is to install a hydraulic suspension lift kit.

Ramlft has a kit that is popular, and is on one of my cars (the one with 2" of ground clearance).

 

[ludakris04]

Start your driveway more to the side where the steps are. Be careful of this as you will still need room to turn into the garage. The longer you can make the driveway the least amount of slope you will have. Do you understand what I am saying.

This is the first thing I thought of.. change the approach. You could do alot with this idea. When looking at houses I always check to see if they are Low-Rider friendly.
My current house, I picked the lot because the driveway was supposed to have the least amount of pitch to it.... once the dust settled, the driveway is steeper than I would have wanted, but its too late now..but its not "that" bad..

Easiest, cheapest solution, assuming you keep the car, is to install a hydraulic suspension lift kit.

Ramlft has a kit that is popular, and is on one of my cars (the one with 2" of ground clearance).

Hydraulic? If this route, I would go air bags...

 

[Gary S]

If I were you, I'd simply raise the car to a drivable level. The trend of lowering cars until they can no longer be driven on normal streets just makes no sense. What fun is it owning a car like that?

 

[Flounder_Pounder]

How do you lower a Miata

 

[pmiranda]

If I were you, I'd simply raise the car to a drivable level. The trend of lowering cars until they can no longer be driven on normal streets just makes no sense. What fun is it owning a car like that?

Maybe it's a track day car?

Probably the most sensible thing to do is redo the driveway to be semi-circular so you have a longer approach, the first 20 feet of which could be much less steep for the winter emergencies, although you might get home to find it full of snow from the plow.

Clearly, however, this situation calls for the nuclear option... tear out the driveway and garage, excavate so you now have a 3-story garage that's deeper and a nice, low slope driveway.

 

[CNGsaves]

I've got the solution . . . . but you're not going to like it !!

Cut out swath to garage, along with all the dirt that follows that curved path heading to the road (ie MAJOR earth moving equipment). Then tear out garage floor and continue digging down and just make the garage super tall as you'll concrete the walls to garage and repour floor once you get the whole thing lower. Some "mo money" will need spent putting in roll-up garage door. Obviously a very large retaining wall will need to follow that curve up to road. Bury drainage pipes to handle any rain runoff.

This will give you extra parking outside the garage and more of a flat entrance to garage.

FINALLY, with all that garage height, you can install 4 post lift and put more cars in there !!

Don't ask how much . . . you'll have to scratch back of some GOOD FRIENDS in the earth moving and concrete business.

 

[antinym]

Take out the rocks and shrubs and drive over your "lawn"

 

[kweber1911]

I would have to say the best/easiest route would be to curve the driveway around closer to the sidewalk. Where the car is sitting in the picture could be flat and level that down as it snakes around to the street. You would definatly need a retaining wall next to the street, but probably your only option.

 

[Stuart in MN]

In the bottom picture- right about where the car is sitting in the driveway- the driveway needs to be built up with blacktop. This would give the driveway more of a crown or a "hump" (so to speak) in the middle. That way it would be more of a straight shot into the garage.

I think this is the simplest solution. Look at the shape of a motorcycle ramp, like this:

You probably don't need that much of a hump in the middle, but a little bit can make a big difference.

 

[woodrail]

I agree easiest, most cost effective solution would be to crown the driveway. Looking at the second image, I would shoot to raise the area where the second tire sits about 8: to a foot, then round it out the the road and the garage.

This solution still *****, but at least you could get the car in.

 

[Steves32]

A car guy would have never bought that house.
When we were house shopping- I can't tell you how many times my wife would show me a house all excited about it & I never made it out of the car.

There are no easy or cheap options here.

 

[PCO6]

doctorbonez - At what point does the municipal road right of way stop and your property start? My guess is that it's about where the rear bumper of your car is in the second photo.

I think any solution that involves the regrading of your driveway out to the existing paved road surface or a retaining wall will require discussions with your Town ... which may not be easy.

 

[bobbell417]

I live on the coast. So the first thing that comes to mind is a modified boat lift. Put 2- metal post at rear off car. Attach lift cables to the rear of a set of metal ramps (similar to what you see on a car carrier.). The ramps will sit pretty much flat on the driveway so you can drive up on them without bottoming out. Then using the remote for the lift you can raise the rear of ramp and drive in the garage. This would cost $7,000-$8,000 here.

I have 2-concerns with this solution. First, looking at the photos, I think you live in a subdivision and probably inside of a city. You would probably violate the covenants of the subdivision if you put up a lift in your driveway. Likewise, I doubt you could get the city to issue a permit for an outside lift.

 

[eljefino]

More than likely, there's ledge, so lowering the floor would take a lot of dynamite/ jackhammering.

I'd do something like this (image credit: BigMike-BiTOG)

except obviously as long as your car. Have the end of the ramp's angle kinda mirror and intersect with the driveway's angle. The rest of your chassis will slide through the middle of the two ramps. You can stick 'em down somehow to be a semi permanent part of the garage floor. You could also put in a pre-owned alignment rack.

Also evaluate if backing the car in will somehow provide advantages unthought of. For example if you backed over your lawn and hit the apron of your garage floor at an angle you may do better, then you can **** the wheel at the last second to straighten out.

 

[bczygan]

Lift kit for the vehicle for clearance.
Floor mounted winch in the garage for impassable weather (Helps with ingress and egress).

 

[aka Larry]

^^ Damn, those ramps must weigh 50 lbs each!

 

[Angelfire]

Sell the low rider, take up 4 wheeling, buy a jeep.

 

[gpalmer77]

If I sold the car, I'd probably end up picking up a Z3 M coupe.. and would probably run into the same issues.

Do it. Do it now. ;-)

 

[PCO6]

Sell the low rider, take up 4 wheeling, buy a jeep.

I was going to suggest that but the garage ceiling might be too low for a lifted Jeep!

 

[ez-duzit]

Sell the silly toy and get a 4x4.

 

[graffix000]

what kind of suspension on it? it it has coilovers, just raise the ride height. In my last house I had to raise my ride height to get over the transition from the drive way to garage.

Not anymore thankfully.

 

[retfr8flyr]

Put an air suspension kit on the car and you can set your ride height where you want it, then raise it to max height, to get in the garage. It will handle and ride better with the air suspension as well. http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/par...on/Air_Suspension_Kits/Airtech_Pro_Plus/18302

 

[Red Goat]

I have a race car with low clearance at the headers and the ladder bars that would bottom out at the top of my trailer ramp. I solved this by attaching a pair of 36" long 2x12's to the trailer door. I simply put my car on the ramp stopping a few inches before the headers bottomed out and mounted the 2x12's going forward at that point. I cut the ends at an angle so the car drives over the boards easier. This lifts the rear of the car up and over the high point without any trouble.

 

[Tawn]

A friend of mine has a brand new ZO6 Corvette.

He had his old, cracked cement driveway which runs down hill into his garage removed and replaced with a blacktop drive. He went over the slope with the contactor no less than three times to ensure the Vette wouldn't bottom out.

Yep, you guessed it - the made it too steep and the car was stuck in the garage for over three months till they finally came back, ripped out the new blacktop and redid it correctly.

 

[Kels]

small retaining wall needed for this

 

[Crank]

Make a what you guys call a tetertoter, seesaw, that the pivot is at the door entrance, cars own weight as you move slowly pivots the balance????

 

[JamieK]

Easy, simple and cheap. Lay down some 2"x12" ( or 2 2"x6" to get 12" wide) wooden planks along the route where the wheels run. About 8'-10' feet down the driveway and the same into the garage. So when you drive into the garage, your wheels will be on the planks. The angles will still be the same, but the undercarriage will be dropping down into to space between the planks. Attach the planks with masonary nails, and paint black with anti-skid paint so they won't be slippery. Painted black they will not be noticable. Depending on how much room you need to clear the undercarriage, you may only need planks on one side or may need to double them up to be 4" thick.

 

[Nowater]

Build another garage on top of the existing one, but orient the door to the side or toward the house. Make another drive to the right of your concrete sidewalk. Drive up, turn 90 degrees and pull in!

 

[cameby]

I think the simple solution would be to call some concretors in to have a look at it. Ask them if they can install a concrete driveway that is steeper at the road, and then levels off a bit into the garage. The steepness at the beginning may be a little difficult in snow, but I think it's going to be the only real solution.

 

[ZRX61]

Similar to a couple of other suggestions:
*L* shaped driveway that starts to the right of where the steps are now, retaining wall on the left side of the existing driveway & on the street side. Large flat area directly out front of the garage.
Top of the L to be at street level, bottom part of the L to be the flat area in front of the garage doors. Picture the letter L laid flat towards you & rotated 90deg counterclockwise (if you see what I mean?) Like Kels idea, but bigger/better

Could even extend the garage out onto the street side of the new flat area & rotate the doors 90deg so they face towards the right side of the property. Double bonus: bigger garage & driveway not so steep.

If your property extends to the right of the steps far enough, you should end up with a driveway about as steep as the long sloped part of the steps (which will need to be relocated, maybe the other side of the tree).