UKC

Loads of houses  near us have garages (some double too). Hardly anyone uses them for their cars. We don't either. Do you? Would you if you had one?

General BH weekend musing...

In reply to Greenbanks:

Garage = workshop and storage for bikes motorbike.

Car doesn't get a look in. Can't say I have ever used a garage for a car.

In reply to Greenbanks:. Yes, I cleared it out last year as I wanted to be able to charge an electric car in it.  I kept my old petrol car in it over the winter - very nice

In reply to Greenbanks:

I used to before I had kids. Now it's full of bikes, scooters, rides ons, footballs, paddling pools and names chunks of brightly coloured plastic. And a pile of stuff that's on its way to the tip.

In reply to RunningInCircles:

Are garages for cars? Seems a bit radical to me.....

Mines like a low class honda dealer at times. And climbing gear. And various other things. But no cars......

In reply to Ian W:

I'm with you and RunninginCircles. Couldn't care less about the car but look the wrong way at one of my motorbikes...

In reply to Oceanrower:

We rarely use ours but are glad to have it when violent thunderstorms hit. Last year were hit by hailstones the size of ducks eggs. Had we not put our cars undercover they would have been badly dented, just as if they had had smallpox ! Many in the village had cars resembling  Caribbean steel drums and roof tiles  smashed.

Still got a few of the hailstones in the freezer !

In reply to Greenbanks:

No car. Garage really good for a number of other uses.

In reply to Greenbanks:

One car in the driveway, the other on the street. In the garage: full pa system, backline amplifiers, many instrument and mic stands; gear for climbing, camping, watersports; three bikes, tools, sawhorse, chainsaw and axes, and a load of miscellanous stuff besides. We’re about to put up another shed to relieve storage pressure on the garage

In reply to Greenbanks:

Just cleared out all the bikes, mfi bookcases, broken lawnmowers and half bags of years old cement. 

Turned it into a Brexit think tank, pretty high expectations tbh. Will let you know how it goes.... 

In reply to RunningInCircles:

Agreed, never owned a car good enough to warrant being stored undercover.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yup one car 3 motorbikes use it every day so got a posh electric opener thing on it. Car is not posh just don’t like taking up space on a busy terraced street 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Modern cars are waterproof so it’s folly to keep them in a garage. 

Plus, all the weed plants would get squashed. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Of course. It's integral to the house with an electric door opener, so we don't get wet when it rains and the car stays cool in the summer. There's other crap in there too, but the car goes in.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yes, one has the climbing wall and bike storage and my tools in, the other one has kayaks, and car wheels/tyres in it.

If we ever pursuade the father in law to let us have the lotus 7 the it will go in the other garage

In reply to Greenbanks:

Of course I use my garage. Where else can I store everything I'll never need while I don't need them?

In reply to Greenbanks:

I recently purchased a 9" angle grinder and had to think quite hard about where it would fit. I have no idea how I would fit a car in there.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Folding hardtop car goes in the garage in winter to preserve roof mechanism (some failing seals) and avoid defrosting.

Electric car sits on drive plugged in overnight, and defrosts and interior heats itself automatically in the morning on mains power.  Which is amazing.  

In reply to wintertree:

Motorbike, pushbike, tent, camping gear, tools, loads of crap I should throw away. I can't even get a car to mine because I built a porch that blocks a third of the drive. 

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Off course I use it , where else would I keep my 2 Lotus's & VRS Estate +  RC plane helicopter & boats.

Climbing gear is under the bed in the warm along with the rifles      Boys and there toys

In reply to Greenbanks:

Did have room to put a car in the garage at my first house, but was awkward getting it in/out and when it was in, it made getting anything else out awkward, so rarely did.

Last house had the garage semi converted to a utility room by previous owner, so car wouldn't fit in anyway.

Current house, the garage is too full - cupboard full of water sports gear, cupboard of camping gear, work bench, DIY stuff, ladders, freezer, recycling bins, motorbike gear and more bikes and bike bits than I care to mention.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yep. Got my MG on one side and enough space to drive the landy or Octavia in the other to work on. Plus a decent sized workbench and enough storage to keep any hoarder happy.  A larger than average double garage was my main reason for moving where I am now. 

In reply to bpmclimb:

How do you handle humidity due to extremes of weather?  I tried keeping the same in my garage when we moved but after the first winter the covers were showing signs of mould so it's now in the summer house which is fully lined and also runs a de-humidifier through the colder months.  Trouble is, 'er indoors wants it all back in the garage.  

In reply to Greenbanks:

Just after qualifying I looked at buying a new build house in Chorley. It had a built in garage that was far too small for a car. When I commented on this the agent said that the garage is not designed for cars as they are always used for storage.

In reply to Greenbanks:

It's interesting to imagine what residential streets might look like without cars parked all along them. And it's interesting that it's become socially acceptable. Thinking about it, more cars parked in the road is probably one of the contributing factors in kiddies not playing outside so much anymore

In reply to Greenbanks:

I use most of my double garage for my bouldering wall ...  

https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=34082#&gid=1&pid=7

In reply to Greenbanks:

Most of my cars and a couple of my motorbikes have to be garaged to insure them. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

In some areas of Germany, particularly where there a parking problems, after a snowfall the local authority wander around seeing which garages have tyre tracks coming out then later come with an inspection order. If you can't get you car in then you get fined for change of use without planning permission.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I've just dry walled ours this weekend to make it safer as our bedroom is above it.

Bit it's a two car garage under the house and we get feet of snow a year so my wife parks in it every night in the winter especially. I drive a big truck which barely fits in so it stays outside.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Go round many  suburban estates and it's amazing how the majority of people keep assorted, rarely-used  and larsgely worthless crap carefully under lock and key in the garage while leaving £20k of expensive metal sitting in the street to be nicked or bumped. I have pointed this out to numerous friends and they just smile ruefully and admit: 'Yeah. Daft isn't it?' But it doesn't stop them doing it.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Used to have garages in previous houses but almost never got the car in, too full of workshop, prams, freezers, scooters, boats, windsurfers etc. Now we have a house without a garage but have a large shed...which we call the garage!

In reply to Toccata:

I believe these too-small-for-a-car garages are built to meet some requirement to provide off-road parking on new estates. The reality that the garage can only actually accommodate say a mortorbike or a Mk2 Ford Escort, meaning each household has to find parking for all 3 of their cars instead of just 2, doesn't seem to bother the planning authorities who are satisfied that the 'garaged parking' box can be ticked.

In reply to Greenbanks:

My car doesn't fit in my garage so it's basically just a giant concrete shed, which is quite useful in its own right.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Have one and use it for various things but not for storing the car because the driveway is not wide enough, the car couldn't get past the back step

In reply to Greenbanks:

Our garage was built in the 1950s.  It is far too narrow for our van!  Used instead for bikes, motorbike, winter wheels, lawn mower and various other bits and pieces.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Don't have a garage now, but when I did, I never used it for the car. Cars are dirty and dripping wet after driving in rain, which, along with oil leaks, can really make a mess of your garage floor.

Used mine for keeping the bikes in, the lawn mower and garden tools, along with virtually anything else which wasn't kept in the house, and as a workshop.

In reply to jimtitt:

I wonder if people clear their drives once it has snowed, to try and avoid that happening?

In reply to Greenbanks:

Half of it full of general crap, the other is a drytool training set up and gym rings area 

In reply to Wiley Coyote2:

It's not actually daft, though, is it. The £20k of metal has pretty decent security measures built in that make it hard to nick and it's not all that likely somebody will randomly drive into it. Should the worst happen, it's insured anyway. The other stuff in the garage couldn't just be left out in the street.

In reply to Greenbanks:

No car in our garage. 

In ours there's a treadmill, bike, punchbag, weights and a very basic sound system. Every so often it's my place to escape a 15 month old running riot around the house. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

My garage was full of gardening stuff, bikes, camping gear, xmas decs and tools. Plus loads of other shite. 

I invested in some used industrial racking recently which was a revelation. Everything is organised and off the floor.  Its great.

No car though.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Thieves broke into all the garages in our road, looking for posh cars/bikes. In ours they found a big pile of logs.  

I haven't counted to see if they took any...

In reply to Luke90:

A lot of the £20K+ cars you see parked on the street aren't actually owned by the drivers anyway.  They are often company cars, or PCP, and insured.  

I actually own mine, so it lives in a nice garage!

In reply to Luke90:

I do occasionally wonder whether there'd be a market for a line of cheap, minimally functional but reliably roadworthy vans that you could use to turn on-street parking into extra storage space.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I rent a garage specifically to keep the car in, because there is no parking provided for the block of flats I live in. The garage is also home to a kayak and a set of ladders, both attached to the ceiling. It all *just* fits.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Garages used to be used for car storage as chances were if you left your car out in the weather it would not start, especially if it was made in the UK. Since Honda and others came along  in the 80's with the idea of fully enclosing and water proofing the electrics, garage = storage area. 

My neighbors (aged 85 ish) still remark about our car not being put away in the garage, a generational thing.