I think there is no such thing as too much garage space!! The answer to your question of cost is that a 3rd bay is not much more than a 2 car garage. This is some of the lowest price per square foot area of your home since it is unheated/cooled and does not need a high level of finish. I do not think you will regret the extra space. Better to have it and not need it than to want it and not have it!! (budget of course being a factor- I would definitely spend the $ on the garage now if it were me, and rein in other areas)

lafdr

Some places don't offer many options. In our house in FL, there was no attic, no basement, sheds weren't allowed, and even the closets the house did have were smallish. Yes, Americans keep WAY too much stuff, but there is always something that needs to be stored. It's true that a garage is a poor choice, IF you have another option. We once rented a storage unit for a couple years- talk about a waste of money! Over 15 years, we had an operational car in the garage for a grand total of about 3 weeks.

We are having a 3 car garage in our new build. But, actually it is a 2 car garage and a storage area. I am sure a car would fit in it fine, but we need space for lawn mowers, snow blowers, pressure washer, air compressor, bicycles, well you get the idea. We don't want one of those yard shed things in our yard and ya gotta put them someplace. With 2 SUVs there would be no room in a 2 car for storage.

Build a 3 car and you will love the space. Of course you asked about price and I can't really help with that, but whatever it is, it's worth it for us.

I'm sure this varies by region and builder, so this number shouldn't mean too much to you, but I was quoted an extra $12,000 to go from a 2 car to 3 car garage on a new build in Indiana.

So the people who think garages are a waste of space, how many living rooms do you have?

Our current house has a 2 car garage, and it's a delicate balance between being able to use it for our cars in the winter, tool storage and bike storage. And we still need a shed for the garden tools.

But we also have a living room and a family room. The living room only ever gets used by the dog. But we can't realistically use that space for anything other than a living room, since it's completely open to the front door. But there seems to be a notion that houses NEED a formal living room.

The new house is getting a 5 car detached garage, and the house itself is no bigger. The basement is designated as our home gym (which, yes, gets fully used) and furnace room. And if we had an attic, it wouldn't be very practical for hauling lawn mowers and bikes up to.

Sorry, OP. I don't know the answer to your question. It shouldn't be too much, as it's concrete and lumber, which are the cheapest parts of the build. But, it varies widely by your builder. Some builders keep costs down by having a limited set of plans. Any variation requires hiring a draftsman and getting the new plans approved by the city. If your builder is one of those, any variation is $$$$.

i'm thinking it depends on why your husband wants the 3rd bay dh spends most of his time in his "shop" ......we're retired....and we purposely built a smaller house so he could have the shop

cost varies greatly depending on where you are...

So just to clarify, I never said that garages were a waste of space. I said they were some of the worst space you could pay for. They far more limited use than most other square footage in your house and they are pretty expensive. The implication of some of these posts is a two car garage doesn't have enough room for a lawnmower. We added a few feet to our garage, plenty of room for my mower, chainsaw, leafblower, a small bench to work on gas tools, chemical storage and four mountain bikes. It didn't take 12 more feet of width. A little organization goes a long way.

You can get a significant amount of that square footage added to your house. I read an article by an architect some time ago that compared the cost of heated space vs. garage space. The number that stuck with me was 1 square foot of garage = .8 square foot of heated space from a cost perspective.

Garages are usually taxed less in the permitting process, they're usually taxed far less in annual property tax valuations, they're cheaper to operate over the course of a year, and depending on jurisdiction, the construction accessories needed to pass muster are usually far less than what is needed within a home.

Most attached garages don't need to extend the wall where the garage attaches to the house, so in one sense that wall is free. In another sense, if there were no garage, then that wall is usually finished to a higher standard than is the case when it is hidden within the garage. Brick siding is not usually extended to within the garage space, so depending on the siding used on the house, having an attached garage could save money on this feature.

No matter the width of the garage, it requires two side and a front. When the width is increased, the two side walls are unchanged, only the front wall is affected. The cost difference here falls on the marginal cost associated with increasing the slab size, adding more doors, lengthening/deepening the ceiling joists, increasing roof coverage, and likely adding beams to stabilize the front wall with doors.

When a house is increased in square footage this involves basement/ crawlspace walls, but in a garage the wall being widened is the wall with the holes in it, the garage doors - air or empty space in walls has a pretty low cost. Space in homes requires drywall, flooring, insulation coverage in the walls and ceiling, windows, lighting, doors, HVAC conditioning, and hallspace of some sort to make the room accessible. The calculation of garage cost being only 80% of interior space cost is wholly dependent on the assumptions underlying the analysis and doesn't ring true to me.

80% doesn't ring true to me, either. Our detached garage is about the same footprint size as the house, and it's costing about 10% to build. 80% would probably be a man cave level garage, with insulation, drywall, fancy epoxy coated floors, high end organization equipment, heat source, etc.

bry911, as I said, my living room is a lot less useful than a garage. And I'm guessing you don't park your cars in your garage, or you have a lot more than a few extra feet. We have the most organized garage most people have ever seen, and no, the lawnmower does not fit, ever. When the cars are in there, there isn't room for the 5 bikes, they have to go down to the basement, which is awkward when DH is still riding to work on a regular basis through the winter. We have a tool box, and a workbench. Both of which are dented by the cars because it's THAT tight in there. There are shelves near the ceiling which hold the large woodworking tools. And as a result, I almost never use them because I can't easily get to them. Well, that, and there's no space to use them IN the garage, so I have to wait for nice weather so I can use them outside. I would never use them in the basement or the living room, because the sawdust would be everywhere in the house.

And having a garage doesn't automatically make someone stupid enough to use the hood of a 67 mustang as a workbench.

We are talking about a garage compared to no garage. I would think that a majority of garage extensions, either don't extend along the finished wall of the house, or will change the roof line, negating any savings from using the exterior wall of the living space.

Residential garages are rarely done as a structual concrete pour, negating the basement opportunity which is some of the most cost effective square footage of a house.

Compare the cost of adding 12 feet to a 24 foot garage to adding 4 feet to a 36 foot wide ranch on a basement, or 2.66 feet for two story on a basement. Efficiency is gained verticly in homes. Garages, without living space above are inefficient because they lose the verticle efficiency, and they are just bad space.

This is without even addressing the limited use of a garage. They are good at storage and bad at almost everything else. This coming from someone who usually only plays on forums as I am waiting for glue up. I live in my shop. There is a reason why so many woodworkers are doing basement shops now. They are just better. They do take planning but you get a more usable space.

I would think no one the planet is stupid enough to use the hood of any car as a workbench. But then again I didn't say or even imply that. I did say a table, a place to sit something on real fast, or a place to lean something on real fast. I understand how you would think I was stupid for leaning something up against a car though, I would have thought the same thing about someone who runs their car into a workbench or toolbox. If only someone had pointed out that the best way to keep from smashing your car into your stuff was to put your stuff in a different room...

At the moment I don't park my cars in the garage as I have a large project in there right now. But I ususally do for the winter. I think my garage is 25 x 24. My wife and I both drive midsize cars, not overly large or anything. I use industrial shelving, the same shelves that they use for shelving at Lowes and Home Depot, that is 36" deep and 120" tall (I got it at a military surplus store). The Shelves are attached to the floor, and there is no bottom shelf so wheeled things go under them. The first shelf is about 4 feet off the ground on most of the unit. The chemical shelf is the only one close to the ground. I keep paints and solvents on that one. Toolbox also rolls under one of the shelves. The workbench is on the back wall, along with all the power tools, all are on wheels and can be rolled out when needed.

You are building an attached garage for 10% of the cost of square footage of your house? I am honestly impressed. I don't think I can get my doghouse bricked for that.

An attached garage uses one wall of the home, either in whole or in part. That's a freebie for the garage. Expensive exterior cladding is not usually extended into the garage. That's a cost savings.

"Cost effective square footage." Don't let slogans confuse your thinking. The cost effectiveness claim only arises when you need to have the concrete foundation wall there for another purpose. Comparing the costs of enclosing a space with 8" thick concrete walls to a 2x4 clad wall puts the 2x4 wall as the most cost effective for enclosing a given area of space. Enlarging your basement by 300 sf is going to be more expensive than enlarging your garage by 300 sf and that's a straight comparison which doesn't account for the cost of building 300 sf of 1st floor living space.

Your 2' 8" of basement wall extension requires two walls to be constructed. The formwork has to be rented and erected and disassembled, the footings have to be extended, the rebar, accessories and concrete have to be paid for. This is labor intensive. Wall framing is a pretty efficient labor process. Widening a garage from 24' to 36" is pretty easy - most of the width is taken up by a door. A phone call to the truss company works to substitute a 36' wide roof truss for the 24' roof truss. The marginal labor cost for erecting a 36' roof truss are not proportional to the size of the truss. Roofing the garage is paid for by the square, so if you increase the are by 300 sq,, depending on the pitch of the roof you will be paying for a bit more than 300 sq ft, of material + labor. The slab pour is proportional. In some jurisdictions, after installing the door, you've now finished the job.

The last point, but certainly not the least, is that the most expensive floor area in the house is the floor area that you don't need. A garage not being able to use attic space is not a negative if you don't want to use attic space or don't have a need for such storage space. To build such space in and to not use it makes the building cost completely wasteful, same too with your 2'8" x width of house of conditioned storage space on the first floor and again on the second floor. There is nothing cost effective about enlarging the size of your house to capture vertical storage space when you don't want, or can't use, that vertical storage space. Wheeling your lawn mower into the house and up to the 2nd floor closet which runs 2'8" wide alongside the back of your house and shoving your lawnmower into that space, no matter how cost effective that space might be in relation to the rest of the house, is not going to appeal to most people, hence any money spent to create such storage space is completely wasted.

Space should be constructed to it's best use. Conditioned space should be used for living, not for storage, to use conditioned space for gross storage is to overbuild that storage space.

So I admit that I was assuming you will extend the brick around the garage. We certainly have to. The garage is already attached to one of the exterior walls. You are assuming that most people would just extend the existing garage such that it takes advantage of existing exterior wall that is currently not used by the garage or in some cases house behind the garage. I don't think that is usually the case, I submit that many, if not most, plans don't have the extra space or will not make use of it for aesthetic reasons. Furthermore, you assume that you aren't going to have to modify the roof on the existing structure. Most people with a 36ft wide house don't just tack on a 36ft wide garage, especially, if the old garage roof ran the same as the house.

Of course, extending your basement 300 square feet will be more expensive than extending your garage 300 square feet. But aside from the fact that those are not apples to apples comparisons. The basement square footage can, as I pointed out above, in my opinion, be better utilized. While you might be able to build a 300 square foot garage cheaper than a 300 square foot basement, the next 300 square feet of additional space in the basement is cheap as hell. If you really want to get cost effective put your garage in the basement.

The idea that storage space should not be conditioned is your opinion. I am of the opinion that many of the items I store do much better in a conditioned space. If that space is cheaper than garage space why in the world wouldn't you condition it? Unless you are going to throw out some cost of heating and cooling number to get the TCO, and again I would ask that you use a fair discount rate in that calculation.

Seriously, you can't, in the same post, assert that garages are a cost effective way to store stuff and then go on a rant about how if you didn't need the attic space it would be wasted...If you didn't need storage space, then either space would be bad. If you do need it then one is better than the other, you have your opinion, I have mine.

To be fair in my original post I never even said anything about building more house just to store stuff. I just talked about how expensive the cost was. I was more or less saying to throw your old bowling trophy away. You really don't need 300 square feet of storage, you need a yard sale.

All of this I have written is addressing my most minor concern about a garage. In my original reply, it got just a couple of words. Again, my problem with garages is that, it is really good space for things with motors and some solvents. It is a really bad space for most other things. A lot of people build bigger garages because their current garage is a mess. If you don't have room to park your cars because you have so much other junk in your garage then build a place for your other junk, or throw it away. The idea of building a covered parking spot so you have a place to put your old clothes is crazy. If you need an area to park your mower then build an area to park your mower. If its a 9 foot wide mower then add a car slot, if not then don't. If you need a spot to park bicycles then build one, you want access from the outside? Throw a door on it, but unless your bicycle has four wheels and weighs a couple of tons then don't add 12 feet to the garage for it. I really have a hard time understanding how you can go from, "I don't have space in my car parking area for my cars because of my table saw," to "I will build another spot for a car". It seems to me the cars are not the problem its maybe the table saw that needed a spot.

I'm sure we can agree that different people have different wants and needs. We're probably the epitome of 'wasteful', since our slightly oversized one-car garage is designated for parking my wife's car, and nothing else. After two snows and an ice storm, try telling her that it isn't needed!

The reason that we're able to use the attached garage for parking only is that we built a 1400 sq ft barn with a loft. That's my space, and I'll probably be able to make enough money working in there to at least pay for it.

Our build is on a desperately tight budget. I'm doing 95% of the building myself, including electrical and plumbing, and we're doing it out-of-pocket so there is no mortgage. For us, the barn and the attached garage were more important than granite countertops in a $100K kitchen.

Anyone who works on cars for a hobby needs extra garage space. Although not always enforced, most of the country is under IRC codes, which specifically prohibit having a non-operational vehicle on the property unless it is inside a building. Even a weekend tinkerer could be cited if an inspector decided to cause trouble. Of course, with the cars they build today, DIY mechanics is going the way of the dodo bird, but that's a another rant altogether.

Only the OP can determine if their wants and needs are in line with the costs. Our garage is a slab, a roof, and three extra walls. The cost to go from 2 cars to 3 couldn't possibly be 80% of the cost of living space. A garage has no plumbing, no HVAC, no windows, no kitchen, minimal electrical, no flooring, no insulation, no interior walls, minimal grade drywall work, no decorative lighting fixtures, no fancy doors or moldings, etc. That's what runs the cost of living space up. Many garages DO have some of the features I listed, but they are not required. I would think a garage would run more like 80% of the cost of unfinished living space.

To clarify the house plan we are looking at shows a 2 or 3 car garage. The only difference is the 3rd car extends to the front of the house little more then the 2 car would.

Doty, are you saying the answers given were a bit more than you asked for?

It all boils down to how you would use the space. If you have two cars and a boat (as does my neighbor), and you live in North Dakota, where both cars and boats winter better indoors, a third stall would be great. If you are looking for space for a lawn mower and some bikes, a larger 2-car garage may be most useful.

Do you need floor space for big things (boats, snowmobiles, etc), or wall space for storage?

I have a 22'x22' two-car garage, and we've gleaned every inch of possible storage from it. Kayaks and car toppers are hung from the ceiling; bikes and the wheelbarrow are hung on the walls; there are shelves above the garage doors and along the walls, with space below shelving for the lawn mower. We are a 3-car family, so one car lives in the driveway. I would rather have a bigger garage - 24' x 24', or more - than a third stall. But that's just me.

This is the most absurd thread I've ever seen. I know GW can be bad for posts asking about a kitchen, and being told there's something wrong with the bathroom. But for someone to ask what the cost is for making a garage bigger to be told they simply don't need a bigger garage and to get rid of stuff is just plain rude.

How any family uses their garage is nobody else's business. If they want unconditioned space for storing boxes of bowling trophies, that's their prerogative. But not everyone who has or wants a big garage has loads of crap.

And telling me I don't need a "car space" for table saws is semantics. Would it really make you feel better if instead of "5 car garage", I said we are building a "2 car garage with an attached, unheated, open concept, 24x28 workshop"? Yes, putting things in different rooms would be nice, but you realize that requires even more space, right? By not having a wall, walking aisles can be shared. But once you put up a wall, you need 2 walking spaces.

And BTW, I am not innocent of having useless crap. But it's not in the garage. My current basement is a warren of small closets (built by previous owners). Those closets are out of site, out of mind, and I'm a little afraid of having to go through them when we move. And that's what happens when you make storage out of hard to access spaces like attics and basements. Stuff gets shoved in never to be seen again.

Sorry guys, I am not following why adding a 12x12 storage room (and corresponding basement) into your house (or an equivilent number throughout your house), needs plumbing, anything more than a relocated window, maybe one additional, it will still share the same walls of the house as a garage, minimum flooring, not even sure if you would add heating, it just needs minimum drywall work, 24 feet of insulation. I am sorry I am not seeing the cost here. A big closet, or a few smaller closets are just not that expensive to build.

If you are comparing your garage square footage to your kitchen square footage then no that 80% number is not going to work. If you are comparing closets and storage areas in your house to a garage then that number seems completely reasonable.

Mush - you are doing exactly what I said people should do. You are building a garage for car parking (or boat, kind of forgot about those), and a seperate space for non car parking. You are doing exactly what I said a builder should do, think about how they will use the space then build accordingly. Build a 3, 4 or 5 car garage, if you have, or might have running or otherwise, 3, 4 or 5 cars. If however, your tablesaw is blocking your cars from getting in, then build a shop, not add a parking spot to your garage.

Adding a 12x12 space onto the garage requires extending the pad, 2 walls and a roof. If you want to use it as a workshop, it'll need a little more electrical. It doesn't necessarily need insulation, even if it's an attached garage. It doesn't need to be heated.

Adding that same space to the house requires all of the above, PLUS extending the basement and perhaps the second floor above it. If you don't want it heated, then it complicates the insulation and duct runs of the main house. (This I know from experience, since I'm getting my dream of a cold storage room in the basement.) If the space isn't as accessible as the garage, then it becomes difficult to bring in 4x8 sheets of project wood, or whatever other project you want to use your shop for. So it needs to be on an exterior wall on the ground floor, which means fewer windows in the living space.

Adding a "parking" spot to the garage allows you to build it for less cost, and it keeps it flexible. Maybe this year I'm going to build all the cabinets for the house. Maybe next year my husband is going to take up welding. Or maybe a future homeowner is going to collect antique cars. Or we can build a wall and rent out one bay to someone. Or maybe they just want space to hold onto their kids' toys forever. It really does make more sense to use a garage for this than a corner somewhere inside the house.

You can disagree all you want, it's not your house. And luckily for you, houses with extra large garages are rarer than standard 2 car ones. You don't need to trash on those of us who want the bigger garages.

You essentially called me stupid when I admitted to damaging a car, as anectdotal evidence as to why, in MY OPINION, garages make bad work spaces. Now I am trashing on you?

I started my response by saying MY OPINION was "pretty far" in the minority. I then give MY OPINION and support it with my reasoning. For which I get taken to task by you, Amber. I then clarified my position, after which you inferred I was stupid, since then I have been keel hauled pretty decently for my most minor point. Then finally you chastise me for not respecting YOUR OPINION. Oh the irony.

I didn't say garages were expensive space, I said garages are expensive STORAGE space. I have no problem with the expense of garage workshops, welding shops, craft shops, or even as flexible space. I never said anything about money and any of those things, my reasoning for preferring space other than garages for those things were listed above.

Now to be fair I did lash back so not like I am all innocently persecuted either.

In the end, I don't care if you build a garage on your house. In fact, I don't care if you build your house upside down. But since I am one of the few who believe that garages are not great, I thought I would give my 2 cents.

I apologize for implying you were stupid. I missed that you were saying you did this, and thought you meant that someone might. I'm the woodworker in my house, and DH is the car guy. I live in fear of damaging any of his vehicles when I am working, but I'd probably be more casual if they were my own cars.

I get defensive because the garage is the reason we are building at all. In this city, 2 car families are almost the minimum. Oversized pickup trucks almost seem mandatory. (Seriously, a conversation recently at work -an IT company- the guys were razzing each other for "only" having a Ford F-150, apparently that's a girl's truck. :P) And yet 3 car garages are a luxury even at the multi-million $ level. I've even had realtors defend their puny garages on new homes by saying "well, if we made the garage bigger, we'd have to make the house smaller." So? How many rooms do you have in this house that can't even be used for storage, because it would take away from the grand impression you are trying to make by having this room at all? Extra living rooms and massive ensuite bathrooms are very limited in their potential usage, but they are often argued as "necessary".

I also get defensive at the notion that because we are building a big garage, we must have too much junk. We're not hoarders! :)

A garage can be a garage, or storage, or a workshop, or a gym, or a man cave, etc. One friend made hers into an artist's studio. My first apartment was a converted garage space. There's so much you can do with garage space beyond storing cars and other junk. Adding just a few extra feet to just store a lawn mower limits potential on the garage. A full 3 bays can be split up with a wall and made into a 2 car garage and single bay workshop. A slightly bigger 2 car garage can only ever be a slightly bigger 2 car garage, because that extra 4' can't be made into its own room.

Sure, there's an argument that it's a waste to build a shell of a building that you may never need more than half of. But if you only build the half to start with, and then need to add on, it's even more expensive. I'd rather build a garage that's not used than build house space that's not used.

Oh, and if we had asked the city for permission to build a 2 car garage and 24x28 workshop, we'd have been denied. They'd have assumed we want the workshop for commercial use, which isn't allowed in a residential area. But call it an oversized 4 car garage, and we're just yuppies with too many cars. :)

In my family, I am the woodworker. I have property with a lot of walnut that I swap around. These days I have mostly been building Morris Chairs and matching sofas.

My workshop is 18 x 24 and is attached to the garage. I built it as an addition to the garage. Now my workshop takes over the garage often. Even though I spent a decent amount heating and cooling my workshop it is still very uncomfortable in the winter and in the warmest part of the summer.

I just lost all of my water based paints and stains along with all my glue to a freeze. I had collected probably 40 gallons of good water based stains and another 50 custom color combinations in quart containers, all now unlidded and filled with saw dust.

Many of the things that people want to do in a garage it is simply unsuited for. If you are building a workshop that you are calling a garage for zoning purposes, that is different. I assume you will be conditioning the space, etc.

The garage size that is right for you, might be wrong for someone else. It depends so much on geography, weather & lifestyle. It isn't just about Americans storing a lot of stuff - it seems anytime a family settles in for a long period of time, accumulation occurs. :) But there are very active people with kayaks and surfboards and 5 bikes and ice hockey gear and all the wonderful stuff that is involved in raising children or pursing a great hobby.

I personally love outbuildings, and prefer a property dotted with them over a large garage. A potting shed here, a bike garage there. A carpentry workshop and tractor barn near the stream. Don't forget the greenhouse! All built over time. But many properties do not allow for this, and around here nobody has a basement or a real attic. My friends in the midwest have a 1500sf basement filled to the brim with seasonal items and wonder why the Californians (who rarely have a basement of any size) want a big garage? I have had attic storage space before, but as a smallish woman I never could manage the stepladder type access with a bin or a box by myself! Plus the lighting is terrible. Garage storage is easier to get to and works wonderfully for bulk storage of paper products and holiday decorations, fishing supplies and old baby clothes that will eventually be turned into a quilt. All of which would crowd my house and turn it into a cluttered mess if I tried to find space for it.

As for cost: when we were "cutting" items from our build to make it more affordable, we suggested sizing down to a 2 car garage or even (gulp) getting rid of it (as a detached structure) entirely and doing it later. Our builder told us that the cost was negligible. I asked for the delta and he wouldn't even provide a number, he said it was so small. So in our case, the garage square footage was an awesome (and affordable) addition of covered storage and work space. If you end up with a builder who prices things differently it might cost a lot more. If you are building a basement - having the extra 1 car garage space might be less important.

someone had pointed out that the best way to keep from smashing your car into your stuff was to put your stuff in a different room...

Like maybe In the 3rd garage stall:)

Why put it in a third garage stall?

Bry911 could not be more incorrect. The cost difference between building a 3 car and a 2 car is minimal if it is part of a new house build. An empty garage stalls the BEST place to swing a hammer. Do you really want to carry lumber into your basement? If someone damages a car working in an empty stall then they shouldn't be allowed to the work in the first place.

Best boiled down to:

think about how [you] will use the space then build
accordingly. Build a 3, 4 or 5 car garage, if you have--3, 4 or 5 cars. If however, your tablesaw is
blocking your cars from getting in, then build a shop, not add a parking
spot to your garage.

One extra point : Though separate storage buildings for bicycles etc. seem to make sense, good ones almost built like small homes, are costly but don't add the value on resale of an extra garage bay. Plus, unless you can figure out how to alarm them, they're easy prey to midnight shoppers.

I would suggest making a list of all the things you plan to keep in your garage and then figure out what you need. Assuming you don't have finished space above the garage, the cost difference between 2 and 3 car is not that much - on the other hand, if you ever need extra space and plan to add a detached garage that may cost a lot more - depending on your neighborhood / county requirements. We have two car + workshop area - the total size is of a 3 car garage. The work area has windows and separate door and we can easily put wall to separate the two area to condition the work shop area. In addition to two vehicles, we store, garbage bin, multiple recycle bin, lawn mowing equipment, various lawn maintenance equipment, my gardening bench and tools, 4 different size ladders, extra soil, and DH's tools in the area. We don't use it as storage space for unnecessary stuff. We are very happy with the extra space we have.

While I cannot help you with the additional cost figures, we are just in the beginning stages of building. Met with drafting company two days ago, I drew my own plan in photoshop based upon our current floor plan. We are in Florida and NO basements and having had far more 2 car garages, this time it WILL be a 3 car. We have workout equipment which already takes up 1 bay of our 2 car garage in our rental house and we workout daily first thing in the morning. I have a LOT of garage storage cabinets, 25 fishing rods to store, tackle, lawn tractor, yard tools etc. It IMHO is the cheapest space you can buy. Extend the front of the garage wall and the pad and add one garage door. What they call a 2 CG here is a joke, I have a full size Tundra that won't even fit in our garage. New house will have a 3 car garage 36' x 28' and in many many communities here including the island we bought land on, you cannot have an outside storage shed which I have never really cared for anyway.

I work out every other day and would prefer doing it in an air conditioned space than in a hot garage in summer in FL. That's why I'm building rooms that do double duty. So my guest room is also my gym. Yes it may cost more than a third garage bay but I will be more comfortable not being in the heat and humidity in the garage.

I am old school, no sweat, no pain and no gain. I have no issues working out in 90 degree plus hot weather and when I am done, dripping with sweat and it is well worth it. To each their own.

Just my two cents, this is regional thing. I do not know if building a third bay is worth it in AZ, but in some areas of US it is a wise investment. Based on jurisdiction garage may not be taxed unlike a living space. Garage bay could be adding to the vertical efficiency if it has unfinished room over it.

Here nearly every builder is using space above the garage. Three bay and four bay garages are nearly everywhere even at mid range homes part of the track subdivision. The cost difference minimal.

So far, I've only read a few responses that really comes close to answering the question. Nobody asked about practicality... they only asked about cost.

And this thread is over 3 years old so why are you bringing it back up?

Yikes, another old thread...!

Somebody angry their spouse wont let them have a third bay!!!!

Friends, I really need your help. I want to buy a car. More precisely not only myself. For the whole family. Family car for comfortable trips. Tell me, please, what better car to take. Thank you very much!

And how large is your family...

> Friends, I really need your help. I want to buy a car. More precisely not only myself. For the whole family.

Have you considered hiring an architect? An architect can design and build a car you will love. He will interview your entire family to gather the requirements and will decide the proper car orientation. Your crazy aunt Sally wants a space on both of her sides for her favorite cats - no problem, she will love our new design. Space for your pet hamster - we will provide the wheel. 60 Gallon aquarium in the center for your pet shark - what a great idea. An architect can help you avoid costly car mistakes like: closets with no window, the gas chambers, wardrobe closet at the end of a bathroom. [Sorry could not help it]

-Pizdabolka

Or...do what thousands of consumers do...go online and download a car from one of the car plan factories. Then post here, asking for advice on changes...Sorry, couldn't help it!

Thank you for lightening up my day!

My family consists of 5 people. Every day I go to work, I bring my children to school. To go to work is not very far away, but I want to buy a car so that it is convenient to get out of town with the children. Found Hyundai
Verna what do you think?

OMG---It's the garage discussion...brought back to life. Hide the small children and pets...

"OMG---It's the garage discussion...brought back to life"

And not over the garage but what type of car to buy................................

There are some things which simply can't be explained...

No not the garage thread again. The exact

price of a third bay at the undisclosed location with undisclosed cladding/siding/brick/trim windows etc. The exact price is $9424.42. Because obviously 42 is the meaning of life. Please let this thread die.

Up from the grave they arose...