Will my house fit on my lot with a side entry garage?

12 years ago

We are looking at a lot that is 115 foot wide and a house that has a 78 foot wide footprint. We want to do a sideentry garage, can we do it?

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david_cary

12 years ago

In our area, house has a 10ft setback and driveway has zero. So that would be 27 ft for driveway. We were told that 30 was nice but you could go down to 25 without too much of an issue. We have neighbors in the 22 range and they aren't happy. I think we wound up with 27 and it is absolutely fine but we drive cars.

It depends on your expectations and it does also depend on your slope. We couldn't go to zero on our driveway because the neighboring lot was lower. We could have gone to 1 feet and built a wall but we would have created an enemy since they have a 22 ft driveway (it originally was bigger but survey made them cut it down before our time). And I am not sure you can put a wall on the property line so we might have had less leeway. We just left 5 feet of dirt and planted trees.

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Comments (13)

LuAnn_in_PA
12 years ago
Depends on the lot and the setbacks, I would think.
athensmomof3
12 years ago
I doubt it with set backs. What are they? You want to avoid having to pull up to the garage, and then pull back to fully turn to get in. 30' is a comfortable width for the driveway at the garage to avoid that. Some larger trucks and SUVs may even have a problem with that width . . . I *think* the minimum is slightly less than that, but not much.
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I surely strayed OT when gabbing on about a swimming pool, but I was looking at the examples and photos as issues that include both true access (to the front of the home or the main entry or the heart of the home, or all 3) in terms of physical layout, proximity, obstacles, versus how to achieve "welcome to my entry" or welcome to my garage or to my driveway. So one part of the original discussion was that we should strive have both (good access and good identification/welcome), and part of the discussion was about how we do various other things or remedial things to mitigate either poor planning or site limitations. Very often, color is an easy way to link or separate or highlight, or to creat drama, and the properties of color and hue make big differences. So I am interested in how perhaps the exact same design, executed in different colors and materials, might create different effects. That is one of the fun things about seeing some of the photoshopping of paint and siding colors on previous posts relating to balancing garages with the houses, or front doors, or whatever. From a design observation, I think the blue driveway color has an impact of de-emphasizing the front door and kind of "popping" (yes, I used that awful word) right at the street edge and flowing away from the house rather than drawing you in. But, for others, it may create an opposite response and seem to flow toward the house and entry and pull you in from the street.
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Your sketch isn't what I initially had in mind, but it might work. It's obvious disadvantage is that it places the bulk of one leg of your house directly adjacent to the lot-line house of your neighbor. The result would be 5' "tunnel" between the two houses. If you don't care about that or your neighbor's reactions, this idea might be worth pursuing. What I had in mind was to reverse the "L" shape of your sketch, such that one leg would be along the property line easement (as you have shown) and the other leg would be along the property line at the bottom property line. The garage would be located at the end of the "L" closest to your neighbor's property line. Garage entry might be on the side of the garage closest to you neighbor (a side loading garage) or on the side facing the street (a front loading garage), depending on choice, space available and plan arrangement. If you could get a side property line variance for the 20' setback, you likely could make enough room for a side entry garage closest to your neighbor. I don't understand the typography of your lot, so the slope may make my suggestion impractical and your idea the only feasible concept. Good luck with your project.
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We have a side-entry garage with 25' of driveway on the side of the house. I'd call that a minimum, unless you like doing three-point turns every time you enter the garage. And don't, repeat DON'T, get anything smaller than a 9' wide door. I was going to say, "...especially if you have a woman driver in the house" but I realize some readers of a female orientation might somehow interpret that as offensive or even sexist so I won't say it, OK? And in fairness, I'll confess that at my last house, I broke off the back driver-side door while backing into the garage after forgetting to close the door. I was never able to criticize DW's driving again after that... My other rule of thumb regarding driveways: make sure your driveway is at least 16' wide if it will be anything but straight. As a point of reference, the standard lane width on an Interstate highway is 12'. Bob
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aleg
12 years ago
Where is the garage's position? If it is one side of your house, I think it is acheivable. What is the problem?
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Window Accents by Vanessa Downs
12 years ago
We are building now and will have a 23.5 ft wide driveway and I drive a longggg SUV. I only have 24 ft at our current house and I can get in and out of my garage fine - when my husband's car isn't there. If his car is there, I have to make 2 turns.

I would have loved to have a wider driveway, but due to restrictions on the lot and house we wanted to build - we got the 23.5 wide driveway. I won't always have a Yukon XL and some day it will be a piece of cake!

PS - if you decide to go with that size driveway - build a garage with a double garage door. That makes it much easier to get in and out, especially if the other car isn't in that garage during the day.
andi_k
12 years ago
Setbacks are definitely what you need to find out. Ours are 25ft, so we wouldn't have been able to do that.
bus_driver
12 years ago
Our setback is 25 for the building, zero for the drive. But that means 25 feet per side. 115 - 78 = 37. 37 divided by two = 18.5. Better check your area regulations.
topman
12 years ago
We were told by a builder before that you will need 26ft on the driveway to turn comfortably for regular sedans and SUVs.
david_cary
12 years ago
You don't really NEED 26 feet for a regular sedan.
bethohio3
12 years ago
We used the excuse of 'no room on the lot' for not having a side-entry garage. I HATE turning while backing up--I'm much happier with our front entry garage.

I definitely wouldn't even consider a house with a 'short'turnaround, were I buying.
kateskouros
12 years ago
our set backs are 50' on sides so they vary greatly by location.
michoumonster
12 years ago
we're doing a side entry garage. our architect told us that we needed at least 24 feet of driveway to back out. in order to fit in our side entry garage on our lot, we are putting in a sloped driveway and putting the garage in the basement.
fish7577
12 years ago
I would never consider anything less than 30 feet with a side entry garage. Keep the garage door width in mind too. At least need 9' doors.
If you have the room, can go to a 10' wide garage door and might feel a little more comfortable making the turns earlier/later. I don't have them, but a friend who does have 10' wide doors thinks it was one of his best decisions on his house. Not sure if style choices are limited at that width.

Will my house fit on my lot with a side entry garage?

david_cary

Comments (13)

LuAnn_in_PA

athensmomof3

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