Garage Trends

• The two-car garage is outdated. Families are growing. People own “summer” and “winter” cars. Teenagers own cars.

  Some home buyers base their entire home-buying decision on the type of garage that comes with the house. One home buyer specifically decided to purchase a certain home because it had a four-car garage. He ran a landscaping business and needed to park four cars, plus have RV access. One house in Sacramento fit those needs, so he bought it.

• Auto Elevators. For less than it costs to buy a used Honda, you can hire a company to install an auto elevator in your garage. It works like this: you drive into the garage, get out of the car, push a button and your car rises. Then you can park another car underneath.

  Or you can dig out the ground below to provide subterranean parking. The lift and your car will be completely concealed.

• Garages Are Getting Bigger

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, a standard-sized garage measured about 21 feet by 21 feet and was 7-feet high.

Consider the length of a H2 Hummer, about 15 feet long, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for typical garage items such as a lawnmower, gardening tools or workbench. A 17-foot Bayliner boat, with trailer and hitch, won’t fit in a smaller garage, either. To accommodate our larger vehicles, garages need to be at minimum 22 feet by 22 feet. To fit an SUV, the height should be at least 9 feet.

Garages Moving to Rear of Home

To increase the number of homes on lots, builders are moving garages to the back of the home. The garage is accessible by side entry or from an alley, just like the 1950s. Although some are attached at the rear, the trend is moving toward detached garages. Rear garages, builders say, emphasize the fronts of the homes and encourage interaction between sidewalk strollers and porch sitters.

By Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com

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