Pro's and con's of a garage under the house

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Around here code changed within the past few years requiring substantially more fixed, permanent ventilation in garages regardless of whether they are under living areas or not. I don't know if this is a national change or just local. In any event, more ventilation would ease a lot of your ocncerns.

[njrqs]

Our garages under houses have no ventilation requirements at all.

Hey mine is sealed is tight as I can to try and stop the snakes getting it !!

Cheers [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

I disagree. We have had underhouse garages in our last three houses, two of which I built. We really like them. This forces us to insulate, heat, and finish off the area. You come out in the am in the winter to a nice warm car. At night you come home to a nice warm garage. My wife loves it because she can take her time getting kids in, groceries, etc. I like it because I have a warm garage to work in, put wood in, etc. You have a climate controlled area that you can put your freezer, an extra refrig., etc.

As far as exhaust goes we don't have to warm up the cars so we just open the door and go. There is no exhaust buildup. We don't start or close the door until the cars are shut off.

You can do the same things with a detached garage but this always seemed easier to me.

[Scott_IN_WVa]

I agree to disagree.[img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]Whoopee

[Mosey]

Joe - I'm coming in on this one a little late, but thought I'd chime in anyway. I lived in a house with the garage under the bedrooms and hated it! It was not insulated, so the bathroom froze in the winter a few times. The floor was cold. If you insulated it, then it might be OK. Another problem I had was that if I got up early and someone else wanted to sleep in I would wake them up when I opened the garage door which made rattling noises and vibrated the bedroom floor, and if that didn't wake them up then starting the truck would! Again, enough insulation might solve that. What I have now is a garage attached via a breezeway and I like it a lot.

[billfires]

Joe, we are in our second raised ranch with garage under. This one is 26' wide by 29' deep with two 8' high by 9' wide doors. It is completely insulated including the ceiling. The doors are insulated steel (R-11 if I remember correctly). I used a 1500 watt milk house heater and the lowest temp this winter was 50 degrees when the outside temp was below 0. If you don't need the space for living I think it is a good alternative to an attatched or stand alone garage (and a good deal cheaper, too). Hope this helps, Bill C

[roho627]

Hey Pros seems to outweigh cons for me! Anybody got a site where a person could see house above the garage or garage apartment plans! Am interested in looking at plans!

[JP11]

Plans for us:

Have a daylight basement. Drive in for garage on back side of house. Front side ground level will be my wife's photography studio.

All will be heated, no concerns there. No worry about occasional under studio noise. We plan to install a wood boiler, and have a large utility room with wood storage and central vac, water works, etc etc all in the utility room across the back of the garage.

I think that if you dont EVER run the vehicle in the garage other than in and out of the building.. it isn't much of an issue.

Looking forward to my radiant floor heat throughout the house, including my warm garage. Even better that it will be heated from wood I collect from my own 70 acres.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

JP

[roho627]

hey JP sounds good, U ain't got any plans going or any early pics to share! BTW, have U got a good website that's got plans for such a place! Sounds nice Good luck!

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> Anybody got a site where a person could see house above the garage or garage apartment plans! </font color>

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