I'm a licensed home inspector in North Carolina. When I find a garage door that is less than 18' wide, I point out to my clients that it is a "one and a half" garage, i.e. intended for one car and then storage, workshop, or golf cart, etc. I find this to be a deceptive building practice, *especially* given the bloat of vehicle size in the last 25 years.
My dad had a garage door company in Los Angeles, I would help him measure for new installs I would only see 18’ wide doors maybe 0.5% of the time in wealthy areas. Also rare are 8’ tall garages entry and double door that lets you pass through into the backyard.
@@uhohhotdogsounds like he's an Ai bot trying to create false controversy. That comment has nothing to do with this video or the comment he replied to.
Your analysis misses one point. Production home builders have learned that they can sell homes for $x per square foot of living space. They get no living square footage credit for closets, storage rooms, and garages. They maximize square feet of living area by eliminating closets (no more coat closets, for example) and utility rooms (put the water heater in the garage, the furnace in the attic....) That's another reason why garages are also tiny now.
@@johannajohnson4069 includes closets, but not garages right? so he is correct that mls would drive garage sizes down because you sell based on sq ft that does not count garage size.
I'm renting a place with a 6ft wide x 20' hallway, and a garage opening of 76". Not many cars will fit. The stairs from the garage and up to the second floor are nearly impossible to bring assembled furniture in.
When we built our house I purposefully made a 27’ wide 42’ deep garage with an oversized 20’x9’ garage door. It’s so nice to actually have a garage that’s actually usable unlike all the other homes in my neighborhood.
When I put a deck on the second story, I decided to make it 14' and have a car port under it where I could work on the car. Made the shed at the end 54" wide so I could park the mower in it if I ever bought another one bigger than my 42". Now my 26x 36 garage is empty. :(
HaHa, that's just an attached pole barn. I have a 28' x 28' with an 18" door. I can park 2 of the largest pick ups available and store my 67 Firebird with plenty of room to spare.
I'm from SoCal. I noticed that once overall property price per sq/ft went over ~$1000 (and this is 5 years BEFORE the pandemic) people started using their garages as gyms, work space, etc. To the point that in zip 90272 people were parking $300k McLarens ON THE STREET under a car cover! Currently I live in south central Idaho... there's a house on the market - 12,000 sq/ft for $18m+ that has a two car garage. Deal breaker. I love that you're looking at this a factor in property values - I think it says a lot about residential real estate.
I’d call this a strong argument for building houses without garages where house prices are high and lots are small. If you have a driveway in the front of the house, which should fit without much hassle given mandatory setbacks, you can park a car on your property with a cover, and not give over precious living space to a car.
@@victoriab8186 I would rather have a place to park my car and keep it clean indoors Then again I live in the Bay Area where I have no hope of ever being able to afford even a townhouse let alone a SFH (I make mid 100ks but you need a ~400-500k household income for that here)
I'm estimating the value of the McLaren as $5k per sq ft that it takes up in the garage. So yeah, that's crazy. I do understand wanting the home gym, though.
In California this problem is being solved in the worst way possible. Houses are now so expensive that it's normal for multiple families or multiple generations of the same formerly independent family to move into the same house. When that happens there is always excess furniture that won't fit inside, so the garage is used purely for storage, a couple of cars are parked in the driveway, and a few more on the street.
Or even get converted into living space, keeping the door, but inside covering with sheetrock, and having a window on the side. Outside looks the same, but now an extra bedroom is there, or even split it in half and build a tinier bedroom and shower toilet into it as well.
@@SeanBZA What I see a lot where I live (Nebraska) is that people build large detached garages in their backyards. (Often two story.) If they are lucky it can be accessed from an ally. In my neighborhood, all the houses were originally duplexes that were built in the 1950s with a carport in front of a storage shed. Most lots are still duplexes but a lot of them the carport and the storage shed have been removed and a 24' x 24' garage or 24' x 48' garage is in the back yard. Occasionally you see a one-car garage. (12' x 22' ?) My duplex still has the storage shed but no carport.
This is me. My MiL moved in a few years ago after her husband passed away, and my garage was used as a storage unit. Then once we got it all taken care of, my daughter moved back in after losing her apartment due to circumstances beyond her control, so once again, garage is storage. Along with the additional furniture, I also have a motorcycle, lawn mower, deep freeze, and a 2nd refrigerator in the garage. Maybe one day I can use it for my car and I won't have to deal with hail damage, or trying to uncover it after 6 inches of snow.
That new normal is actually pretty old-school. It used to be perfectly normal to find multiple generations living in one house. Their horses all lived in the same stable as well.
I spent 6 years as an electrical inspector in the Eastern suburbs of Seattle. I was in and out of 4-6 houses on average each day. In all that time, I saw less than a dozen garages that had 2 cars in them. The vast majority were crammed full of stuff that wasn't worth 2 payments on the cars sitting outside in the rain.
@@JonathanMurray Since I have as much in tools as I do two new(ish) cars, might just as well keep the tools and buy a new car when I need to go somewhere. 😁
To those who commented earlier, I suspect our inspector is talking about random boxes of junk that so many people hold on to forever and ever. My elderly neighbor recently passed away and his family has had a terrible time going through all of his junk. He was a first-class hoarder, and he had no room at all in the garage, attic, living room, bathroom, or any bedroom, apparently.
@@TheRealScooterGuy the conclusion I draw from that is that the vast majority of people do not actually want bigger garages. That's why. The few people who want gigantic garages because they want to rotate their car around inside the garage is a very loud minority. People just want more living space or storage space for their junk. I don't get why a garage needs to be 24x24. Do you have a car lift in there so that you can work under it safely? If it's purpose is to shelter the car and prevent thefts, then 16x24 is more than sufficient and takes up 4% less space than 20x20. PS: I don't have a garage. Car's in the driveway. It has a roof, and that is enough shelter. The car will not be damaged from a little bit of heavy rain when it is windy, because it isn't a cybertruck. I actually drive the thing OUTSIDE, in the weather! 😁
this reminds me of a friend who last year and got a storage space for nearly a year costing over $500 per month., $6,000 per year. It was all old cloths, some junk furniture, nothing anyone would want. I bet it wasn''t worth more than $2,000. After a year, he actually just gave it to charity. .
I live in New Mexico and this could not be more accurate (except for the rain... our vehicles get sand blasted and rot in the extreme UV). I just measured my garage, and it's 18' x 18.5'. Relatively new build house. My mid-size truck doesn't fit in it. Worse, the driveway is so short, my mid-size truck juts out into the sidewalk as it's parked outside. So does everyone else's--let alone the full size trucks and SUVs, so the neighborhood is filled with vehicles parked outside and along the curb. To fit in more houses, the roads are also not wide enough for cars to be parked on both sides, so it's functionally a one-lane road most of the time. The situation is stupid. There are lots of solutions to have functional places to park your vehicles... You could offset the house on the lot and have the garage encroach on the backyard, or have a drive through to the backyard like many mid-century constructions. I have lots of worthless space in my house which isn't actually useful. The designs of the cookie cutter houses are hardly high design. Regardless, if you're not going to build a garage large enough to fit a vehicle, why bother building a garage? Give me a bigger house... a non-functional garage is not useful for anyone. If they're meant to be shops or storage spaces--which might be desirable --build them as such! Garages rarely have electrical on all the walls, and basically never have added wall storage.
@@brayoungfulthanks for sharing your situation. I agree if they can’t build useful garages, they shouldn’t even bother. So infuriating. I hope buyers stop purchasing homes with useless garages and maybe developers will get the message.
90's home owner here. My garage is 26x22. We park two suv's in it. Have 2 storage racks, refrigerator, deep freezer, tool box chest, wall cabinets with work bench, air compressor, hot water heater and just enough space to open both car doors (one vehicle at a time).
Car fumes can't be in the house for health reasons. So if a garage is part of a house, it should definitely be used as storage, a cooking unit, or a sleepover area.
Nice - I have a small linked house (a small SUV would be cramped in there) but I managed to build a workbench adjacent to my 80s classic (a Hyundai!) and also an extra strip of storage between the upper room and the dividing wall. Sure, it's only 2 feet wide, but it's also like 18 feet long. Creative milk crate stacking FTW!
My house was built during peak boomer opulence in 1997. True 3 car garage at 26X34, with a 9X26 tool room, so 26X43 all combined. The luxury of being able to fully open the car doors and trunk with the garage doors closed is another level. Its quite a contrast to our first house which had a car port where I did my own oil changes during the dead of winter in Indiana.
I'm generally disgusted at people's unusable garages being filled with junk they hardly use. I have a one car garage with tools/workbench , can work with a car parked in there. If I don't touch something for 1-2 years it always goes in the dumpster gonzo.
@@FieldBoy111 me too. I cannot figure it out when I see there is a wall of junk in their garage; their cars getting destroyed by the weather outside. I am thankful for the little garage that I have as a nice clean place to keep the cars from getting weathered; but I don't get to choose for other people what they believe is important. I don't even get to choose what I think is important; I can only witness what I think is important after the fact.
There’s a neighborhood in my town that was built during that time period that was started in 1997 that has mostly 3 car garages like that. I want one so bad 😂
@@FieldBoy111 we moved a year ago and I left a few things in the garage that the old owner left. I just did the first annual garage cleaning and tossed out anything I did not even touch in a year. I did keep a few pieces of scrap wood because one day......
When I was building my house in 2013 the floor plan we chose had an option to extend the 2 car portion of the 3 car garage. I opted to do so and today I have in my garage 3 cars, and at the front about 3-4' of shelving, cabinetry, tool chests, welder, air compressor, shop press, a fridge, workbench, etc. That still leaves about 6' between the front of my wife's Honda Pilot (our longest vehicle) and the workbench. There is so much room for activities.
Sounds like our 3 car garage. We built in 2012 with extra large 3 car garage. We have had 3 cars in there, including a pick up truck. We now have 2 cars in there. We hung all our extra paintings in the garage. The work bench is big. Plenty of room for our bikes and shelving for storage and a full fridge. Never skimp on garage space. You’ll always use it.
I almost didn’t watch it because I didn’t think it should take 15 min to explain why garages are so small. But I persisted and I’m glad I did because it also provides a great explanation as to why developers no longer build single story ranch houses. I found the details on how the space gets eaten up to be very informative.
Older people often can’t negotiate the stairs or don’t want to live on two levels, knowing that as they age they will be better off in a one story. Most of my older relatives have moved to one story houses built in the 80s.
Meanwhile my house in Arizona was a single story ranch with a 3 car garage big enough to park a long bed c20 and have room to walk around it and work on it without opening the garage door.
I live in Hollywood Florida. My house was built in 1946. The garage is 15 feet long (taking account the stairs into the kitchen). It is 10’ 9” wide. Barely even a 1 car garage, and certainly no trucks allowed! Thank you for this video. It really made me think in a different direction.
My house was built in 1976. 2200 sq ft colonial on a 100’x150’ lot. The 2-car side turn garage measures 32W x 24’ Deep. The garage door is 18’ long. After watching this video, I understand completely how lucky I am to have what I have. I parked my GMC Sierra pick up and my wife’s GMC terrain in the garage every single day.
My old house that I bought when I was single was built in 1985 and is a 910 sq ft 2bd/1bath with a 2 car 22x26 ft garage 😂 We were able to park my buddies Grand Prix GTP in there and pull the motor with an engine hoist during the winter without opening the garage door. It was fabulous.
I realized years ago that it wasn't so much that I wanted a house, but that I wanted a garage (after having lived in a townhouse with a one-car garage). While shopping for my current house, I asked for a three-car garage and quarter-acre lot. Since I insist on parking my vehicles in the garage, I don't store so much in my garage that I can't park inside. So I have two vehicles in the garage, an evolving shop, and shelving on the walls. I don't have ATVs, golf carts, Harleys, etc. If I can't fit other things in the garage with the vehicles there, I do without. My vehicles being out of the weather and less susceptible to break ins is my top priority. I wish more people had this approach. Your video is very informative and I know that if I ever have to move, I'm definitely taking a tape measure into the garage.
I'm the opposite. My 2.5 car garage has the motorcycle and a workshop. My cars get parked outside most of the time. I'm thinking about a canopy to keep the bird poo and sun off them.
Yes, a big garage is the best thing in the world if you're someone who enjoys your outdoor hobbies. It's such a terrible shame what developers are doing to this beautiful part of the American(or in my case Australian) dream.
Residential architect and car enthusiast here. I have never considered anything smaller than 24x24 for a 2 car garage and with the popularity of full sized trucks, I am now making them 26 feet deep at a minimum. My most recent client was adamant during planning that the attached garage was large enough and they pushed and pushed to make the house larger to the point that it was against the site setbacks on all 4 sides. This was a custom home on a large lot. 0.6 acres. Low and behold, now that the project is finished, they say their 26ft x 32ft 3 car (2 cars, one bay for kids stuff) garage is too small and that they can't park their 2 primary vehicles next to each other because the 16 foot wide double door is too narrow. We even did some serious structural gymnastics to make sure there would be zero posts in the garage. While I watched your video I was not surprised to see that cars are getting wider too. In the future, we will only be considering 18ft single double wide doors. Or 9 foot wide single doors at a minimum.
My wife and I both park in the garage. I back in and park as close to her as possible to get the most door space on either side of the garage. It means we can't get to the passenger door, but if we need to we can pull out of the garage and let the passenger in after. We drive a Subaru Forester and a Hyundai Elantra. So many people in our development park in their driveway or in the street and this video really clears up why for me.
i'm betting youre in an hoa... Took me a while but i figured out i needed to build a really nice looking 'carport' for my cars (and er.. plane) and use my garage as a workshop
Have an outback and Forester and we do the same. I back in and my wife is front forward. Gives us extra space,I just can't use my passenger side which is fine. My wife's vehicle we can still use all sides even if limited.
Yep, we do the same. She pulls in and I back in super close to her. It works. And I still have room on the sides to house tool benches and cabinets on the walls for storage. Cars are too expensive to leave them out in the driveway to get hailed on.
I do a lot of walking, and I walk through a lot of developments. I noticed many people use a garage for storing "junk," not their vehicles. My house was built in 1960 and has a 24×24 garage.
That's infuriating lol it shouldn't be but my house doesn't have a garage and seeing bonheads with heaps of junk in their garage just bugs me to no end..
The neighbor behind me has a two-port garage, but they have never ever driven a car out of it; they had a broken down car sitting in the driveway for about two years, though.
Excellent post. I custom design homes. My garage in house is 48'x24'. Yes, a four car garage with a bit of wall storage along the outsides. I think a two car garage should be 27'x24' so that passengers can swing their doors open freely without hitting a wall or another vehicle. 27x27 will even allow room for exercise equipment or storage. Modern houses have already lost enough: sitting room, crafts room, mud room, foyer, separation of kitchen and dining room, parlor, guest room, family room, children's playroom, laundry room, veranda, patio, etc.
I'm glad you put this topic in a video. I noticed a consistent downsizing of garages back in 1999, and wondered why. Most of us get upset when we find a scratch on our car from a parking lot encounter, but it can happen in your own garage, even if you're careful.
Car fumes can't be in the house for health reasons. So if a garage is part of a house, it should definitely be used as storage, a cooking unit, or a sleepover area.
@@aucklandnewzealand2023 When you pull into a garage the car is only running for a few seconds before you turn it off. When you leave it's on for 30 seconds max. I guess this only applicable to those snowflakes that want to have their car running for 5 minutes before leaving in the morning to "warm up", but it's parked in a garage so it wouldn't be terribly cold
@@hunter371 EVs solve that fume problem. Fumes won't matter in 10 years for most people. Lawn equipment is already way better if you buy electric. Mopeds, golf carts, and ebikes are all electric. As EV prices fall with safe chemistries that don't burn down your house like LFP, electric will continue to take over.
One way that might work to handle the F150 and Camry in a too small garage is to first give up on the passenger doors. Just worry about the driver getting in and out. The passengers can get in and out in the driveway. Then we just need room in the garage for the driver door to open. If that's still not sufficient, try parking the F150 by driving forward into the right side of the garage and the Camry by backing into the left side of the garage. Park both as close to the wall as you can.
The alternative. Park the 2 vehicles as close as possible and you can park them without angling. Left side vehicle is nose-in, right side is tail-in. You can access the driver doors through the space along the wall. Yes, you are using 2 corridors for door access, but if the space between garage door and wall is significant, angling would still be wasting space anyways.
This is such a great solution -- backing one vehicle in on the left side to keep both drivers' doors swinging into a shared central clear space. Well done, @timsmith8489!
I fit my F-350 into my garage in a kinda similar way. I can’t fit it at all if I back in because it’s 83.5” tall with the Tremor package, but if I pull in forwards then I get about 1/2 inch of clearance. I then have my corvette back in next to it. This gives me 3-4 feet of drivers side space for both vehicles.
Many builders include minimal garage depths as a standard feature but offer extensions of various lengths as extra cost options. It’s a profit center for them, just like upgraded countertops or floor coverings.
Indeed I noticed that in New development near us houses have a minimal 1.5 car garage but they'll sell you a full size extra garage as a bump out for additional $$$$$
I actually wonder if this is how my house was designed. Garage is really small, but directly behind the garage was a big concrete deck. This deck could have held a tank. Maybe they would spec that out so that if the owner wants they could extend the garage over the deck. Unfortunately I did have to tear that out when weeping tiles had to be redone.
If I was building a new house I would spend the money on things that only made sense (cents!) doing upfront. So adding at least 4 feet to 3 sides of the garage just to be able to open car doors and park the 50" zero turn inside, and vaulted ceilings in the house which are often optional and are NOT something I wanna try adding 5 or 10 years later. I can easily upgrade countertops or carpet anytime.
Living in an area where hurricanes sometimes happen (SE Texas Gulf Coast region), I think that the solution is to have the first floor entirely for the garage / workshop area and the second floor as the first living quarters floor... That way, flooding becomes more of just an inconvenience since it doesn't affect where you are actually living... We don't have basements around here...
@@seanseoltoir that's the general plan along the Gulf Coast too, but something to think about are the later years when old knees don't like those stairs. My parents have an upper floor they never see anymore because of joint problems.
And the storage problem is even worse where there are no basements. My garage can fit two small cars but nothing else. I fit one car, a golfcart, and some shelves in my "two" car garage.
@@wolfpackflt670an Old School single-car garage seemingly designed to fit a Volkswagen or a model t? What's the single family homes that were built in the 50s and early 60s around here seem to be in that boat if the house had a single car garage. I find that quite ironic as American coops at that time period were huge and would not fit in the garage is on most of these houses. That probably explains why most of these houses have converted the garage into more living space. For most people their garages could not fulfill it's purpose as a garage.
Everybody has "junk" to store - mowers, bicycles, trash bins, tools. They plan for huge walk-in pantry's these days but neglect the other necessities of modern life.
And your garage might have your furnace, hot-water heater, and washer and dryer. We ended up parking our minivan in our last garage and my '06 Corolla ended up sitting outside. Just not worth the hassle to get it parked and work around utility installments.
Well researched and presented, especially all the historical data! I have often wondered why guys with trucks are building structures where the trucks don't fit! Thanks.
Just built a new garage replacing my old unattached one. The car garage part of it is 32 wide x 28 deep with 16’ and a 9’ doors. Love it. Perfect depth for full size pickup. Would be crowded if I actually tried to park 3 vehicles in it. But that was never the plan. Best part, there’s another 32x28 finished workshop behind the garage area. Mid-life accomplishment.
While I prefer the 24x24 I refuse to go less than 22x22. I had gotten to a point with my last agent when I was moving 3 years ago that I told them flat out "If there isn't a "true-2-car" garage that I can park both cars with doors open without touching anything, I WILL NOT BUY IT" .. I thought it was insane that I had to get that aggressive about such a simple topic. The garage (my cars) are equally as important as the entire rest of the house to me.
Real estate people should not call it a garage if not 24’ long and 12’ wide for each vehicle. They seem to think putting a garage door on a storage space makes a garage. And new construction buyers beware the location of furnace and water heater. Some builders will poach square footage in the garage making part of the garage too small.
If I were you, I would buy a house with a triple garage. My current house has a triple garage. It is so refreshing to see how many things you can store in that garage, in addition to my 2 vehicles.
i didn’t realize garages were that small. im probably not buying a house for years, but it’ll be something in the back of my mind to go for a big garage
Smaller cars are another solution. A little EV won't take up a whole lot of space that could have been living space, and you won't have to pour fuel down its throat either.
@@tealkerberus748The only small EVs cost the same or more than the bigger ones with much more range that are more practical all around as well as more reliable
I would like to give you 5 thumbs up simply for using imperial AND metric units throughout your entire video! Damn so few youtubers ever do this - thanks so so much! Cheers from Germany.
"Can I park this car in my garage?" should be a part of any test drive, even if you have to annoy the salesman by ending up buying the car from another dealership to get the color and options you want. My neighbors in the same development just sold the first-generation Toyota Highlander they've had for 15 years and bought a Corolla Cross. I told them you know you've had a car a long time when you have to go "down" two nameplates just to get the same size again.
It's wild! We've got a highlander about that age as well and when getting a replacement the new highlanders are massive! We ended up getting a rav4. I believe the cross might be slightly smaller than the old highlander. Idk how people drive things that massive. I've got a fairly new camry and even that thing is l o n g. That Honda pilot comparison was wild. I'd love a tiny car like that.
Subaru Outbacks have gotten so massive that the current Forester is about comparable to the older Outback that I have now! Huge size difference in these models. I like the size of my current older Sub much better.
I love how informative this video is about simple building requirements! We are guilty of storing $200 worth of junk in our garage and $50,000 vehicles in the drive. I also notice how narrow driveways have become. We live in TX where they have rear entry garages. I originally didn't like this but have learned to appreciate a yard that doesn't share a fenceline and my gated driveway. However, it means you never enter through your front door and the front yard is the forgotten aspect of the home. It also means I enter my house through the kitchen, which my mother despises in a home. Thanks for the information! New subscriber!
I had to sign a disclaimer when I bought a townhouse in 2010 that stated that I was aware that the 20'x20' (minus wall thicknesses and a bump out for the utility room just inside) "two car garage" would not necessarily fit any random combination of two cars/trucks on the market. (It said something like "your two car garage will fit two average sized passenger cars" or something like that.) Which was fine, I had and still have one car. I've since moved into a house built in 2004, and my 24'x20' (or thereabouts) garage feels luxurious by comparison. Still have the same single car...
@@Turk380 while they’ve grown over the decades, the average _car_ in the US is ~14.5’, which will _easily_ fit in a 20’-deep garage. Which is probably why that disclaimer specified average _car,_ not average _vehicle._
My rule of thumb has always been n-1 cars in the garage compared to the stated capacity (2-car garage = 1 car inside). Our new place which was built in the late 90s has a very large 3-car (26 deep by 42 wide. It's the first time that I've been able to actually fit 3 cars into the garage and still have room for the fridges, workbench, lawn gear, and storage...
It seems like they're generally sized on the basis of reasonably sized cars and no other objects being squeezed in at the same time. Reasonably sized cars apparently no longer exist in the USA. Not new anyway.
@@laurencefraserthey exist, but a lot of people insist on larger vehicles. If you look, most of the cars on the best seller list are reasonably sized (RAV4, Honda Civic, etc.) but a considerable number of folks either “need” or want a large vehicle. In my anecdotal experience…most of the people buying the huge vehicles could do 99%+ of their driving needs with smaller vehicles.
Built my own garage about 15 years ago. The largest they would allow me to build was 640 square feet based on my lot size which was a little over a quarter acre. Went with a 21x30 garage and a 12' ceiling, also the max they would let me go. - Built it myself after I paid to have the pad poured. When I first built it, I was able to get 3 cars in it, but it was tight. Over time, we ended up parking 2 cars in the driveway because it's just easier to park anyway, and I ended up using 20' of the garage as my workspace. Luckily, there is no HOA to tell me that I can't park in my own driveway. Building tip - When building a garage. Go as big as they will let you build.
@@watchman1982 The city where my property is located. A permit is required to build a structure. This is pretty common everywhere. Just because I'm not in a HOA, doesn't mean there aren't permits required and city building requirements to follow.
@@JohnD-JohnD Oh, so it’s one of those cities. Permitting has become nothing more than another govt. overreach of control and taxation. At least you got a nice garage but I’m sure the permitting is worse now than 15 years ago.
I've designed homes for 35 years, great job covering this. I deal with custom home clients and builders doing spec homes. We usually go 24'x24' with custom clients still, they will generally have picked out a property that will support this. Spec home builders are more under pressure to deliver at a price point a realtor is telling them to hit and they can get so many dollars per square foot, not including garage square footage. So, the design may start with a garage at 22'x22' but get downsized to put more finished square on the site vs 'uncounted' garage footage. Building department regulations are also a big factor in many jurisdictions. The video covered many of the basics, but there are more. We are usually dealing with 5' side yard setbacks, with some developments now going to 3' (6' between homes). Lot coverage of building and impervious surfaces is normal too. I am currently working on a project with a 9,500 sf lot with 22% building coverage allowed and 30% impervious. This limits the main floor, garage, and any covered porches/patios to 2,090 sf (22%). The impervious coverage is limited to 2,850 sf (30%) which includes the building coverage (the 22%), driveway, and any uncovered patios/walkways. So most of this 760 sf difference between building and impervious goes toward the driveway and front walk. This is why so many homes end up having just a sliding door to the grass in the rear yard - there is no allotted coverage for this (though this is also frequently a last minute delete from the budget too). Building departments frequently also mandate the garage be set back 4-6' from the front door. My current project also mandates a minimum 80 sf front porch, so there is a lot of 'overhead' footage burnt up just getting to the floor plan design. The video did a nice job with the 40' wide example with entry and front room. In reality we are also dealing with depth of rooms in the design, stair location, height limits, site grading, material mandates, clearances to utilities, site drainage, structural span limitations of joists/trusses (oh, you didn't want a post right in the door swing of your cars?), lateral engineering for wind/seismic - to name a few. Every home is a new challenge!
Ironically enough, it's houses built close to before the automobile that have the most generous garages these days. Example: detached houses in the more suburban areas of NYC, generally built from the 1950-60s. Generously sized 1-2 car garages by modern standards. Doesn't help that these houses easily start at 1.5 mil but still
*Cries in single-motorcycle garage* I bought my house in 2017, but it was built in 1984. The very first thing I did was back my 2005 Crown Victoria into the single-car garage with the passenger side mirror touching the wall, then squeezed out of the driver's door, stood on the roof of the car to change the light bulb in the garage, and parked my car on the driveway so I could get boxes out. Now three walls are lined with tool chests and shelves, and I keep my M109R and snowblower/lawnmower in the garage, and my car and minivan outside.
Sounds like my grandfather's house, built in 1940. The garage could maybe fit a 1920s car with adequate room to move around. It's essentially an unconditioned attached shed and that's what everyone in the neighborhood uses theirs for.
@@bwofficial1776 In a previous lifetime, I painted houses all around the greater L.A. area. Many, many of them had those size garages, especially in older neighborhoods. Okay, let's face it: most of the communities that make up Los Angeles are really old.
I own a condo in Boise from 1980 with a single car garage. The previous owners put in a huge shelving unit which narrowed it to 9 feet wide. My van barely fit, so I switched to a compact car and it’s wonderful. I can’t relate to pickup truck owners. Most of them just want to fit in with other dudes who want to feel big on the road. I’d rather be nimble and fit anywhere.
@@smileychessI love my cheap little Kia Rio! I read that bad drivers try to compensate by driving big vehicles. I drive a van professionally and can confirm! If you drive safely, you don’t NEED a big vehicle! Sick of losing my Rio next to trucks and SUV’s in parking lots… 😡
@@misspat7555my kid ask why I drive such a little car, Nissan LEAF, and I tell them it's so I can have a motorcycle and to bench in the same space as the car while my wife can't fit her expedition in the other side of the lawn mower isn't just right. And I totally agree about driving a small vehicle, it's all about perspective. The car feels huge compared to the motorcycle.
I think the actual reason new-build garages in the U.S. are shrinking is because by and large people don’t use them for vehicles. They’ll fill the garage with $5,000 of junk they never use so their $60k vehicles can sit outside. It makes no sense, but drive though any typical suburban neighborhood and you’ll see house after house with 1- to 2-car garages and vehicles parked in the driveway (or even worse, on the street). One of the reasons we ended up building a (modest) custom home was to get a big (enough) garage for…vehicles.
It may be different for your case, but in ours, there also isn't any storage area in the entire house, so any misc items such as tools, equipment, and infrequently needed items end up being put on shelving in the garage, further shrinking the useable space
Another aspect to consider is the height of the garage opening. Some of my neighbors only have 4 panel high garage doors and cannot fit their modern pickup truck due to the height. Thankfully, my home was built in 1999 and has two individual garage doors (5 panel) with space between and some depth on the left and right walls, so vehicle doors can be opened without easily banging a wall or the other vehicle. I noticed the ever shrinking garages in newer homes but always wondered….thank you for this very interesting post.
Our home was built in 2002, we put some wire shelving racks on both sides and wire shelving on the back wall. We park two cars inside, a 2014 Chevy Malibu on the left side and a 2020 Chevy Traverse on the right side. We can open both doors on the Malibu but only those on the driver side on the Traverse. So, I think we would be in good shape if it wasn't for the storage we added. Great information, you put a lot of effort in researching this, thanks.
When I built my custom house in 2017, I specifically made my garage area wider with an 18' single insulated door for a finished width of 21'3". I have a tandem garage which means I can park two vehicles side by side and a third vehicle in front of the one of them. I dedicated that space instead for my work area/storage shelves, etc. Fortunately, my garage interior height is about 11' (no slab but on a crawl space). No basement but I do have a nice sized attic storage area as well. I also added a mini-split so I can cool/heat this garage separately from the house when I want to work out there. So glad I did this! I also added a 220VAC socket with a 40A dedicated breaker for an EV charger or welder someday and have a nice sized laundry sink as well for washing up after working on the car, etc. In my neighborhood, I see many people who do park both cars in their garage (almost none on the street as the HOA has restrictions on doing so), but in other neighborhoods, I see lots of people parking one or both cars on their driveway and no room to park in their 2-car garage which is full of "stuff".
As a Realtor, this is an excellent video! There is so much to consider when we talk about the correlation of home prices to home sizes. The garage is just one items that ultimately suffers. Thanks for all the amazing information!
This explains why I'm seeing homes with single car garages and no garages being built. One of my grandparents' garages was quite narrow. It has two separate doors and not much room between the vehicle and walls. But it was also built in '48. I'm sad to hear garages are going back to a smaller size. My parents still can get both their vehicles in the garage. Mine is in the driveway because it isn't a three care garage. But most of the people in the neighborhood don't park in the garages. Too much stuff. Unlike when my parents moved here.
I blame all the people who use garages for anything except their vehicles. It is insane what houses go for while not even having proper garages nowadays
Fantastically informative video! So often I see the tiny houses on tiny lots on television and wonder why they would do that - well, you just explained it perfectly. Not to mention explaining the size of the garage. Thanks for spending the time to research, record, edit and post your videos. They're great!
When we built our current home (2013), my number 1 requirement was a 3 car garage. (My wife had other priorities which were also met.) The plans had the 2 car garage at 22' deep and 23' wide. The addition on the side to get the third bay was 12' x 26'. Because it is all open, we have 3 cars, a large motorcycle, and lots of storage for yard maintenance, etc. Our home looks big from the street, but that's only because we have such a large garage. We have the smallest amount of square footage overall.
The garage was a prime consideration when we built. We got a three car garage WITH the extra 4' length. Also, the driveway is as important. We changed our plans from a better looking side load garage to a front load. People thought we were nuts but now we have three "lanes" to park in while our neighbors have to play car roulette to get in or out of their side load.
Good video, I’m a contractor in a more rural setting and I’ve been noticing the trend of small garages as well. Clients bring plans to me and I always tell them that they need a minimum of 24’x24’ with an 18’ door or two 9’ doors as a minimum for a two car garage. But here where I work all the houses are custom contracted houses and the lots are getting bigger not smaller. Thanks for explaining the reason behind the trend.
I have a tandem (nose-to-tail) 2 car garage, and it was done right: it's about 38×15 and I can comfortably fit 2 cars and can open the door past the first lock on a 2 door car. I also keep my snow blower and lawn mower on the side of the garage, and can still park, no problem. I think the reason for this, though, is because i have an older ranch home with a finished basement, so back-in-the-day the builder cut a driveway into the land, going to my basement/foundation. This allows a more comfortable garage because the basement is seen as "bonus space" anyway, AND it still allows you to design the 1st floor of the ranch to your heart's desire. Great video, you really gave me some good insight.
@@flat6fever680 maybe ranch homes kinda lend themselves to this, since they're basically rectangles. Tandem isn't IDEAL, since the forward car is kind of trapped, BUT if you store a classic there, or a car you don't use as often it's pretty nice.
"Snow blower"? Whazat? (transplant from Vermont to Gerogia). Guy retires and moves from the Northeast to the South. He's asked why he settled where he did. He said, "I tied a snow shovel to the back of my car, and when someone asked what it was, I knew I was home."
This is the most informative article that explains why most new American suburbs look the same way. Good job! I guess I'm fortunate to live on a 1.5 acre lot with a 3500sq ft house and side mounted attached 3 car garage. My garage fits my f150 and 2 other vehicles with space, but I do wish it was about 5ft longer and 10ft wider to add storage. It is just designed just to fit the vehicles.
Quite honestly, the developers could also bite the bullet and just build townhouses at those lot sizes. Thicken the walls and now you can market a slightly bigger house+garage. With lots that small, there's no point to building a detached house. Unless there's some zoning code that prohibits townhouses because with that sort of squeeze, only townhouses offer acceptable space
@@Demopans5990Where I live, the local code prohibits attached enclosed buildings for vehicle storage. It's to prevent carbon monoxide seeping into the living space. Unenclosed carports, aka a roof without walls, is acceptable.
this isnt remotely true. Suburbs look the way they do because developers con people into buying cookie cutter houses in hoa nightmares for social status. Then they buy 70k trucks or cars made of tin foil that fall apart after 3 years to convince people theyre special.
When we bought our house from a builder, we had them finish the garage as we wanted to use it as a home theater type room with a projector and it had no windows. (Then they exchanged the side door for one with windows...) It was dubbed the "Entertainment" room and has housed the children's and some random stuff since. The garage door has a wall directly behind it and has never opened since. (The track doesn't exist inside the room.) All the cars we store in the room also individually fit in your pocket. ;)
The best garage I had was a three car tandem. Basically, 22ft wide at the door but on the left side of the garage was nearly 40' deep. Realistically, you couldn't park three cars in it unless you wanted to do some major shuffling or had something like a project, or weekend, vehicle. The tandem portion meant I was able to have all of the storage and workshop stuff in an area that would affect parking.
My garage has a 16' door, and the frame is the outside unfinished walls. You're right: if they were finished I couldn't open my doors. I regularly hit the other vehicle with my doors too. There is about a 16" walkway between the two cars and we push in our mirrors between our cars to make that more clear. Also, I have to research the length of cars when I am in the market to get a new one to make sure that it will fit. I also don't have a basement so use the front end of the garage to store things like holiday decorations and tools, and can only fit one tote deep and still park the cars. I've put lots of shelves and hooks on the walls above the cars and store what I can in the rafters. It truly is madness.
One of the best videos I have ever seen on RUclips. I am an architect and do mostly commercial, but have done some residential. You explain the problem extremely well! Thank you for all your research and you very clear and thorough explanation. Thank you for sharing. I enjoy your channel.
I live in an older Victorian home with no garage and I’m planning to build a detached garage some day. This is really informative when I think about what size we should build. We looked at a lot of new construction homes and the garages and lots were pretty small. We ended up going the complete opposite direction and buying an 1890’s house on a 0.6 acre lot. We have a spot where a nice sided garage should fit just fine. Just need the time and funds to do it.
I built my second new home last year. When the builder would not insulate the garage, I asked the builder NOT to finish the garage so that I could insulate it. They said they had to finish it because that was the approved build plan. Now I have to pull down the walls to insulate.
why not just have the builder insulate it if you know they were going to drywall it? Also I insulated my already drywalled garage after the fact by blowing insulation into two 4" holes, 1 a few feet from top and second hole a few feet from the bottom
I ripped out my drywall in my garage and insulated the wall’s and door too. I still need to seal the door and then I’ll put in the mini split. Can’t wait to have it wrapped up!
I just put in the insulation before the drywall went up on mine, along with sprayfoaming all the seams and using fireblock sprayfoam where needed. It took less than a day to do that.
We have a 20x20 garage in our new home (2018) and the neighbors were astounded that we fix our 2024 Honda Passport (which we bought only after trying it in the garage on a test drive) and 2019 GMC Canyon. We have two 24" deep shelves on each side. It's tight but it works.
I loved this video. When I planned (2013) the house I built (moved in 2016) the original plans barely fit my 2010 F150 (depth). I wanted to put some shelves behind it as well. I wound up planning a 26 foot deep garage. It's a three car garage so it's 33 feet wide where the cars park. In 2022 a life event had me move to a Mungo home with a "single car garage" for a few months. My Goldwing and some shelves practically filled that garage. I was very happy to move back to my house, for many reasons, but the garage was a big one.
Canadian here and I noticed that too. Older house had a spacious 2 car garage with lots of space. New one has the stairway taking a lot of the smaller space. One vehicle has to be a lot shorter for it to work.
I grew up in Chicago too....on the Southside. You can absolutely survive without a 2 car garage, any garage at that. We need more housing, closer together and within easy access to public transport and less reliance on cars. Period.
Great analysis. My garage is 19.5' square and I easily fit two vehicles only because I drive sports cars. Both my cars are approximately 177" long and 71" wide (not including mirrors). As a car enthusiast, the garage played a key role in my buying decision. It had to be a two car with one door because the dual 8' foot doors are just too tight and restrict your positioning. If I want to give one of my cars a little more buffer room from the wall, I can do that with a single door. With two doors, you are stuck! Today's vehicles are too big and Americans in general have too much stuff. I can't imagine using my garage as a storage bin. It's my showroom!
The breakdown of the lot prices, lot sizes, room sizes and so on in this video does a great job of showing the space limitations of single-family detached housing and how it affects the overall cost of the housing unit. I wonder how a condo building with a parking garage would compare, on a bigger piece of land of course. Perhaps make the parking garage spaces into their own enclosed garages with doors.
I didnt see you mention it, but also the water heater is located inside the garage, taking more space. In my case, the A/C / Furnace unit is ALSO located inside the garage, so our home is a 1.5 car garage at best! And yes, I park my Silverado outside, it wouldn't fit even if the garage was completely empty!
@@Novusod A properly sized garage that is actually designed and built to acomodate such can handle space for the laundry area and still actually be big enough for a reasonably size car. ... of course, reasonably sized cars are apparently nearly extinct in the USA and badly designed houses are hardly a new problem.
Water heater in the garage not offset with a cutout is a big problem since there's usually a required bollard that eats up more space that a car cannot move into (by design to ensure not hitting the tank accidently)
My home was built with a 3-car garage in 1996. I could park 3 cars, but only have 2 vehicles. The Hyundai Tucson and Ford Maverick fit nicely. Glad I don’t need bigger vehicles in these near-retirement years.
Never go with one single garage door. Specing the garage with two 9 foot wide doors placed 3 feet apart gives you a very usable garage where cars won’t invariably get damaged. Just don’t buy any of todays “short cut” homes!
As a licensed architect in the state of CA, I can tell you that the absolute smallest width is 20 feet clear, that’s clear, no obstructions. Even in 5 du/ac typologies, we can provide a minimum 20x20 garage or slightly larger. In higher density townhomes we make 12 foot wide, 40 foot deep tandem garages. We live in a townhome, with stuff, and two cars in our 20x20 garage (Including the washer and dryer).
Is that a state (or local) restriction? My house (Texas, built 2010) has a 19'4" x 17'5" garage that the builder and seller both claimed was "two-car".
I've never watched your channel before this video, and I'm not sure how it popped up for me; I'm happy about it. This was a fascinating and informative video. Thanks!
My son recently bought a home built in 2020 and he drives a Ford F150 Super Crew. When he moved in he was shocked to discover his truck didn't fit in his two-car garage. However, as it turned out, I could get it in the garage with less than 2" to spare. So to make parking easier we built a frame of 2x4's and laid it on the floor in front of the truck to use as a parking stop. He can now easily pull in and close the door. It's a good thing he didn't have a trailer hitch! The previous owner had installed a tornado shelter on the opposite side of the garage so between that and his recycling and trash bins he basically has a one-car garage.
My house is built in 1986 and I have an extra foot or two but there’s a workbench in the way a few years ago I had driven a 2019 Ram 1500 classic quad cab and I couldn’t get it to fit all the way in. No, if I had the regular cab short box I would have been able to squeeze it and that is only a foot longer than the challenger that I currently own
The shelter is heavy steel with a vault style door that pins in several places. It would be a scary place to ride out a tornado. My concern is the door opens out and there is no escape hatch that opens in for escaping if a vehicle gets pushed against the door. Terrible design but it came with the house.
@@thefrostedforest aw ok that’s what I was thinking. It’s the only reason I could think of that would explain the shelter taking up the garage. So are you familiar with those areas? I’m wondering if you could build underground but it’s just too expensive? Like an engineering nightmare lol
I love parking my Toyota Yaris in my 2 1/2 car garage. I can drive in forward, make a few turns, and wind up with the car pointed outward so I can easily get into the street. It's my only vehicle.
When I started looking at new construction homes this year, I told my realtor it needed to be at least 21 feet deep, big enough for a full size truck. It's unbelievable how many homes we found that had 19 foot deep or smaller garages. A lot of builders don't even put the dimensions on their floor plans any more, so you have to pry it out of the salesperson. The home I ended up purchasing has a 19 foot wide by 22 foot deep garage, which is a miracle for the small 3800 square foot lot. The home itself is only 29 feet wide, with no driveway (garage backs to an alley) and no backyard.
At which point will you finally realize that the car does not serve you now, and you’re serving the car? When the garage is bigger than the house itself?
To complicate the problem, some developers put the hot water heater and/or the HVAC system in the garage, so the actual depth is really three feet less than what is stated.
Lol this is why I've always loved smaller cars. My current car is 13' 8" long, 5' 8" wide. I can fit into most parking spots where the bigass truck is hanging over the front.
that truck can fit into any parking space or on any road in the US. parking spaces and roads are standardised. I can fit my semi into exactly 2 spaces (because it's long). I can fit my sports car into exactly the same space i can fit my pickup.
@@charlesreid9337- LOL this sounds a lot like the "I can still fit into the jeans I wore in college" claim. Yes, maybe possible, but no one wants to see (or get his doors dinged by) the guy who does it.
Very informative and right to the point, although i do want you investigate further into detail on road infrastructure as it also a huge effect on the 0.13 acres roads have gotten wider with each lane added and as cars becomes bigger you also need a bigger parking lots, those numbers add up quiet fast when you scale it.
This was something my parents had to consider when they did a remodel. Now, they have a corner lot, the house is actually technically on two streets. When they purchased it, there was an RV gate on the side, with a large back yard, and a 20'x22' front garage that almost never had a car in it. Eventually me and my brother both had separate vehicles so we couldn't fit 4 cars on the driveway, and the HOA complained. My dad, having a dad and brother who are architects, got together with them to design a new garage that would replace the RV gate and part of the back yard, while the old garage became part of the dining room. The garage they designed is nominally a 2-car, because the 18' door pointed at the street, but with a 34' wide driveway that allows parking for 2 trucks, my brother's jeep, and my dad's motorcycle without even opening the garage. But because of the setback requirements and the layout of the yard, the garage wound up being shaped like a trapezoid inside. It goes from 22' at the front wall to 30' at the back wall, with the back wall offset by 30 degrees from the front wall to meet the requirements set by the HOA (It had to be flush with the house wall). This resulted in a garage that, on one side, is 26' deep, and on the other side is 32' deep. He also made the decision to put a 10' door on the back of the garage, lined up with the long side, to allow trailers to be pushed all the way through the garage if necessary (A trick we later used to get a '64 Impala into the long side of the garage, which is also the shop-side). The garage install cost somewhere around $120k, and took approximately 6 months, but it doubled the value of the house simply because the garage can hold up to 4 cars with the doors closed.
Having to be a 4 vehicle household is a disturbing concept to begin with. The HOA might genuinely contribute to disabling kids access to urban amenities and education (like they did (by blocking a bus route) where I was in Canada) but even though it should never be necessary
@@fionafiona1146 5 adults with 4 different places to be at the same time. My dad's job, my brother's job, my job, and my mom being a caretaker for her mom. And none of those jobs in the same direction.
@@barryrobbins7694 Exactly this. I moved to a city that actually has public transportation and is semi-walkable. Now I, and my 6 roommates, get by with a handful of scooters and my single truck. (Which we currently can't use anyway because it's in the process of being repaired after a vandal decided to slam their truck into it in a parking lot twice to teach my roommate (who was borrowing it) a lesson.) If we didn't have public transportation options, we'd be without a vehicle for the entire repair process.
When we bought our pickup (seven years ago), we measured our garage first. We discovered that no full-size pickup would fit in the garage with the garage door closed. Our mid-size pickup (GMC Canyon) clears front/rear by less than 4 inches.
My neighborhood was built with fairly generous sized 2 and 3 car garages and still nobody parks in them. They're all full of junk. Old furniture, clothes, etc. Why people would rather hang on to worthless crap rather than protect their cars I have no idea!
That's what I keep saying. The sun will damage your paint and interiors. If it's long term storage of sentimental items, get a storage unit. They're very cheap. Other junk? Toss it. You won't need it.
I'm a woodworker and welder, so I can guarantee one thing... No matter what size garage I have, it will always be full of workbenches and tools. Wife's car is in the driveway and my truck is on the street. She's an artist, so we don't have a living room either - we have an art studio.
Backing the truck in will allow you to “swing” the passenger door up against the wall. You don’t need to open that door. Just the driver. Passengers can enter or exit on the driveway. It gives a ton of space back.
That's what I've had to do with my substandard apartment "2 car" garage to house a Dodge Dakota and a '90's Ford Thunderbird when I moved in, now a Ram 1500 "classic" and a late-model Challenger; the pickup backs in, the long-doored coupe drives in nose-first, both with their left side in the center mutually sharing door-swing space for the driver's door and no way to get in the passenger-side doors.
Interesting information. I always wondered why my garage was so small when the cars of the time were so big (house built in 1971). I have a 20x20 2-car garage with 2 8 foot wide doors. I have 2 cars, a lawnmower, snow blower, table saw, tool box, and some other small lawn equipment and gardening tools with plenty of room to walk around both cars. However, unlike most American households, I have a VW Beetle and a first generation Toyota Highlander (aka the little one).
My garage is 19.5 ft W x 37 ft L. It started as a carport in the 70's. Then was converted to a 2 car, and finally an extended 2 car. We keep three cars in there with the fourth corner being used as a workspace/storage. We can fit two cars in the 19.5 wide portion but they are a midsize truck and a small sedan. The third car in the back is a smaller sports car. We back one in and pull one in forwards so we have extra space on the outer sides to get in/out. If we have passengers that aren't skinny and limber we load/unload them outside.
I park both of our vehicles in our garage. A 2017 F-350 DRW, and a 2019 Toyota Camry. We just built a new house, 40'x70' on 5 acres and the garage is 32'6"'x23'7" with an 18' door. Living on a 5 acre property in the country = no HOA was a huge factor when we decided to build. The garage was also a big piece of the build plan as I always park our vehicles in our garage. I see it as the 2nd most expensive thing purchased, and protecting that investment by putting it in a garage was important to us. We don't have a basement, and even with the large garage I see us building an small barn to put our tractor, mowing equipment, and other miscellaneous things in. Our 3rd garage is a woodworking shop. Both the garage and woodworking shop have finished walls, and 10' ceilings (which go throughout the house).
That sounds pretty amazing! Well done. In researching this video I saw a funny quote: “America is the only place in the world where $50,000 worh of automobiles are parked in the driveway so that $500 worth of stuff could occupy the garage.”
Super thought out and informative video!! To answer your question, yes I do park the same amount of vehicles in my garge as it was designed to hold. I own a house in a newer development with a 2 car garage that is 20x20. Growing up, we didn't have a garage and that's all I ever wanted so I could work and keep my vehicle out of the elements. It irks me so much to see all my neighbors parking on the street or in their drive way and seeing their garage full of junk. To me a garage is a luxury. When my wife and I moved into our house we agreed that the garage would be used for its intended purpose which is to park our cars. We also agreed that there would be no storage on the sides so we could easily open/close the car doors and have plenty of room to walk around. In my opinon a garage should be used to park vehciles or as a workshop. If you're using your garage as storage then you have too much stuff!! And lets be honest most people don't even use most of that stuff!!
As a developer I can tell you that it’s also getting more and more expensive to build. The garage being useful is often not an issue to the average urban buyer. So cutting the garage to minimum legal status is common now to save the profit margins that are very tight and easy to lose money on these days.
My Dad converted our "2 car garage" into his office space. It is worth noting they're called 2 car garages. No way meant for housing large trucks and suvs. PS- that 2:21 drawing was a bit dramatic with the scaling. Great video thanks for sharing! 🙌👍
Girl bye. It’s generically called a 2 car garage. No such thing as a 2 SUV/full-size truck garage 🙄. We fit 2 large, full size SUVs, in what is called a “2 car garage”. It’s tacky when people convert a garage into living space. It’s also tacky when cars are parked all over the driveway.
In the example at the end, the ideal way to make it fit while maximizing space is to pull one in head first and back the other. That way you can accommodate both vehicles doors opening. Its how we manage to fit three cars in our true three car garage. Home built in 2007 in AZ for reference. It was before the shrinking of garages and one reason we love our home.
I grew up in the country on land my grandfather bought for $1 an acre back in 1947. I'm still there and I'll never leave because of this kind of stuff.
I have a 1960-built suburban 3br 2ba tri-level home with a detached 2-car garage behind. It’s about 20 ft wide with a 16x7 door, and I think 24 ft deep. The one side has more clearance than the other on either side of the door (I believe 3 or 4 ft on one side, 1 or 2 feet on the other) with a separate entry door on the side of the garage. How anyone back in the 1960’s parked a land yacht in there is beyond me. 😅 I have two small-ish cars, one is a two-door so I often have that problem of dinging its door into the other car. Now when I pull in each car to park I have to bias to the outboard side to create extra space between them. That means I’m just slightly brushing the side of the door with a side mirror, and when pulling out I have to turn slightly towards the center to avoid scraping against the side. This video seems to describe my parents’ home very well. They have a newly-built (ca. 2021/22) 3br 2ba single story home and while it’s a McMansion, its garage seems even smaller. There’s maybe a foot in either side of the garage door. They only have one car so they park in the center. When I visit we just leave one car out. Meanwhile they have a 10-12 foot ceiling in the garage for no apparent reason. (I helped change one of the light bulbs a month ago; I had to stand on a stool and use one of those bulb changing doohickeys attached to a long broom handle. 😅) It’s not just their garage which is shrinking. The kitchen area is large, as are the master bedroom, living room, and basement. However the bathroom, laundry room, and the two other bedrooms are relatively tiny. Meanwhile the hallway is unnecessarily wide (at least the 5 feet you mentioned) and long, which gives visual effect but is wasted space serving no useful purpose (they actually store stuff there 😅). One of the walls of the hallway is shared with the garage! If only the builders had moved it a foot or two, it would be a much better balance between the garage and the hallway. But noooo because new home buyers get so turned on by the wide hallway. 😅😢 Oh yeah their home is not much more square footage than mine, but being newer and with a full basement (I instead have a finished den which is about 4 feet below ground level), theirs cost about 2.5X what I paid for mine.
Terrific video! We recently moved to Northeast Florida and noticed an obvious and discernable difference in garage space, based on (as you indicated) lot space and floorplan cost. Our home has a three-car garage (two doubles, and a single door) plus a walled-off workshop just behind the garage. Though it's still tight, we manage to get our two cars and our double-PWC trailer inside with little room to spare. We only have an 8-foot easement between homes, so it feels very tight outside of our home as well. A front-load garage is truly our only option. The house we had in Virginia had the same size garage, but as a side-load, but the house sat on a 3/4-acre lot, with lots of room between homes, so our very lovely 85-foot driveway not only served as spill over space for when we had lots of guests, but also served as a visual barrier between homes. I miss our house in Virginia, but we managed to make this lay-out work for us.
my 60's house of 935 sq ft has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath no upstairs just a basement and separate 25 x 25 garage. but my driveway is 100 ft and my lot is 140ft x40
It is also that the average family is smaller these days. Many families are choosing to have one or even no children. So there is a market for homes with fewer bedrooms.
One of the fascinating things to me, is that even though may cities are putting row houses/town houses back into their codes, people don't want them, so builders aren't even trying to build them. People would rather have the useless three feet of space between their house and the fence that's all of three feet from the neighbor's house, than to simply share a wall.
West Texas. Here we seem to be having the 2 bedrooms 2 baths, not very many mcmansions. But when they do it is something like 6 rooms and a few bathrooms with like a 3 or 4 car Garage.
I forgot to mention, we sold that house, moved locations, ...a few years later on sat imiging I checked that house, because I used to love the garage, now there's 4 'houses' on the same plot with 'garages' for each. :/
I dream of a 3.5 car garage instead of my 1.75 car (1 car plus workbench). Last 2 houses I measured and used painters tape in a parking lot to check garage size. Location trumps over a real 2 car garage.
Our community is building "up". Strip malls now come with several floors of apartments overhead. Downtown buildings are underground parking, retail at ground level, commercial at mezzanine level with housing above. We haven't annexed new land in decades, but we're adding 4,000 beds a year.
Great information, I appreciate you compiling the data into an easy to consume and concise video. I wish more content was like this. You earned a sub! I look forward to watching more of your content. Thanks!
24’x24’ garage: Holding one car, one garden tractor, one 42” walk behind mower, four shelving units, a generator, four air compressors, a table saw, and a piano
I also back one in, seems to be a lost art even with backup cameras these days. That way the passenger doors are close in the center, but so what, usually one driver in/out anyway. If there is a passenger on occasion, just move the car to the driveway. Simple solutions seem to evade most folks.
@@1947froggy Perfectly sensible. Alas, if only such a concept prevailed...the usual solution is parking one (or more!) in the street, which is wrong or harmful on several levels. But people don't care.
Urban homesteader here. I built my garage 28x26 with an 18’ door in 2005. With a compact pickup and compact car with staircase and work bench I find it tight. I took a hard pass on many houses at the time due to garage size being too small. Opting for a fixer upper with no garage that had space to attach one and reserved the money to build it immediately after taking possession.
We live in AZ and have a home built in 2000. The home has a 3 car carage and we use 2 of them for cars. We have an SUV and a sports car as our daily drivers. The third bay is my workshop and overflow area. We have added overhead storage to make up for all the stuff we used to store in a basement when we lived back East. We have enough room to comfortably open our doors and move around the vehicles. The length inside is tightere than I like because there are cabinets and physical plant equipment at the front of the garage. I miss oversized garages but will not complain after seeing your video.
My 1997 Mazda Miata still resides in mine. It's about all that would fit though. It's a very small car. A 2005 era Toyota Corolla, small by most any standards, is a behemoth next to the Miata.
I'm a licensed home inspector in North Carolina. When I find a garage door that is less than 18' wide, I point out to my clients that it is a "one and a half" garage, i.e. intended for one car and then storage, workshop, or golf cart, etc. I find this to be a deceptive building practice, *especially* given the bloat of vehicle size in the last 25 years.
My dad had a garage door company in Los Angeles, I would help him measure for new installs I would only see 18’ wide doors maybe 0.5% of the time in wealthy areas. Also rare are 8’ tall garages entry and double door that lets you pass through into the backyard.
@@SNerd42sounds like you’re in on the scam
@@uhohhotdogsounds like he's an Ai bot trying to create false controversy. That comment has nothing to do with this video or the comment he replied to.
@@SNerd42 Someone's projecting.
@@andypeters3011 yea I didn’t even read to the end of that nonsense. I see now
Your analysis misses one point. Production home builders have learned that they can sell homes for $x per square foot of living space. They get no living square footage credit for closets, storage rooms, and garages. They maximize square feet of living area by eliminating closets (no more coat closets, for example) and utility rooms (put the water heater in the garage, the furnace in the attic....) That's another reason why garages are also tiny now.
Excellent point!
Lol, no. MLS is finished sq.ft which includes closets.
@@johannajohnson4069 includes closets, but not garages right? so he is correct that mls would drive garage sizes down because you sell based on sq ft that does not count garage size.
I'm renting a place with a 6ft wide x 20' hallway, and a garage opening of 76". Not many cars will fit. The stairs from the garage and up to the second floor are nearly impossible to bring assembled furniture in.
garages dont count in the square footage of a home
When we built our house I purposefully made a 27’ wide 42’ deep garage with an oversized 20’x9’ garage door. It’s so nice to actually have a garage that’s actually usable unlike all the other homes in my neighborhood.
When I put a deck on the second story, I decided to make it 14' and have a car port under it where I could work on the car. Made the shed at the end 54" wide so I could park the mower in it if I ever bought another one bigger than my 42". Now my 26x 36 garage is empty. :(
You guys are gonna make me build my home before I buy one man
That is great but in the age of 30 foot wide 250,000 dollar lots that is not an option for some.
@@danhunik7949 No one forces you to buy the house. Do away with the 4th bathroom.
HaHa, that's just an attached pole barn. I have a 28' x 28' with an 18" door. I can park 2 of the largest pick ups available and store my 67 Firebird with plenty of room to spare.
I'm from SoCal. I noticed that once overall property price per sq/ft went over ~$1000 (and this is 5 years BEFORE the pandemic) people started using their garages as gyms, work space, etc. To the point that in zip 90272 people were parking $300k McLarens ON THE STREET under a car cover!
Currently I live in south central Idaho... there's a house on the market - 12,000 sq/ft for $18m+ that has a two car garage. Deal breaker.
I love that you're looking at this a factor in property values - I think it says a lot about residential real estate.
That big of a house and only a two car garage. I assume this wasn't a very nice custom home.
I’d call this a strong argument for building houses without garages where house prices are high and lots are small. If you have a driveway in the front of the house, which should fit without much hassle given mandatory setbacks, you can park a car on your property with a cover, and not give over precious living space to a car.
@@victoriab8186 I would rather have a place to park my car and keep it clean indoors
Then again I live in the Bay Area where I have no hope of ever being able to afford even a townhouse let alone a SFH (I make mid 100ks but you need a ~400-500k household income for that here)
@@anthonyglickman6245 Surprised it isn’t full of Haitians BBQing cats and geese.
I'm estimating the value of the McLaren as $5k per sq ft that it takes up in the garage. So yeah, that's crazy. I do understand wanting the home gym, though.
In California this problem is being solved in the worst way possible. Houses are now so expensive that it's normal for multiple families or multiple generations of the same formerly independent family to move into the same house. When that happens there is always excess furniture that won't fit inside, so the garage is used purely for storage, a couple of cars are parked in the driveway, and a few more on the street.
Or even get converted into living space, keeping the door, but inside covering with sheetrock, and having a window on the side. Outside looks the same, but now an extra bedroom is there, or even split it in half and build a tinier bedroom and shower toilet into it as well.
@@SeanBZA What I see a lot where I live (Nebraska) is that people build large detached garages in their backyards. (Often two story.) If they are lucky it can be accessed from an ally. In my neighborhood, all the houses were originally duplexes that were built in the 1950s with a carport in front of a storage shed. Most lots are still duplexes but a lot of them the carport and the storage shed have been removed and a 24' x 24' garage or 24' x 48' garage is in the back yard. Occasionally you see a one-car garage. (12' x 22' ?) My duplex still has the storage shed but no carport.
This is me. My MiL moved in a few years ago after her husband passed away, and my garage was used as a storage unit. Then once we got it all taken care of, my daughter moved back in after losing her apartment due to circumstances beyond her control, so once again, garage is storage. Along with the additional furniture, I also have a motorcycle, lawn mower, deep freeze, and a 2nd refrigerator in the garage. Maybe one day I can use it for my car and I won't have to deal with hail damage, or trying to uncover it after 6 inches of snow.
That new normal is actually pretty old-school. It used to be perfectly normal to find multiple generations living in one house. Their horses all lived in the same stable as well.
You guys have TOO much illegal/legal migration 😂 plus internal migration when whites from different states move to CALIFORNIA 😂
I spent 6 years as an electrical inspector in the Eastern suburbs of Seattle. I was in and out of 4-6 houses on average each day. In all that time, I saw less than a dozen garages that had 2 cars in them. The vast majority were crammed full of stuff that wasn't worth 2 payments on the cars sitting outside in the rain.
So... I should buy new tools every few months because that cost is less than a few truck payments? Good plan!🤣
@@JonathanMurray Since I have as much in tools as I do two new(ish) cars, might just as well keep the tools and buy a new car when I need to go somewhere. 😁
To those who commented earlier, I suspect our inspector is talking about random boxes of junk that so many people hold on to forever and ever. My elderly neighbor recently passed away and his family has had a terrible time going through all of his junk. He was a first-class hoarder, and he had no room at all in the garage, attic, living room, bathroom, or any bedroom, apparently.
@@TheRealScooterGuy the conclusion I draw from that is that the vast majority of people do not actually want bigger garages. That's why. The few people who want gigantic garages because they want to rotate their car around inside the garage is a very loud minority.
People just want more living space or storage space for their junk. I don't get why a garage needs to be 24x24. Do you have a car lift in there so that you can work under it safely? If it's purpose is to shelter the car and prevent thefts, then 16x24 is more than sufficient and takes up 4% less space than 20x20.
PS: I don't have a garage. Car's in the driveway. It has a roof, and that is enough shelter. The car will not be damaged from a little bit of heavy rain when it is windy, because it isn't a cybertruck. I actually drive the thing OUTSIDE, in the weather! 😁
@@JonathanMurray Get a tool shed for that stuff and put in the back yard with the lawn mower. No need to keep that junk in the garage.
A garage is a $50,000 structure holding $500 worth of junk while $100,000 worth of cars sit in the rain.
look.. shut up.. and stop spying on my house
i have several tools worth more then $500. and i have 2 acres of land. damn i wish i had a garage to put them in
this reminds me of a friend who last year and got a storage space for nearly a year costing over $500 per month., $6,000 per year. It was all old cloths, some junk furniture, nothing anyone would want. I bet it wasn''t worth more than $2,000. After a year, he actually just gave it to charity. .
I live in New Mexico and this could not be more accurate (except for the rain... our vehicles get sand blasted and rot in the extreme UV).
I just measured my garage, and it's 18' x 18.5'. Relatively new build house. My mid-size truck doesn't fit in it. Worse, the driveway is so short, my mid-size truck juts out into the sidewalk as it's parked outside. So does everyone else's--let alone the full size trucks and SUVs, so the neighborhood is filled with vehicles parked outside and along the curb. To fit in more houses, the roads are also not wide enough for cars to be parked on both sides, so it's functionally a one-lane road most of the time.
The situation is stupid. There are lots of solutions to have functional places to park your vehicles... You could offset the house on the lot and have the garage encroach on the backyard, or have a drive through to the backyard like many mid-century constructions. I have lots of worthless space in my house which isn't actually useful. The designs of the cookie cutter houses are hardly high design.
Regardless, if you're not going to build a garage large enough to fit a vehicle, why bother building a garage? Give me a bigger house... a non-functional garage is not useful for anyone. If they're meant to be shops or storage spaces--which might be desirable --build them as such! Garages rarely have electrical on all the walls, and basically never have added wall storage.
@@brayoungfulthanks for sharing your situation. I agree if they can’t build useful garages, they shouldn’t even bother. So infuriating. I hope buyers stop purchasing homes with useless garages and maybe developers will get the message.
90's home owner here. My garage is 26x22. We park two suv's in it. Have 2 storage racks, refrigerator, deep freezer, tool box chest, wall cabinets with work bench, air compressor, hot water heater and just enough space to open both car doors (one vehicle at a time).
Your car was smaller also. These new trucks are firetrucks.
The American dream… 😎
Car fumes can't be in the house for health reasons. So if a garage is part of a house, it should definitely be used as storage, a cooking unit, or a sleepover area.
Nice - I have a small linked house (a small SUV would be cramped in there) but I managed to build a workbench adjacent to my 80s classic (a Hyundai!) and also an extra strip of storage between the upper room and the dividing wall. Sure, it's only 2 feet wide, but it's also like 18 feet long. Creative milk crate stacking FTW!
Impressive
My house was built during peak boomer opulence in 1997. True 3 car garage at 26X34, with a 9X26 tool room, so 26X43 all combined. The luxury of being able to fully open the car doors and trunk with the garage doors closed is another level. Its quite a contrast to our first house which had a car port where I did my own oil changes during the dead of winter in Indiana.
I'm generally disgusted at people's unusable garages being filled with junk they hardly use. I have a one car garage with tools/workbench , can work with a car parked in there. If I don't touch something for 1-2 years it always goes in the dumpster gonzo.
@@FieldBoy111 me too. I cannot figure it out when I see there is a wall of junk in their garage; their cars getting destroyed by the weather outside. I am thankful for the little garage that I have as a nice clean place to keep the cars from getting weathered; but I don't get to choose for other people what they believe is important. I don't even get to choose what I think is important; I can only witness what I think is important after the fact.
There’s a neighborhood in my town that was built during that time period that was started in 1997 that has mostly 3 car garages like that. I want one so bad 😂
@@FieldBoy111 we moved a year ago and I left a few things in the garage that the old owner left. I just did the first annual garage cleaning and tossed out anything I did not even touch in a year. I did keep a few pieces of scrap wood because one day......
3 car garages take up way to much space in a home, with that space you can add an entire bedroom.
When I was building my house in 2013 the floor plan we chose had an option to extend the 2 car portion of the 3 car garage. I opted to do so and today I have in my garage 3 cars, and at the front about 3-4' of shelving, cabinetry, tool chests, welder, air compressor, shop press, a fridge, workbench, etc. That still leaves about 6' between the front of my wife's Honda Pilot (our longest vehicle) and the workbench. There is so much room for activities.
Sounds like our 3 car garage. We built in 2012 with extra large 3 car garage. We have had 3 cars in there, including a pick up truck. We now have 2 cars in there. We hung all our extra paintings in the garage. The work bench is big. Plenty of room for our bikes and shelving for storage and a full fridge. Never skimp on garage space. You’ll always use it.
I almost didn’t watch it because I didn’t think it should take 15 min to explain why garages are so small. But I persisted and I’m glad I did because it also provides a great explanation as to why developers no longer build single story ranch houses. I found the details on how the space gets eaten up to be very informative.
Older people often can’t negotiate the stairs or don’t want to live on two levels, knowing that as they age they will be better off in a one story. Most of my older relatives have moved to one story houses built in the 80s.
@@MashaB-pk8hl Sure….and they are more expensive to build, find, buy and pay taxes on. All reasons why they don’t build as many of them.
same here. this was way better than just garage sizes.
Meanwhile my house in Arizona was a single story ranch with a 3 car garage big enough to park a long bed c20 and have room to walk around it and work on it without opening the garage door.
@@MashaB-pk8hl yup. my parents are looking for a single family home with a main room on the first floor. its been hard. the houses are 2M and more
I live in Hollywood Florida. My house was built in 1946. The garage is 15 feet long (taking account the stairs into the kitchen). It is 10’ 9” wide. Barely even a 1 car garage, and certainly no trucks allowed! Thank you for this video. It really made me think in a different direction.
My house was built in 1976. 2200 sq ft colonial on a 100’x150’ lot. The 2-car side turn garage measures 32W x 24’ Deep. The garage door is 18’ long. After watching this video, I understand completely how lucky I am to have what I have. I parked my GMC Sierra pick up and my wife’s GMC terrain in the garage every single day.
32x24 = 768. Your garage is a third of the 2200 sq ft house!
@@danielch6662Usually calculated square footage of a house only includes the living areas, not the garage, out buildings, or decks.
My old house that I bought when I was single was built in 1985 and is a 910 sq ft 2bd/1bath with a 2 car 22x26 ft garage 😂 We were able to park my buddies Grand Prix GTP in there and pull the motor with an engine hoist during the winter without opening the garage door. It was fabulous.
@@danielch6662 700sq ft, that size IS my entire house. 😂
I realized years ago that it wasn't so much that I wanted a house, but that I wanted a garage (after having lived in a townhouse with a one-car garage). While shopping for my current house, I asked for a three-car garage and quarter-acre lot. Since I insist on parking my vehicles in the garage, I don't store so much in my garage that I can't park inside. So I have two vehicles in the garage, an evolving shop, and shelving on the walls. I don't have ATVs, golf carts, Harleys, etc. If I can't fit other things in the garage with the vehicles there, I do without. My vehicles being out of the weather and less susceptible to break ins is my top priority. I wish more people had this approach.
Your video is very informative and I know that if I ever have to move, I'm definitely taking a tape measure into the garage.
... problem one is the part where you, as a single individual, have multiple vehicles (unless your 'I' is encompassing your whole family).
I'm the opposite. My 2.5 car garage has the motorcycle and a workshop. My cars get parked outside most of the time. I'm thinking about a canopy to keep the bird poo and sun off them.
Why do you wish more people would take this approach?
Yes, a big garage is the best thing in the world if you're someone who enjoys your outdoor hobbies. It's such a terrible shame what developers are doing to this beautiful part of the American(or in my case Australian) dream.
I’m glad we did a custom build 3 years ago! I had no idea this was happening 😮
Residential architect and car enthusiast here. I have never considered anything smaller than 24x24 for a 2 car garage and with the popularity of full sized trucks, I am now making them 26 feet deep at a minimum. My most recent client was adamant during planning that the attached garage was large enough and they pushed and pushed to make the house larger to the point that it was against the site setbacks on all 4 sides. This was a custom home on a large lot. 0.6 acres. Low and behold, now that the project is finished, they say their 26ft x 32ft 3 car (2 cars, one bay for kids stuff) garage is too small and that they can't park their 2 primary vehicles next to each other because the 16 foot wide double door is too narrow. We even did some serious structural gymnastics to make sure there would be zero posts in the garage. While I watched your video I was not surprised to see that cars are getting wider too. In the future, we will only be considering 18ft single double wide doors. Or 9 foot wide single doors at a minimum.
In all the TV shows of homes, they neglect to show the garage … now I know why. Thank you for a very interesting video.
My wife and I both park in the garage. I back in and park as close to her as possible to get the most door space on either side of the garage. It means we can't get to the passenger door, but if we need to we can pull out of the garage and let the passenger in after. We drive a Subaru Forester and a Hyundai Elantra. So many people in our development park in their driveway or in the street and this video really clears up why for me.
i'm betting youre in an hoa...
Took me a while but i figured out i needed to build a really nice looking 'carport' for my cars (and er.. plane) and use my garage as a workshop
Have an outback and Forester and we do the same. I back in and my wife is front forward. Gives us extra space,I just can't use my passenger side which is fine. My wife's vehicle we can still use all sides even if limited.
Yep, we do the same. She pulls in and I back in super close to her. It works. And I still have room on the sides to house tool benches and cabinets on the walls for storage. Cars are too expensive to leave them out in the driveway to get hailed on.
NY wife and I both park in the garage. The only house in the entire development to do so. If I am home, both get backed in. Easy exit.
I do a lot of walking, and I walk through a lot of developments. I noticed many people use a garage for storing "junk," not their vehicles. My house was built in 1960 and has a 24×24 garage.
That's infuriating lol it shouldn't be but my house doesn't have a garage and seeing bonheads with heaps of junk in their garage just bugs me to no end..
The neighbor behind me has a two-port garage, but they have never ever driven a car out of it; they had a broken down car sitting in the driveway for about two years, though.
That’s because homes in Texas don’t have basements to store stuff
It's crazy how much junk Americans have. Most people went into debt and are broke because they spent their money on useless crap
Attics and basements are hard to access, and fairly rare.
Excellent post. I custom design homes. My garage in house is 48'x24'. Yes, a four car garage with a bit of wall storage along the outsides. I think a two car garage should be 27'x24' so that passengers can swing their doors open freely without hitting a wall or another vehicle. 27x27 will even allow room for exercise equipment or storage. Modern houses have already lost enough: sitting room, crafts room, mud room, foyer, separation of kitchen and dining room, parlor, guest room, family room, children's playroom, laundry room, veranda, patio, etc.
I'm glad you put this topic in a video. I noticed a consistent downsizing of garages back in 1999, and wondered why. Most of us get upset when we find a scratch on our car from a parking lot encounter, but it can happen in your own garage, even if you're careful.
Car fumes can't be in the house for health reasons. So if a garage is part of a house, it should definitely be used as storage, a cooking unit, or a sleepover area.
@@aucklandnewzealand2023 When you pull into a garage the car is only running for a few seconds before you turn it off. When you leave it's on for 30 seconds max. I guess this only applicable to those snowflakes that want to have their car running for 5 minutes before leaving in the morning to "warm up", but it's parked in a garage so it wouldn't be terribly cold
@@hunter371 EVs solve that fume problem. Fumes won't matter in 10 years for most people. Lawn equipment is already way better if you buy electric. Mopeds, golf carts, and ebikes are all electric. As EV prices fall with safe chemistries that don't burn down your house like LFP, electric will continue to take over.
One way that might work to handle the F150 and Camry in a too small garage is to first give up on the passenger doors. Just worry about the driver getting in and out. The passengers can get in and out in the driveway. Then we just need room in the garage for the driver door to open.
If that's still not sufficient, try parking the F150 by driving forward into the right side of the garage and the Camry by backing into the left side of the garage. Park both as close to the wall as you can.
That's what I would do: think outside of the box .. so I can fit my behemoth in it.
The alternative. Park the 2 vehicles as close as possible and you can park them without angling. Left side vehicle is nose-in, right side is tail-in. You can access the driver doors through the space along the wall. Yes, you are using 2 corridors for door access, but if the space between garage door and wall is significant, angling would still be wasting space anyways.
Or, you could get rid of the Ford F150, because it’s too big and unless you run a contracting business or a dairy farm, you don’t need it.
This is such a great solution -- backing one vehicle in on the left side to keep both drivers' doors swinging into a shared central clear space. Well done, @timsmith8489!
I fit my F-350 into my garage in a kinda similar way. I can’t fit it at all if I back in because it’s 83.5” tall with the Tremor package, but if I pull in forwards then I get about 1/2 inch of clearance.
I then have my corvette back in next to it. This gives me 3-4 feet of drivers side space for both vehicles.
Many builders include minimal garage depths as a standard feature but offer extensions of various lengths as extra cost options. It’s a profit center for them, just like upgraded countertops or floor coverings.
I wish mine had done that. They didn't even have the size on the floor plan they showed me. It just said 2 car garage.
Indeed I noticed that in New development near us houses have a minimal 1.5 car garage but they'll sell you a full size extra garage as a bump out for additional $$$$$
Garages are the cheapest square footage you can add to a house with the second being basements.
I actually wonder if this is how my house was designed. Garage is really small, but directly behind the garage was a big concrete deck. This deck could have held a tank. Maybe they would spec that out so that if the owner wants they could extend the garage over the deck. Unfortunately I did have to tear that out when weeping tiles had to be redone.
If I was building a new house I would spend the money on things that only made sense (cents!) doing upfront. So adding at least 4 feet to 3 sides of the garage just to be able to open car doors and park the 50" zero turn inside, and vaulted ceilings in the house which are often optional and are NOT something I wanna try adding 5 or 10 years later. I can easily upgrade countertops or carpet anytime.
Living in an area where hurricanes sometimes happen (SE Texas Gulf Coast region), I think that the solution is to have the first floor entirely for the garage / workshop area and the second floor as the first living quarters floor... That way, flooding becomes more of just an inconvenience since it doesn't affect where you are actually living... We don't have basements around here...
@@seanseoltoir that's the general plan along the Gulf Coast too, but something to think about are the later years when old knees don't like those stairs. My parents have an upper floor they never see anymore because of joint problems.
@@k.b.tidwell -- I"ve reached that point already... Poorly designed body part -- the original engineer should be fired...
And the storage problem is even worse where there are no basements. My garage can fit two small cars but nothing else. I fit one car, a golfcart, and some shelves in my "two" car garage.
Lucky you, my garage is only big enough to fit a beetle and that's it. It's nothing more but a storage area.
@@wolfpackflt670an Old School single-car garage seemingly designed to fit a Volkswagen or a model t? What's the single family homes that were built in the 50s and early 60s around here seem to be in that boat if the house had a single car garage. I find that quite ironic as American coops at that time period were huge and would not fit in the garage is on most of these houses. That probably explains why most of these houses have converted the garage into more living space. For most people their garages could not fulfill it's purpose as a garage.
Everybody has "junk" to store - mowers, bicycles, trash bins, tools. They plan for huge walk-in pantry's these days but neglect the other necessities of modern life.
And your garage might have your furnace, hot-water heater, and washer and dryer. We ended up parking our minivan in our last garage and my '06 Corolla ended up sitting outside. Just not worth the hassle to get it parked and work around utility installments.
Almost as if the people that build the storage buildings where you pay a monthly rent could be the same ones that design garage sizes for homes.
Well researched and presented, especially all the historical data! I have often wondered why guys with trucks are building structures where the trucks don't fit! Thanks.
Just built a new garage replacing my old unattached one. The car garage part of it is 32 wide x 28 deep with 16’ and a 9’ doors. Love it. Perfect depth for full size pickup. Would be crowded if I actually tried to park 3 vehicles in it. But that was never the plan. Best part, there’s another 32x28 finished workshop behind the garage area. Mid-life accomplishment.
Metric conversion is off. 5662 sq ft should be 526 sq m.
That sounds pretty amazing!
Congrats man, made me happy just reading this.
This is gonna be on my list
Living. My. Dream
While I prefer the 24x24 I refuse to go less than 22x22. I had gotten to a point with my last agent when I was moving 3 years ago that I told them flat out "If there isn't a "true-2-car" garage that I can park both cars with doors open without touching anything, I WILL NOT BUY IT" .. I thought it was insane that I had to get that aggressive about such a simple topic. The garage (my cars) are equally as important as the entire rest of the house to me.
Real estate people should not call it a garage if not 24’ long and 12’ wide for each vehicle. They seem to think putting a garage door on a storage space makes a garage. And new construction buyers beware the location of furnace and water heater. Some builders will poach square footage in the garage making part of the garage too small.
If I were you, I would buy a house with a triple garage. My current house has a triple garage. It is so refreshing to see how many things you can store in that garage, in addition to my 2 vehicles.
Beware when the car pictured in the ad is a smart car.
Every realtor I talked to had the same attitude. They tended to ignore things that were important, and push what the were trying to unload.
@@simplereef4854 - once you go triple, its hard to go back to a 2 car. Like going from queen size bed to king... you arent going back to a queen...lol
i didn’t realize garages were that small. im probably not buying a house for years, but it’ll be something in the back of my mind to go for a big garage
Smaller cars are another solution. A little EV won't take up a whole lot of space that could have been living space, and you won't have to pour fuel down its throat either.
Don't buy in a cookie cutter subdivision if you can help it.
@@tealkerberus748 im not really a big car guy tbh. but ideally being able to park a car or two and have some space for tools and what not
@@UserName-ts3spyou can if the cars aren't huge truck / SUVs Just get a couple hatchbacks or something
@@tealkerberus748The only small EVs cost the same or more than the bigger ones with much more range that are more practical all around as well as more reliable
I would like to give you 5 thumbs up simply for using imperial AND metric units throughout your entire video! Damn so few youtubers ever do this - thanks so so much! Cheers from Germany.
"Can I park this car in my garage?" should be a part of any test drive, even if you have to annoy the salesman by ending up buying the car from another dealership to get the color and options you want. My neighbors in the same development just sold the first-generation Toyota Highlander they've had for 15 years and bought a Corolla Cross. I told them you know you've had a car a long time when you have to go "down" two nameplates just to get the same size again.
And verify garage size when buying a home. Good thing for the agent or the inspector to include in their write-ups.
Yup. The smart buyer buys the thing, not the name.
It's wild! We've got a highlander about that age as well and when getting a replacement the new highlanders are massive! We ended up getting a rav4. I believe the cross might be slightly smaller than the old highlander. Idk how people drive things that massive. I've got a fairly new camry and even that thing is l o n g. That Honda pilot comparison was wild. I'd love a tiny car like that.
Subaru Outbacks have gotten so massive that the current Forester is about comparable to the older Outback that I have now! Huge size difference in these models. I like the size of my current older Sub much better.
The reverse can also be true. The current Impala, Grand Marquis, DeVille, etc. are all about one-half the size they used to be.
I love how informative this video is about simple building requirements! We are guilty of storing $200 worth of junk in our garage and $50,000 vehicles in the drive. I also notice how narrow driveways have become. We live in TX where they have rear entry garages. I originally didn't like this but have learned to appreciate a yard that doesn't share a fenceline and my gated driveway. However, it means you never enter through your front door and the front yard is the forgotten aspect of the home. It also means I enter my house through the kitchen, which my mother despises in a home.
Thanks for the information! New subscriber!
I had to sign a disclaimer when I bought a townhouse in 2010 that stated that I was aware that the 20'x20' (minus wall thicknesses and a bump out for the utility room just inside) "two car garage" would not necessarily fit any random combination of two cars/trucks on the market. (It said something like "your two car garage will fit two average sized passenger cars" or something like that.) Which was fine, I had and still have one car.
I've since moved into a house built in 2004, and my 24'x20' (or thereabouts) garage feels luxurious by comparison. Still have the same single car...
LOL.. "average".. how do they not get that the "average" passenger car is enormous?
@@Turk380 They use the "average" passenger car from 1978, when the oil crisis made small cars the norm, because they used less fuel.
@@Turk380 while they’ve grown over the decades, the average _car_ in the US is ~14.5’, which will _easily_ fit in a 20’-deep garage. Which is probably why that disclaimer specified average _car,_ not average _vehicle._
My rule of thumb has always been n-1 cars in the garage compared to the stated capacity (2-car garage = 1 car inside). Our new place which was built in the late 90s has a very large 3-car (26 deep by 42 wide. It's the first time that I've been able to actually fit 3 cars into the garage and still have room for the fridges, workbench, lawn gear, and storage...
Yes I would agree with the n-1 sentiment; I have a 1 car garage, and no cars fit in the garage.
Life goals! I want that some day
That's larger than most homes today. 😂
It seems like they're generally sized on the basis of reasonably sized cars and no other objects being squeezed in at the same time.
Reasonably sized cars apparently no longer exist in the USA. Not new anyway.
@@laurencefraserthey exist, but a lot of people insist on larger vehicles. If you look, most of the cars on the best seller list are reasonably sized (RAV4, Honda Civic, etc.) but a considerable number of folks either “need” or want a large vehicle. In my anecdotal experience…most of the people buying the huge vehicles could do 99%+ of their driving needs with smaller vehicles.
Built my own garage about 15 years ago. The largest they would allow me to build was 640 square feet based on my lot size which was a little over a quarter acre.
Went with a 21x30 garage and a 12' ceiling, also the max they would let me go. - Built it myself after I paid to have the pad poured.
When I first built it, I was able to get 3 cars in it, but it was tight.
Over time, we ended up parking 2 cars in the driveway because it's just easier to park anyway, and I ended up using 20' of the garage as my workspace.
Luckily, there is no HOA to tell me that I can't park in my own driveway.
Building tip - When building a garage. Go as big as they will let you build.
Truth. They are never, ever, big enough.
@@flat6fever680 Absolutely correct.
If there’s no HOA, then who are you referring to when you say “they”?
@@watchman1982 The city where my property is located. A permit is required to build a structure. This is pretty common everywhere. Just because I'm not in a HOA, doesn't mean there aren't permits required and city building requirements to follow.
@@JohnD-JohnD Oh, so it’s one of those cities. Permitting has become nothing more than another govt. overreach of control and taxation. At least you got a nice garage but I’m sure the permitting is worse now than 15 years ago.
I've designed homes for 35 years, great job covering this.
I deal with custom home clients and builders doing spec homes. We usually go 24'x24' with custom clients still, they will generally have picked out a property that will support this. Spec home builders are more under pressure to deliver at a price point a realtor is telling them to hit and they can get so many dollars per square foot, not including garage square footage. So, the design may start with a garage at 22'x22' but get downsized to put more finished square on the site vs 'uncounted' garage footage.
Building department regulations are also a big factor in many jurisdictions. The video covered many of the basics, but there are more. We are usually dealing with 5' side yard setbacks, with some developments now going to 3' (6' between homes). Lot coverage of building and impervious surfaces is normal too. I am currently working on a project with a 9,500 sf lot with 22% building coverage allowed and 30% impervious. This limits the main floor, garage, and any covered porches/patios to 2,090 sf (22%). The impervious coverage is limited to 2,850 sf (30%) which includes the building coverage (the 22%), driveway, and any uncovered patios/walkways. So most of this 760 sf difference between building and impervious goes toward the driveway and front walk. This is why so many homes end up having just a sliding door to the grass in the rear yard - there is no allotted coverage for this (though this is also frequently a last minute delete from the budget too).
Building departments frequently also mandate the garage be set back 4-6' from the front door. My current project also mandates a minimum 80 sf front porch, so there is a lot of 'overhead' footage burnt up just getting to the floor plan design. The video did a nice job with the 40' wide example with entry and front room. In reality we are also dealing with depth of rooms in the design, stair location, height limits, site grading, material mandates, clearances to utilities, site drainage, structural span limitations of joists/trusses (oh, you didn't want a post right in the door swing of your cars?), lateral engineering for wind/seismic - to name a few. Every home is a new challenge!
My house was built in 1980; garage is 30' wide and 25' deep. Love it!
@@SpacemanXC LOVE IT!
Ironically enough, it's houses built close to before the automobile that have the most generous garages these days. Example: detached houses in the more suburban areas of NYC, generally built from the 1950-60s. Generously sized 1-2 car garages by modern standards. Doesn't help that these houses easily start at 1.5 mil but still
MY house was built in the 1980's in a walkable European city - I don't have a car and I save about €10,000 a year and I Love it
1981 for me. 2 doors. Love it
*Cries in single-motorcycle garage*
I bought my house in 2017, but it was built in 1984. The very first thing I did was back my 2005 Crown Victoria into the single-car garage with the passenger side mirror touching the wall, then squeezed out of the driver's door, stood on the roof of the car to change the light bulb in the garage, and parked my car on the driveway so I could get boxes out. Now three walls are lined with tool chests and shelves, and I keep my M109R and snowblower/lawnmower in the garage, and my car and minivan outside.
Sounds like my grandfather's house, built in 1940. The garage could maybe fit a 1920s car with adequate room to move around. It's essentially an unconditioned attached shed and that's what everyone in the neighborhood uses theirs for.
@@bwofficial1776 In a previous lifetime, I painted houses all around the greater L.A. area. Many, many of them had those size garages, especially in older neighborhoods. Okay, let's face it: most of the communities that make up Los Angeles are really old.
I own a condo in Boise from 1980 with a single car garage. The previous owners put in a huge shelving unit which narrowed it to 9 feet wide. My van barely fit, so I switched to a compact car and it’s wonderful. I can’t relate to pickup truck owners. Most of them just want to fit in with other dudes who want to feel big on the road. I’d rather be nimble and fit anywhere.
@@smileychessI love my cheap little Kia Rio! I read that bad drivers try to compensate by driving big vehicles. I drive a van professionally and can confirm! If you drive safely, you don’t NEED a big vehicle! Sick of losing my Rio next to trucks and SUV’s in parking lots… 😡
@@misspat7555my kid ask why I drive such a little car, Nissan LEAF, and I tell them it's so I can have a motorcycle and to bench in the same space as the car while my wife can't fit her expedition in the other side of the lawn mower isn't just right. And I totally agree about driving a small vehicle, it's all about perspective. The car feels huge compared to the motorcycle.
I think the actual reason new-build garages in the U.S. are shrinking is because by and large people don’t use them for vehicles. They’ll fill the garage with $5,000 of junk they never use so their $60k vehicles can sit outside. It makes no sense, but drive though any typical suburban neighborhood and you’ll see house after house with 1- to 2-car garages and vehicles parked in the driveway (or even worse, on the street). One of the reasons we ended up building a (modest) custom home was to get a big (enough) garage for…vehicles.
Could not have said it better. Often it not even 5k of junk but useless crap they are too lazy to dispose of.
And that $60 - $100 plus thousand dollar pickup likely doesn't haul or tow anything either.
It may be different for your case, but in ours, there also isn't any storage area in the entire house, so any misc items such as tools, equipment, and infrequently needed items end up being put on shelving in the garage, further shrinking the useable space
@@bigbuffwolf1 Also many garages contain the hot water heater, three out of the four houses I have owned were set up the way.
Man that is the truth. Marketing guru's can make cul de sac's buy anything keeping up with the neighbors
Another aspect to consider is the height of the garage opening. Some of my neighbors only have 4 panel high garage doors and cannot fit their modern pickup truck due to the height. Thankfully, my home was built in 1999 and has two individual garage doors (5 panel) with space between and some depth on the left and right walls, so vehicle doors can be opened without easily banging a wall or the other vehicle. I noticed the ever shrinking garages in newer homes but always wondered….thank you for this very interesting post.
Our home was built in 2002, we put some wire shelving racks on both sides and wire shelving on the back wall. We park two cars inside, a 2014 Chevy Malibu on the left side and a 2020 Chevy Traverse on the right side. We can open both doors on the Malibu but only those on the driver side on the Traverse. So, I think we would be in good shape if it wasn't for the storage we added. Great information, you put a lot of effort in researching this, thanks.
When I built my custom house in 2017, I specifically made my garage area wider with an 18' single insulated door for a finished width of 21'3". I have a tandem garage which means I can park two vehicles side by side and a third vehicle in front of the one of them. I dedicated that space instead for my work area/storage shelves, etc. Fortunately, my garage interior height is about 11' (no slab but on a crawl space). No basement but I do have a nice sized attic storage area as well. I also added a mini-split so I can cool/heat this garage separately from the house when I want to work out there. So glad I did this! I also added a 220VAC socket with a 40A dedicated breaker for an EV charger or welder someday and have a nice sized laundry sink as well for washing up after working on the car, etc.
In my neighborhood, I see many people who do park both cars in their garage (almost none on the street as the HOA has restrictions on doing so), but in other neighborhoods, I see lots of people parking one or both cars on their driveway and no room to park in their 2-car garage which is full of "stuff".
Your garage sounds awesome but also expensive 😭
As a Realtor, this is an excellent video! There is so much to consider when we talk about the correlation of home prices to home sizes. The garage is just one items that ultimately suffers. Thanks for all the amazing information!
Fake job
This explains why I'm seeing homes with single car garages and no garages being built.
One of my grandparents' garages was quite narrow. It has two separate doors and not much room between the vehicle and walls. But it was also built in '48. I'm sad to hear garages are going back to a smaller size.
My parents still can get both their vehicles in the garage. Mine is in the driveway because it isn't a three care garage. But most of the people in the neighborhood don't park in the garages. Too much stuff. Unlike when my parents moved here.
I blame all the people who use garages for anything except their vehicles. It is insane what houses go for while not even having proper garages nowadays
Fantastically informative video! So often I see the tiny houses on tiny lots on television and wonder why they would do that - well, you just explained it perfectly. Not to mention explaining the size of the garage. Thanks for spending the time to research, record, edit and post your videos. They're great!
When we built our current home (2013), my number 1 requirement was a 3 car garage. (My wife had other priorities which were also met.) The plans had the 2 car garage at 22' deep and 23' wide. The addition on the side to get the third bay was 12' x 26'. Because it is all open, we have 3 cars, a large motorcycle, and lots of storage for yard maintenance, etc. Our home looks big from the street, but that's only because we have such a large garage. We have the smallest amount of square footage overall.
How many garage doors?
@@markbajek2541 2 does in total.
The garage was a prime consideration when we built. We got a three car garage WITH the extra 4' length. Also, the driveway is as important. We changed our plans from a better looking side load garage to a front load. People thought we were nuts but now we have three "lanes" to park in while our neighbors have to play car roulette to get in or out of their side load.
Good video,
I’m a contractor in a more rural setting and I’ve been noticing the trend of small garages as well. Clients bring plans to me and I always tell them that they need a minimum of 24’x24’ with an 18’ door or two 9’ doors as a minimum for a two car garage. But here where I work all the houses are custom contracted houses and the lots are getting bigger not smaller. Thanks for explaining the reason behind the trend.
I have a tandem (nose-to-tail) 2 car garage, and it was done right: it's about 38×15 and I can comfortably fit 2 cars and can open the door past the first lock on a 2 door car. I also keep my snow blower and lawn mower on the side of the garage, and can still park, no problem.
I think the reason for this, though, is because i have an older ranch home with a finished basement, so back-in-the-day the builder cut a driveway into the land, going to my basement/foundation. This allows a more comfortable garage because the basement is seen as "bonus space" anyway, AND it still allows you to design the 1st floor of the ranch to your heart's desire.
Great video, you really gave me some good insight.
You don't see tandem garages very often! Come to think of it, my sister happens to have one in her ranch house.
@@flat6fever680 maybe ranch homes kinda lend themselves to this, since they're basically rectangles. Tandem isn't IDEAL, since the forward car is kind of trapped, BUT if you store a classic there, or a car you don't use as often it's pretty nice.
"Snow blower"? Whazat? (transplant from Vermont to Gerogia).
Guy retires and moves from the Northeast to the South. He's asked why he settled where he did. He said, "I tied a snow shovel to the back of my car, and when someone asked what it was, I knew I was home."
This is the most informative article that explains why most new American suburbs look the same way. Good job! I guess I'm fortunate to live on a 1.5 acre lot with a 3500sq ft house and side mounted attached 3 car garage. My garage fits my f150 and 2 other vehicles with space, but I do wish it was about 5ft longer and 10ft wider to add storage. It is just designed just to fit the vehicles.
Quite honestly, the developers could also bite the bullet and just build townhouses at those lot sizes. Thicken the walls and now you can market a slightly bigger house+garage. With lots that small, there's no point to building a detached house. Unless there's some zoning code that prohibits townhouses because with that sort of squeeze, only townhouses offer acceptable space
@@Demopans5990Where I live, the local code prohibits attached enclosed buildings for vehicle storage. It's to prevent carbon monoxide seeping into the living space.
Unenclosed carports, aka a roof without walls, is acceptable.
this isnt remotely true. Suburbs look the way they do because developers con people into buying cookie cutter houses in hoa nightmares for social status. Then they buy 70k trucks or cars made of tin foil that fall apart after 3 years to convince people theyre special.
When we bought our house from a builder, we had them finish the garage as we wanted to use it as a home theater type room with a projector and it had no windows. (Then they exchanged the side door for one with windows...) It was dubbed the "Entertainment" room and has housed the children's and some random stuff since. The garage door has a wall directly behind it and has never opened since. (The track doesn't exist inside the room.) All the cars we store in the room also individually fit in your pocket. ;)
This is an astoundingly thorough overview of garage minimums, and will help in a future build!
The best garage I had was a three car tandem. Basically, 22ft wide at the door but on the left side of the garage was nearly 40' deep. Realistically, you couldn't park three cars in it unless you wanted to do some major shuffling or had something like a project, or weekend, vehicle. The tandem portion meant I was able to have all of the storage and workshop stuff in an area that would affect parking.
My garage has a 16' door, and the frame is the outside unfinished walls. You're right: if they were finished I couldn't open my doors. I regularly hit the other vehicle with my doors too. There is about a 16" walkway between the two cars and we push in our mirrors between our cars to make that more clear. Also, I have to research the length of cars when I am in the market to get a new one to make sure that it will fit. I also don't have a basement so use the front end of the garage to store things like holiday decorations and tools, and can only fit one tote deep and still park the cars. I've put lots of shelves and hooks on the walls above the cars and store what I can in the rafters. It truly is madness.
One of the best videos I have ever seen on RUclips. I am an architect and do mostly commercial, but have done some residential. You explain the problem extremely well! Thank you for all your research and you very clear and thorough explanation. Thank you for sharing. I enjoy your channel.
I live in an older Victorian home with no garage and I’m planning to build a detached garage some day. This is really informative when I think about what size we should build.
We looked at a lot of new construction homes and the garages and lots were pretty small.
We ended up going the complete opposite direction and buying an 1890’s house on a 0.6 acre lot.
We have a spot where a nice sided garage should fit just fine. Just need the time and funds to do it.
I built my second new home last year. When the builder would not insulate the garage, I asked the builder NOT to finish the garage so that I could insulate it. They said they had to finish it because that was the approved build plan. Now I have to pull down the walls to insulate.
Aw, it's a new home, why would you want to insult it? (Typo joke).
why not just have the builder insulate it if you know they were going to drywall it? Also I insulated my already drywalled garage after the fact by blowing insulation into two 4" holes, 1 a few feet from top and second hole a few feet from the bottom
I ripped out my drywall in my garage and insulated the wall’s and door too. I still need to seal the door and then I’ll put in the mini split. Can’t wait to have it wrapped up!
I just put in the insulation before the drywall went up on mine, along with sprayfoaming all the seams and using fireblock sprayfoam where needed. It took less than a day to do that.
Is insulting a garage necessary? What did it do to you to deserve a criticism 😮😂
We have a 20x20 garage in our new home (2018) and the neighbors were astounded that we fix our 2024 Honda Passport (which we bought only after trying it in the garage on a test drive)
and 2019 GMC Canyon. We have two 24" deep shelves on each side. It's tight but it works.
I loved this video. When I planned (2013) the house I built (moved in 2016) the original plans barely fit my 2010 F150 (depth). I wanted to put some shelves behind it as well. I wound up planning a 26 foot deep garage. It's a three car garage so it's 33 feet wide where the cars park. In 2022 a life event had me move to a Mungo home with a "single car garage" for a few months. My Goldwing and some shelves practically filled that garage. I was very happy to move back to my house, for many reasons, but the garage was a big one.
Canadian here and I noticed that too. Older house had a spacious 2 car garage with lots of space. New one has the stairway taking a lot of the smaller space. One vehicle has to be a lot shorter for it to work.
our 2 car garage house purchased in 2021 is 18'4" by 20'8 and this is considered big in our community here in ontario
Grew up with Chicago winters - a 2 car was a must and we have always had 2 cars inside for every house we’ve owned.
I grew up in Chicago too....on the Southside. You can absolutely survive without a 2 car garage, any garage at that.
We need more housing, closer together and within easy access to public transport and less reliance on cars. Period.
@@inorite4553 nah
@@radiantveggies9348 well shoot, I'm convinced.
Great analysis. My garage is 19.5' square and I easily fit two vehicles only because I drive sports cars. Both my cars are approximately 177" long and 71" wide (not including mirrors). As a car enthusiast, the garage played a key role in my buying decision. It had to be a two car with one door because the dual 8' foot doors are just too tight and restrict your positioning. If I want to give one of my cars a little more buffer room from the wall, I can do that with a single door. With two doors, you are stuck!
Today's vehicles are too big and Americans in general have too much stuff. I can't imagine using my garage as a storage bin. It's my showroom!
The breakdown of the lot prices, lot sizes, room sizes and so on in this video does a great job of showing the space limitations of single-family detached housing and how it affects the overall cost of the housing unit. I wonder how a condo building with a parking garage would compare, on a bigger piece of land of course. Perhaps make the parking garage spaces into their own enclosed garages with doors.
I didnt see you mention it, but also the water heater is located inside the garage, taking more space. In my case, the A/C / Furnace unit is ALSO located inside the garage, so our home is a 1.5 car garage at best! And yes, I park my Silverado outside, it wouldn't fit even if the garage was completely empty!
Some homes also put the washer and dryer in the garage as well if they don't have a dedicated laundry room.
@@Novusod A properly sized garage that is actually designed and built to acomodate such can handle space for the laundry area and still actually be big enough for a reasonably size car.
... of course, reasonably sized cars are apparently nearly extinct in the USA and badly designed houses are hardly a new problem.
Do you live in an area without basements?
Water heater in the garage not offset with a cutout is a big problem since there's usually a required bollard that eats up more space that a car cannot move into (by design to ensure not hitting the tank accidently)
My home was built with a 3-car garage in 1996. I could park 3 cars, but only have 2 vehicles. The Hyundai Tucson and Ford Maverick fit nicely. Glad I don’t need bigger vehicles in these near-retirement years.
Never go with one single garage door. Specing the garage with two 9 foot wide doors placed 3 feet apart gives you a very usable garage where cars won’t invariably get damaged. Just don’t buy any of todays “short cut” homes!
Good luck finding 9 foot wide doors!
@@halcyon1981 oops typo 😳 should be 8’
Good luck finding 8 ft doors. 7’6” is the new standard on new built homes. It’s not even option to get and 8ft door.
@@0DeadSoul0
My parents' garage door is easily 18' wide. I think it was custom? Maybe commercial?
@@0DeadSoul0 @arlenbell4376 I have 7'10" and my mini van has about 2" of clearance coming in and out, it sucks. A truck would have no chance at all.
As a licensed architect in the state of CA, I can tell you that the absolute smallest width is 20 feet clear, that’s clear, no obstructions. Even in 5 du/ac typologies, we can provide a minimum 20x20 garage or slightly larger. In higher density townhomes we make 12 foot wide, 40 foot deep tandem garages. We live in a townhome, with stuff, and two cars in our 20x20 garage (Including the washer and dryer).
Is that a state (or local) restriction? My house (Texas, built 2010) has a 19'4" x 17'5" garage that the builder and seller both claimed was "two-car".
I've never watched your channel before this video, and I'm not sure how it popped up for me; I'm happy about it. This was a fascinating and informative video. Thanks!
My son recently bought a home built in 2020 and he drives a Ford F150 Super Crew. When he moved in he was shocked to discover his truck didn't fit in his two-car garage. However, as it turned out, I could get it in the garage with less than 2" to spare. So to make parking easier we built a frame of 2x4's and laid it on the floor in front of the truck to use as a parking stop. He can now easily pull in and close the door. It's a good thing he didn't have a trailer hitch! The previous owner had installed a tornado shelter on the opposite side of the garage so between that and his recycling and trash bins he basically has a one-car garage.
My house is built in 1986 and I have an extra foot or two but there’s a workbench in the way a few years ago I had driven a 2019 Ram 1500 classic quad cab and I couldn’t get it to fit all the way in.
No, if I had the regular cab short box I would have been able to squeeze it and that is only a foot longer than the challenger that I currently own
Is the shelter not underground?
The shelter is heavy steel with a vault style door that pins in several places. It would be a scary place to ride out a tornado. My concern is the door opens out and there is no escape hatch that opens in for escaping if a vehicle gets pushed against the door. Terrible design but it came with the house.
@@thefrostedforest aw ok that’s what I was thinking. It’s the only reason I could think of that would explain the shelter taking up the garage.
So are you familiar with those areas? I’m wondering if you could build underground but it’s just too expensive? Like an engineering nightmare lol
I love parking my Toyota Yaris in my 2 1/2 car garage. I can drive in forward, make a few turns, and wind up with the car pointed outward so I can easily get into the street. It's my only vehicle.
The Yaris is the _best_ car! I wish they would keep making it in the US.
When I started looking at new construction homes this year, I told my realtor it needed to be at least 21 feet deep, big enough for a full size truck. It's unbelievable how many homes we found that had 19 foot deep or smaller garages. A lot of builders don't even put the dimensions on their floor plans any more, so you have to pry it out of the salesperson.
The home I ended up purchasing has a 19 foot wide by 22 foot deep garage, which is a miracle for the small 3800 square foot lot. The home itself is only 29 feet wide, with no driveway (garage backs to an alley) and no backyard.
At which point will you finally realize that the car does not serve you now, and you’re serving the car? When the garage is bigger than the house itself?
Your truck is too big LMAO
Put your ego to the side and get a reasonable sized car or truck
Lol who revolves their entire house around the size of their ridiculously large truck. People's priorities are hilarious
To complicate the problem, some developers put the hot water heater and/or the HVAC system in the garage, so the actual depth is really three feet less than what is stated.
Lol this is why I've always loved smaller cars. My current car is 13' 8" long, 5' 8" wide. I can fit into most parking spots where the bigass truck is hanging over the front.
that truck can fit into any parking space or on any road in the US. parking spaces and roads are standardised. I can fit my semi into exactly 2 spaces (because it's long). I can fit my sports car into exactly the same space i can fit my pickup.
@@charlesreid9337- LOL this sounds a lot like the "I can still fit into the jeans I wore in college" claim. Yes, maybe possible, but no one wants to see (or get his doors dinged by) the guy who does it.
Very informative and right to the point, although i do want you investigate further into detail on road infrastructure as it also a huge effect on the 0.13 acres roads have gotten wider with each lane added and as cars becomes bigger you also need a bigger parking lots, those numbers add up quiet fast when you scale it.
This was something my parents had to consider when they did a remodel. Now, they have a corner lot, the house is actually technically on two streets. When they purchased it, there was an RV gate on the side, with a large back yard, and a 20'x22' front garage that almost never had a car in it. Eventually me and my brother both had separate vehicles so we couldn't fit 4 cars on the driveway, and the HOA complained.
My dad, having a dad and brother who are architects, got together with them to design a new garage that would replace the RV gate and part of the back yard, while the old garage became part of the dining room. The garage they designed is nominally a 2-car, because the 18' door pointed at the street, but with a 34' wide driveway that allows parking for 2 trucks, my brother's jeep, and my dad's motorcycle without even opening the garage. But because of the setback requirements and the layout of the yard, the garage wound up being shaped like a trapezoid inside. It goes from 22' at the front wall to 30' at the back wall, with the back wall offset by 30 degrees from the front wall to meet the requirements set by the HOA (It had to be flush with the house wall). This resulted in a garage that, on one side, is 26' deep, and on the other side is 32' deep. He also made the decision to put a 10' door on the back of the garage, lined up with the long side, to allow trailers to be pushed all the way through the garage if necessary (A trick we later used to get a '64 Impala into the long side of the garage, which is also the shop-side). The garage install cost somewhere around $120k, and took approximately 6 months, but it doubled the value of the house simply because the garage can hold up to 4 cars with the doors closed.
Having to be a 4 vehicle household is a disturbing concept to begin with.
The HOA might genuinely contribute to disabling kids access to urban amenities and education (like they did (by blocking a bus route) where I was in Canada) but even though it should never be necessary
@@fionafiona1146 5 adults with 4 different places to be at the same time. My dad's job, my brother's job, my job, and my mom being a caretaker for her mom. And none of those jobs in the same direction.
@@NikkiTheOtter in your build environment, that is no surprise.
My point was, something has gone wrong with such built environment forcing that.
@@fionafiona1146 Yes, it is a societal failure when so many people are dependent on car travel. Her situation is not uncommon.
@@barryrobbins7694 Exactly this. I moved to a city that actually has public transportation and is semi-walkable. Now I, and my 6 roommates, get by with a handful of scooters and my single truck. (Which we currently can't use anyway because it's in the process of being repaired after a vandal decided to slam their truck into it in a parking lot twice to teach my roommate (who was borrowing it) a lesson.)
If we didn't have public transportation options, we'd be without a vehicle for the entire repair process.
When we bought our pickup (seven years ago), we measured our garage first. We discovered that no full-size pickup would fit in the garage with the garage door closed. Our mid-size pickup (GMC Canyon) clears front/rear by less than 4 inches.
My neighborhood was built with fairly generous sized 2 and 3 car garages and still nobody parks in them. They're all full of junk. Old furniture, clothes, etc. Why people would rather hang on to worthless crap rather than protect their cars I have no idea!
That's what I keep saying. The sun will damage your paint and interiors. If it's long term storage of sentimental items, get a storage unit. They're very cheap. Other junk? Toss it. You won't need it.
Because to most people, a car is just something that gets you from A to B. Keeping the car outside means not waiting for the garage door to open.
I'm a woodworker and welder, so I can guarantee one thing... No matter what size garage I have, it will always be full of workbenches and tools. Wife's car is in the driveway and my truck is on the street. She's an artist, so we don't have a living room either - we have an art studio.
Backing the truck in will allow you to “swing” the passenger door up against the wall. You don’t need to open that door. Just the driver. Passengers can enter or exit on the driveway. It gives a ton of space back.
That's what I've had to do with my substandard apartment "2 car" garage to house a Dodge Dakota and a '90's Ford Thunderbird when I moved in, now a Ram 1500 "classic" and a late-model Challenger; the pickup backs in, the long-doored coupe drives in nose-first, both with their left side in the center mutually sharing door-swing space for the driver's door and no way to get in the passenger-side doors.
Interesting information. I always wondered why my garage was so small when the cars of the time were so big (house built in 1971). I have a 20x20 2-car garage with 2 8 foot wide doors. I have 2 cars, a lawnmower, snow blower, table saw, tool box, and some other small lawn equipment and gardening tools with plenty of room to walk around both cars. However, unlike most American households, I have a VW Beetle and a first generation Toyota Highlander (aka the little one).
My garage is 19.5 ft W x 37 ft L. It started as a carport in the 70's. Then was converted to a 2 car, and finally an extended 2 car. We keep three cars in there with the fourth corner being used as a workspace/storage. We can fit two cars in the 19.5 wide portion but they are a midsize truck and a small sedan. The third car in the back is a smaller sports car. We back one in and pull one in forwards so we have extra space on the outer sides to get in/out. If we have passengers that aren't skinny and limber we load/unload them outside.
Excellent analysis. Very thorough. I'm impressed.
I park both of our vehicles in our garage. A 2017 F-350 DRW, and a 2019 Toyota Camry. We just built a new house, 40'x70' on 5 acres and the garage is 32'6"'x23'7" with an 18' door. Living on a 5 acre property in the country = no HOA was a huge factor when we decided to build. The garage was also a big piece of the build plan as I always park our vehicles in our garage. I see it as the 2nd most expensive thing purchased, and protecting that investment by putting it in a garage was important to us. We don't have a basement, and even with the large garage I see us building an small barn to put our tractor, mowing equipment, and other miscellaneous things in. Our 3rd garage is a woodworking shop. Both the garage and woodworking shop have finished walls, and 10' ceilings (which go throughout the house).
That sounds pretty amazing! Well done. In researching this video I saw a funny quote: “America is the only place in the world where $50,000 worh of automobiles are parked in the driveway so that $500 worth of stuff could occupy the garage.”
Super thought out and informative video!!
To answer your question, yes I do park the same amount of vehicles in my garge as it was designed to hold. I own a house in a newer development with a 2 car garage that is 20x20. Growing up, we didn't have a garage and that's all I ever wanted so I could work and keep my vehicle out of the elements. It irks me so much to see all my neighbors parking on the street or in their drive way and seeing their garage full of junk. To me a garage is a luxury. When my wife and I moved into our house we agreed that the garage would be used for its intended purpose which is to park our cars. We also agreed that there would be no storage on the sides so we could easily open/close the car doors and have plenty of room to walk around. In my opinon a garage should be used to park vehciles or as a workshop. If you're using your garage as storage then you have too much stuff!! And lets be honest most people don't even use most of that stuff!!
As a developer I can tell you that it’s also getting more and more expensive to build. The garage being useful is often not an issue to the average urban buyer. So cutting the garage to minimum legal status is common now to save the profit margins that are very tight and easy to lose money on these days.
Excellent presentation!
My Dad converted our "2 car garage" into his office space. It is worth noting they're called 2 car garages. No way meant for housing large trucks and suvs.
PS- that 2:21 drawing was a bit dramatic with the scaling.
Great video thanks for sharing! 🙌👍
Girl bye. It’s generically called a 2 car garage. No such thing as a 2 SUV/full-size truck garage 🙄. We fit 2 large, full size SUVs, in what is called a “2 car garage”. It’s tacky when people convert a garage into living space. It’s also tacky when cars are parked all over the driveway.
Lol get smaller cars
In the example at the end, the ideal way to make it fit while maximizing space is to pull one in head first and back the other. That way you can accommodate both vehicles doors opening. Its how we manage to fit three cars in our true three car garage. Home built in 2007 in AZ for reference. It was before the shrinking of garages and one reason we love our home.
I grew up in the country on land my grandfather bought for $1 an acre back in 1947. I'm still there and I'll never leave because of this kind of stuff.
I keep my 2007 vehicle and it fits great in my 1960 built home. My car runs great
I have a 1960-built suburban 3br 2ba tri-level home with a detached 2-car garage behind. It’s about 20 ft wide with a 16x7 door, and I think 24 ft deep. The one side has more clearance than the other on either side of the door (I believe 3 or 4 ft on one side, 1 or 2 feet on the other) with a separate entry door on the side of the garage. How anyone back in the 1960’s parked a land yacht in there is beyond me. 😅
I have two small-ish cars, one is a two-door so I often have that problem of dinging its door into the other car. Now when I pull in each car to park I have to bias to the outboard side to create extra space between them. That means I’m just slightly brushing the side of the door with a side mirror, and when pulling out I have to turn slightly towards the center to avoid scraping against the side.
This video seems to describe my parents’ home very well. They have a newly-built (ca. 2021/22) 3br 2ba single story home and while it’s a McMansion, its garage seems even smaller. There’s maybe a foot in either side of the garage door. They only have one car so they park in the center. When I visit we just leave one car out. Meanwhile they have a 10-12 foot ceiling in the garage for no apparent reason. (I helped change one of the light bulbs a month ago; I had to stand on a stool and use one of those bulb changing doohickeys attached to a long broom handle. 😅)
It’s not just their garage which is shrinking. The kitchen area is large, as are the master bedroom, living room, and basement. However the bathroom, laundry room, and the two other bedrooms are relatively tiny. Meanwhile the hallway is unnecessarily wide (at least the 5 feet you mentioned) and long, which gives visual effect but is wasted space serving no useful purpose (they actually store stuff there 😅). One of the walls of the hallway is shared with the garage! If only the builders had moved it a foot or two, it would be a much better balance between the garage and the hallway. But noooo because new home buyers get so turned on by the wide hallway. 😅😢
Oh yeah their home is not much more square footage than mine, but being newer and with a full basement (I instead have a finished den which is about 4 feet below ground level), theirs cost about 2.5X what I paid for mine.
Terrific video! We recently moved to Northeast Florida and noticed an obvious and discernable difference in garage space, based on (as you indicated) lot space and floorplan cost. Our home has a three-car garage (two doubles, and a single door) plus a walled-off workshop just behind the garage. Though it's still tight, we manage to get our two cars and our double-PWC trailer inside with little room to spare. We only have an 8-foot easement between homes, so it feels very tight outside of our home as well. A front-load garage is truly our only option. The house we had in Virginia had the same size garage, but as a side-load, but the house sat on a 3/4-acre lot, with lots of room between homes, so our very lovely 85-foot driveway not only served as spill over space for when we had lots of guests, but also served as a visual barrier between homes. I miss our house in Virginia, but we managed to make this lay-out work for us.
I think I figured out why most new homes also only have like 2 bedrooms 2 baths. It's that 0.13 acre thing. Makes sense now sadly.
my 60's house of 935 sq ft has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath no upstairs just a basement and separate 25 x 25 garage. but my driveway is 100 ft and my lot is 140ft x40
It is also that the average family is smaller these days. Many families are choosing to have one or even no children. So there is a market for homes with fewer bedrooms.
Where are you finding new homes that are only 2 beds and 2 baths? Most new construction these days are McMansions with 4+ bedrooms.
One of the fascinating things to me, is that even though may cities are putting row houses/town houses back into their codes, people don't want them, so builders aren't even trying to build them. People would rather have the useless three feet of space between their house and the fence that's all of three feet from the neighbor's house, than to simply share a wall.
West Texas. Here we seem to be having the 2 bedrooms 2 baths, not very many mcmansions. But when they do it is something like 6 rooms and a few bathrooms with like a 3 or 4 car Garage.
I miss the 5 car garage we had, it was my fun place to be in, fixing and building, not just cars.
.....a man needs space, tools and time. :/
....actually it could hold 6 cars, but the space for the sixth car was where the workbenches, tools, fridge, some worn out seating etc were.
I forgot to mention, we sold that house, moved locations,
...a few years later on sat imiging I checked that house, because I used to love the garage,
now there's 4 'houses' on the same plot with 'garages' for each. :/
Ugh I need that so bad. 3+ garage spaces and a 2 post lift is the dream for me.
I dream of a 3.5 car garage instead of my 1.75 car (1 car plus workbench). Last 2 houses I measured and used painters tape in a parking lot to check garage size. Location trumps over a real 2 car garage.
Our community is building "up". Strip malls now come with several floors of apartments overhead. Downtown buildings are underground parking, retail at ground level, commercial at mezzanine level with housing above. We haven't annexed new land in decades, but we're adding 4,000 beds a year.
Sounds horrible. I’m glad I’ll be dead before the whole world is like that.
5 over 1s are eyesores
@@headcas620If you want to conserve the land, buy it!
Otherwise if it’s not yours, stop the whining.
@@JollyGiant19 you know that's not feasible. People should be less greedy.
@@headcas620 Covet not thy neighbour's house after all. If you don't own it, don't tell others what to do on their land.
Great information, I appreciate you compiling the data into an easy to consume and concise video. I wish more content was like this. You earned a sub! I look forward to watching more of your content. Thanks!
24’x24’ garage: Holding one car, one garden tractor, one 42” walk behind mower, four shelving units, a generator, four air compressors, a table saw, and a piano
Back in one car to share door swing space in the middle of the garage!
I also back one in, seems to be a lost art even with backup cameras these days. That way the passenger doors are close in the center, but so what, usually one driver in/out anyway. If there is a passenger on occasion, just move the car to the driveway. Simple solutions seem to evade most folks.
@@1947froggy Perfectly sensible. Alas, if only such a concept prevailed...the usual solution is parking one (or more!) in the street, which is wrong or harmful on several levels. But people don't care.
@@1947froggy
Backing the car into a driveway also makes it very easy to drive the car away. Also lets the car fit into a far tighter space
@@Demopans5990 Yep!
Urban homesteader here. I built my garage 28x26 with an 18’ door in 2005. With a compact pickup and compact car with staircase and work bench I find it tight. I took a hard pass on many houses at the time due to garage size being too small. Opting for a fixer upper with no garage that had space to attach one and reserved the money to build it immediately after taking possession.
We live in AZ and have a home built in 2000. The home has a 3 car carage and we use 2 of them for cars. We have an SUV and a sports car as our daily drivers. The third bay is my workshop and overflow area. We have added overhead storage to make up for all the stuff we used to store in a basement when we lived back East. We have enough room to comfortably open our doors and move around the vehicles. The length inside is tightere than I like because there are cabinets and physical plant equipment at the front of the garage. I miss oversized garages but will not complain after seeing your video.
My garage hasn't seen a car since I sold my Miata in 2009.
Very sad day for 😢 everyone, R.I.P. (rest in peace to your Miata great car!)
🙂
My 1997 Mazda Miata still resides in mine. It's about all that would fit though. It's a very small car. A 2005 era Toyota Corolla, small by most any standards, is a behemoth next to the Miata.