European Garage Sizes Are Bullshit

"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain) 01/16/2016 at 14:17 • Filed to: None

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3 meters wide, 5 meters long.

That’s close enough to the width and length of my car that I’m not sure I’d be able to open my car door. What exactly is the point?

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CB > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:19

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It’s an excuse to buy a convertible.

Tekamul > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:21

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Sounds spacious for a horse. You know what to do.

Rainbow > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:24

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To be fair, that’s pretty obviously a problem with that house. Just look at it. It sucks for them, but they should have measured it before buying.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:24

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Funnily enough, when I lived in Ireland, none of my friends used their garages for their intended purpose. Their garages were always filled with crap that was either too old or didn’t fit into the house. Their cars always sat outside in the cold.

Sneaky Pete > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:25

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Your car is almost 3 meters wide? Wtf do you drive?

KirkyV > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 01/16/2016 at 14:30

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The only people I know with a garage who actually use it to store their car are my grandparents. For everyone else, it’s basically another loft, for all the extra greasy stuff.

bob and john > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:30

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they kinda have a point. if the garage is physically to small to be used as a garage (and lets be real here, its a friggen volvo S40, not some 20 foot wide super car) then it shouldnt be labeled as a garage. storage room maybe. garage, no.

Sneaky Pete > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 01/16/2016 at 14:31

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That sounds like most people that live in the US. Buy more shit than can fit in your house, so throw it in the garage and park your cars out side. Genius.

I fit 2 cars in my 2 car garage. My street parking (my house is literally the only house on my 200 foot long block) is always completely full. Not only does it make the neighborhood look like shit, I can’t have more than a few friends over because there’s nowhere to park.

HOAs aren’t always a bad thing. Next house I buy will be in an HOA community.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Sneaky Pete 01/16/2016 at 14:34

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My garage was actually perfectly sized for the two cars in my family, in the sense that they fit like a glove (cue Jim Carrey GIF). Just enough space to park both, get out and shut the door. Working on the car in my garage wasn’t a thing :P

DrJohannVegas > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:37

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I like the door slammed into the wall in every photo. Awesome.

djmt1 > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:39

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Tell me about it. Here’s mine, we use it as storage for that reason. I do have dreams of extending it out since my family also bought the parking space next to it (despite having no one but me with a licence).

PS9 > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:47

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Problem; solved!

Svend > Rainbow 01/16/2016 at 14:48

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No. It’s a common issue. Garages are built to a minimum size to be called a garage but cars have got bigger.

Svend > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:50

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Ye’, I saw on Qi that garages haven’t increased since the 1970s but in that time cars have got roughly 24% larger.

Cé hé sin > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 01/16/2016 at 14:51

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Very much so. New houses rarely have garages unless they’re expensive one-offs in the country. Older suburban houses (those built in the 40s or 50s say) might have them but almost invariably they’re full of junk or have been converted to extra house space.

Cé hé sin > Svend 01/16/2016 at 14:53

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Not only have they not increased, they’ve vanished! It’s now very unusual to find new developments with any garage space.

smobgirl > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:54

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My garage was about the same size. It would easily fit my car, but unfortunately the previous owner walled it in for storage. On the other hand, the house behind me was flipped they built a detached garage almost larger than the associated house.

Sneaky Pete > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 01/16/2016 at 14:56

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Yeah, I have to move one car out of I want to do any work on either car. Minor inconvenience.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 14:59

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I know small garages are terrible! Mine is just way too tiny I can only fit a 20ft long Lincoln continental, 3/4 chevy pickup and a Ford Fusion in mine.

Your Last name is Allain? Where the heck are you from? My last name is Allain

Svend > Cé hé sin 01/16/2016 at 15:00

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Where I am I’d say about 75% have garages, the remainder are flats with small car parks attached.

I myself live in a terrace house and thankfully many houses only have one car but we had a family across the road from me who had four sons, three had cars and one had a work van and it was nearly impossible to park.

The Ghost of Oppo > Sneaky Pete 01/16/2016 at 15:02

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You say that now, but wait until the HOA tells you that you can’t paint your front door one of the only four HOA approved colors because your next door neighbor’s door is already that color.

Nick Has an Exocet > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 01/16/2016 at 15:08

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Haha, yes it is. Massachusetts. Grandparents are Canadian.

Nick Has an Exocet > smobgirl 01/16/2016 at 15:09

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That’s probably what I would do. I was looking at property in the UK around Glasgow and figure that if I want a workshop/garage, I need to build it.

Nick Has an Exocet > Sneaky Pete 01/16/2016 at 15:10

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Okay - it’s more like almost 2 meters. Mitsubishi Lancer.

Nick Has an Exocet > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 01/16/2016 at 15:11

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I can’t imagine trying to put your car in one of those little garages every day. It’s silly.

Nick Has an Exocet > djmt1 01/16/2016 at 15:11

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Dude that is tiny. Haha.

Spasoje > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 15:13

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Wait, what? 3m = 10ft is an extremely wide parking space by any standards. The article mentions 2.44m = 8ft, which is the width of a standard North American parking space. Their 2011 Volvo S40 is 1.72m = 5.64ft wide, leaving PLENTY of space to open all the doors at once.

Only the garage door itself is super-narrow at a hair over 2m wide – which is what we see in the pics. Either the article isn’t explaining some key info or the whole thing is BS.

Your boy, BJR > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 15:23

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TIL Europeans favor hatches and wagons so they can get out of their car after they park in the garage.

Cé hé sin > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 15:35

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Unless you’re wealthy that’s about the size a garage is on this side of the Atlantic.

Urambo Tauro > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 15:48

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Must be designed specifically for transportation of the two-wheeled variety...

Dusty Ventures > Spasoje 01/16/2016 at 15:48

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You’re forgetting that when you park in a parking space and get out you typically open the door beyond the confines of the line. Think about how narrow it feels when the cars on each side are parked on top of the line

Cé hé sin > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 16:06

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People don’t. They’re usually full of junk.

Nick Has an Exocet > Cé hé sin 01/16/2016 at 16:09

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I don’t understand why people bother. Might as well have a bigger living room or something.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Spasoje 01/16/2016 at 16:19

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You forgot to divide by two. Because you don’t park hard up against one side of the garage, you are centred (ideally).

So 8 foot garage - 5.64 feet = 2.36 feet of space left over. Assuming that the car is centred in the space, that really means you only have 1.18 feet to actually open the door. And you aren’t going to have 1.18feet between the door card and the B pillar to squeeze out.

Either way, a standard garage bay is two feet on either side of the garage door, so with a standard 8 foot door, that means the width of the walls should be 12 feet.

Cé hé sin > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 16:21

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They do. A high proportion of the garages near me have been converted into more house space. Given the choice between more space for themselves or for the car, they usually win out. The fact that many have two or more cars and garages are almost invariably single occupancy means that doing a conversion means no rows about whose car goes inside.

Rainbow > Svend 01/16/2016 at 16:27

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What I’m saying is the garage is obviously narrow. They saw it, somehow thought their car would fit, bought the house, and THEN complained about it being too small. I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m just saying they’re morons for not noticing this before.

Jon Clark > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 16:35

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So my Dodge Duallie wouldn’t fit?

Svend > Rainbow 01/16/2016 at 16:47

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I wouldn’t say they are morons. In the U.K. I’d say the vast majority of house sales are decided by the female partner and not trying to be sexiest but in the most part the garage is an ALSO feature as in it’s nice to have one but the size of the livable space of the house such as how big is the master bedroom, is it open plan to maximise space or is it ‘cosy’! Etc... The garage many expect to fit their car in when it’s not really a big car as such. More pressure needs to be put on the builders association and authorities to make sure an average (at least) size car can be parking with room to get round for it to be classed as a garage.

gmctavish needs more space > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 17:28

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Wow, and a newly built house too. If it was old, it would make more sense, but someone really screwed up with that design. It is totally reasonable to expect that a garage would fit a small car, they probably should’ve checked it beforehand. Still, I’m definitely on their side. If it’s a garage, one should expect a small car to easily fit inside.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 17:41

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Not so great for Widebody Camry owners, eh?

Their granddad is now laughing in its grave.

Sneaky Pete > The Ghost of Oppo 01/16/2016 at 18:51

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Perfectly fine with that. It also keeps your neighbor from painting their house bright orange, bringing the value of all surrounding houses down.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Nick Has an Exocet 01/16/2016 at 21:32

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Also a problem with a bunch of 50s garages.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 01/17/2016 at 00:22

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If that plat had an option for garage configuation, you made the correct choice. The people who opt for just the double-wide instead of two single around here (for plats that only support 2-car garages) heavily regret it, because most new home buyers in this area also drive gigantic (mainly wide) vehicles, and sometimes you can’t park them next to each other at the same time. Best example I can remember was a homeowner who owned a Fiat 500C (not a small car imo), and an LX570. He had to park both outside, because if he put one in the garage, there was a small overlap on the Fiat in the driveway because the garage door of course is narrower than the entire garage itself.

Sorry, that turned into a long post.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/17/2016 at 12:24

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I built the house. It was stupid cheap to add on the 3rd car bay(relatively). I mean for 3k you can add 35% more space. You’d be stupid not to especially when you think that it adds over 20K of value to the house.

Best thing I ever did. now there is room for all the mowers,bikes,tools,ect plus 2 cars with room to spare. It’s a little snug with 3 cars but will fit 2 (very big cars like a 20ft long Lincoln Continental and a 3/4 ton chevy C20) without even trying.

Wacko > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 01/18/2016 at 12:53

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correction, you built a garage with an attached living space, to store you vintage gaming consoles and a place to make babies.

Should be very soon, pappa Luc?

my daughter is 23 months old and my son is almost 3 months.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Wacko 01/18/2016 at 13:09

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VERY soon indeed. Only 3 weeks to go.

Now that I think about it I have a pretty good setup. I have my own gaming room, a 3 car garage, an old truck to play with,ect.

Their would be worst ways to live.

Wacko > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 01/18/2016 at 13:16

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I have a no car garage( 28 feet deep with a single door, filled with my snowmobile, atv with plow, snowblower, and tools.)

our 3 cars sleep outside. my 2014 pathfinder, my 1997 jeep tj sahara and my wifes 2011 elantra.

I can’t remove the tools yet for at least another year since i’m renovating the house nights and weekends.