Garaging your vehicle

[gonealookin]

Living in a place where one occasionally wakes up to 2 feet of fresh overnight snow, parking in a garage or at least a sturdy carport saves quite a bit of digging in a snowy winter.

In the development where I live, only maybe 30% of the units have garages; the rest have designated spaces in open parking lots.  When I bought this place my offer was basically $200/sq. ft. of living space (that was a while ago) plus $50K for the garage, and when I see some of my neighbors struggling to uncover their cars on a frigid morning I am very glad I paid the extra money.

I don't worry about a car fire; if anything the furnace down in the garage would be a more likely source of a fire.

[dlsterner]

One-car garage, built into my house.  The car is always in there when I am home.

It is pretty short front-to-back, so my rear bumper is literally 3-4 inches from the door when closed, and this leaves minimal room at the front end to walk around it.  Because of this, I can't open my trunk without opening the garage door, as the trunk lid swings out past the end of the rear bumper.  It's not a huge car either (Hyundai Sonata).

[DandyDan]

After I moved out from my parents, I've never had a garage because, with one exception, the apartments I've lived in never had a garage. The one that did cost an extra $50 a month, so I passed on that.

[ZLoth]

Your mother?  She's the one fighting you on this?

She's the one who keeps the garage door slightly open to allow the cat to go in and out. That also means all sorts of junk gets blown into the garage.

I'd worry more about a trunk light or warning light running down the battery or insects/animals getting in the car through the window or trunk.

Thankfully, there is a timer on the trunk so that the light doesn't remain on. And, I haven't had an issue with insects yet.

And yes, people who fill up their garage with junk and do not put their car(s) in it befuddle/concern me.  In my experience, the junk just sits there.

Yet, the combined value of the barely-looked-at items stored in the garage is worth less than the vehicle that is stored outside. I already went though a purge when I moved from California to Nevada, and I'm trying not to collect so muny baubles. The Christmas stuff is stored in my attic, and I do have a garage organizer on my wish list for several years down the road.

Moreover, our garage has a mildly unpleasant smell--a mix of gasoline and ethanol that escapes the gas can for the lawn mower, plus dead grass--so I actively don't want that getting into the cars.

Because of a grass allergy that is aggravated when I do the lawn plus not having the time to maintain a lawn, I don't have powered lawn equipment beyond a electric powered leaf blower. All of my outdoor yard items are stored in a shed separate from the garage.

Not garaging one's car in Oklahoma is asking to get it totaled by hail damage. So I always keep it garaged if that's an option.

I don't know about Oklahoma, but when I did some road tripping in Texas, I saw mobile homes which were under a carport. I do pass a house or two in my neighborhood which had a carport.

When I look at the tornado records, the county I live in (Collin) had a maximum number of three tornadoes in a recorded calendar year. Greyson to the north had a maximum of six tornadoes in 1971, otherwise multiple years having four tornadoes. Denton to the west had a maximum of four tornadoes in a calendar year. Hunt to the east has a maximum of five tornadoes in 1994, otherwise multiple months of four tornadoes. And Dallas to the south of me had a maximum of nine in 1996, eight in 1994, and seven in 1971, otherwise multiple years with five. So, I'm not worried about tornadoes, although I prepare for them better than I prepared for an earthquake.

Like I said, when I see thunderstorms in the forecast, I pay attention. Like a dog with it's tail between it's feet, if it appears to be significant thread, I run for cover and watch the chasers on YouTube.

[SectorZ]

Seeing this being discussed, I wonder what the difference in garage usage is in parts of the country with basements and parts without. I have a one-car unattached garage, and my basement contents would probably be mostly out there if I didn't have one, especially with a functionally useless (as storage space) attic. I guess not having a basement affects things for people.

[ClassicHasClass]

When I moved out, they just had carports in the apartments I lived in. But in this house, I use the garage exclusively. Not letting those grubby little cat(alytic converter) burglars ruin my exhaust.

[Rothman]

I have no basement.  I have no garage.  Therefore, I have no junk.

[J N Winkler]

Seeing this being discussed, I wonder what the difference in garage usage is in parts of the country with basements and parts without. I have a one-car unattached garage, and my basement contents would probably be mostly out there if I didn't have one, especially with a functionally useless (as storage space) attic. I guess not having a basement affects things for people.

I think the difference is less than one might expect, simply because many people don't rationalize their junk storage at all--some are more ready to sever their emotional attachments to objects than others.  Also, the garage is often storage of last resort for objects that are too bulky or too heavy to take down basement stairs (one example from personal experience:  the steel frame for a motorized hospital bed).  I know at least one family that parks both of their cars outside even though they have a two-car garage and an unfinished basement that is perfect for overflow storage.  Other families render large fractions of their basements unsuitable for general storage by finishing them for use as everyday living space.  I've never been comfortable with this because of the potential for flooding and leaks, but I know many who are prepared to tolerate these risks.

[Scott5114]

Other families render large fractions of their basements unsuitable for general storage by finishing them for use as everyday living space.  I've never been comfortable with this because of the potential for flooding and leaks, but I know many who are prepared to tolerate these risks.

If I had a basement, I would probably finish at least part of it for use as supplemental living space for non-critical things like a game room, guest bedroom, a home gym, etc. Thus if flooding or leaks occurred, it wouldn't be as problematic as if it occurred in the main living space.

[NWI_Irish96]

Other families render large fractions of their basements unsuitable for general storage by finishing them for use as everyday living space.  I've never been comfortable with this because of the potential for flooding and leaks, but I know many who are prepared to tolerate these risks.

If I had a basement, I would probably finish at least part of it for use as supplemental living space for non-critical things like a game room, guest bedroom, a home gym, etc. Thus if flooding or leaks occurred, it wouldn't be as problematic as if it occurred in the main living space.

Our basement was finished when we bought it. Knowing that getting water is a possibility, I highly recommend something other than carpet for flooring, and areas used for storage have only plastic bins sitting on the floor and have cardboard boxes up higher.

[kalvado]

Other families render large fractions of their basements unsuitable for general storage by finishing them for use as everyday living space.  I've never been comfortable with this because of the potential for flooding and leaks, but I know many who are prepared to tolerate these risks.

If I had a basement, I would probably finish at least part of it for use as supplemental living space for non-critical things like a game room, guest bedroom, a home gym, etc. Thus if flooding or leaks occurred, it wouldn't be as problematic as if it occurred in the main living space.

Our basement was finished when we bought it. Knowing that getting water is a possibility, I highly recommend something other than carpet for flooring, and areas used for storage have only plastic bins sitting on the floor and have cardboard boxes up higher.

my "office" desk is in an unfinished basement (walls are painted, though, and the temperature is pretty comfortable). I used some Harbor Tools tarp to separate the area and a big map on a wall as background for Zoom/Webex. Workbench was repurposed as a desk when covid hit.
Finishing may be nice, but not really essential - especially once you look at all the code compliance issues.

[J N Winkler]

If I had a basement, I would probably finish at least part of it for use as supplemental living space for non-critical things like a game room, guest bedroom, a home gym, etc. Thus if flooding or leaks occurred, it wouldn't be as problematic as if it occurred in the main living space.

We have a full basement that is unfinished, aside from one closet with built-in shelving.  It also does not have any plumbing fixtures such as toilets or faucets, though it does have the city water inlet and supply pipes run through and around the floor joists.  The windows are no taller than the floor joists, which are laid on top of a foundation sill that in turn sits on top of the poured concrete basement walls.  (These days you are encouraged--in some jurisdictions perhaps even required--to retrofit an egress window if any part of the basement is to be converted to a bedroom.)  The concrete floor "floats" in the sense it has no solid connection to the walls, and we have a working sump pump.

This has been our experience with leaks:

*  A family member set an outdoor hose running in late autumn and fell asleep in a chair as a cold front rolled through.  The pipe supplying the hose bib froze and burst, spraying water around the basement.  It had to be replaced.

*  A pipe feeding one of the upstairs fixtures developed a leak, spraying papers underneath and narrowly missing a stack of death certificates that were needed to execute stock transfers as part of settling a family member's estate.  It, too, had to be replaced.  The plumber thought the leak might have occurred as a result of erosion within the pipe.

*  A valve controlling flow to the toilet in the master bath developed a leak.  Water ran down the pipe, through the linoleum and flooring, along a joist, and down into the bowl of a halogen torchiere that, although it had not been used in earnest for over a decade, was still plugged in.  The trickle was so small it continued undetected (perhaps for days) until water got into the lamp column and soaked the switch, resulting in the lamp turning on by itself.

*  One window leaks in heavy rainstorms through a crack in the basement wall that starts at one corner of the window opening and runs out for about six inches.  I think this leak is caused by soil shedding excess water once it becomes waterlogged.  The flow is rarely more than a trickle and usually drains around the floor slab without ponding.

*  Another window also leaks badly in heavy rainstorms and has left big ponds on the floor.  Storms also seem to aggravate seepage through a floor crack about six feet in front of the window.  I have a cardboard box store in this area and have had problems with boxes sucking up water through capillary action and warping once they dry out.  We don't fully understand why this window leaks, but suspect a combination of leakage through a loose window cover and soil waterlogging due to over-irrigation.

Our neighbor actually has a finished basement and, several years ago, had to have all of the floor coverings and the bottom two feet or so of gypsum wallboard replaced when a downstairs toilet overflowed.  That cost around $10,000 and was covered by homeowner's insurance.

I also have a relative by marriage who moved around town multiple times, generally living in each house for an average of five years or so while he made cosmetic improvements and then sold it for a profit.  Eventually he moved into a house in northeast Wichita that had a walk-out basement and discovered it was built on top of a spring or seep.  We don't know how much he ended up spending in unsuccessful efforts to remedy the resulting water intrusion problems, but we are sure it was in the thousands.

So, to make a long story short, finishing the basement is basically a nonstarter for us.  We haven't even painted the bare concrete, though we use multiple lamps to establish a good balance between task and environmental lighting.  It has worked well as office space.  Zoom (and probably Webex too) allows a user to specify an image as a custom background and I've used a shot of Puente Nuevo in Ronda, though I've attended several virtual meetings where multiple participants used bare concrete basement walls as their backgrounds.  (It may not be intuitive, but I think tidiness in the background is more important than surface finish.)

[Rothman]

So, someone turned on a hose, fell asleep in a chair and despite the running water, the pipe froze and burst?  Weird.

Anyway, I'd never, ever finish a basement or live somewhere with a finished basement.  The risk of flooding and dealing with that mess is too darn high.

[Duke87]

And yes, people who fill up their garage with junk and do not put their car(s) in it befuddle/concern me.  In my experience, the junk just sits there.

This is my dad, and it is primarily a question of the car can be parked outside while all the things in the garage cannot. The garage is home to the lawnmower, snowblower, leafblower, fertilizer spreader, rakes, shovels, chainsaw, table saw, compound miter saw, folding ladder, and various manners of other "stuff" that needs to be stored somewhere and is ideally stored in an unfurnished space.

And before you say he should get a shed, he has one and it is also full of stuff.

Anyway, I'd never, ever finish a basement or live somewhere with a finished basement.  The risk of flooding and dealing with that mess is too darn high.

I don't worry about it on account of topography. We got what was effectively a 1000-year storm last year, dumping 8 inches of rain in under 24 hours. Our basement stayed dry as a bone. I think we're good.

[J N Winkler]

So, someone turned on a hose, fell asleep in a chair and despite the running water, the pipe froze and burst?  Weird.

That is what I was told.  AIUI, keeping the water running to prevent freezing works better when the outlet is in an indoors environment that is kept warm.

Anyway, I'd never, ever finish a basement or live somewhere with a finished basement.  The risk of flooding and dealing with that mess is too darn high.

There are real estate agents who are very against finishing spaces below natural ground, even if to do so would increase the value of a property.  As they put it, there are only two kinds of basement:  those that have flooded in the past and those that will in the future.  This said, I think the current high interest rates will remind us of some of the reasons homeowners finish basements, notably the "golden handcuffs" problem:  having a house that is currently paid off or is on a mortgage with a very low rate of interest locked in, and not being able to purchase a house with a bigger footprint because to do so would entail taking on another mortgage with a much higher interest rate.  In that situation, which did not apply for much of the 2010's but was the norm decades ago, it becomes financially appealing to finish a basement to get more square feet of living space out of the same footprint.  In this market I do know of many houses that have finished basements dating from this era.

This is my dad, and it is primarily a question of the car can be parked outside while all the things in the garage cannot. The garage is home to the lawnmower, snowblower, leafblower, fertilizer spreader, rakes, shovels, chainsaw, table saw, compound miter saw, folding ladder, and various manners of other "stuff" that needs to be stored somewhere and is ideally stored in an unfurnished space.

In this connection, it should be noted that not all garages are equally usable for both car parking and general storage.  We are fortunate to have an alcove in ours that can accommodate a workbench, as well as nailboards along one wall that we can use to hang up various lawn implements.  We've also invested in a shelf set for miscellaneous items.  I tend to think that, for a given floor square footage, people with perfectly rectangular garages are at a disadvantage.

[Max Rockatansky]

I built a shed with my MIL's boyfriend specifically to get the general storage items (mostly stuff my wife had) out of the garage.  I also built a side run to the house for yard equipment which can be stored outside.  Some storage in the garage was retained, but only on organized shelving units.  My garage is largely now a shrine for a car, road signs and maps. 

[tchafe1978]

We have a one car garage attached to the house through a breezeway, but for us it's never been useful to park a car in. It's barely big enough to fit a car into, and the house was built in the 1950's, and I've always wondered how the big boats from the 60's, 70s, and 80's ever fit into it. We've always used it primarily for storage of the lawn mowers, snowblower, yard decorations, etc. When we did try parking our van in it, there wasn't enough room to open the driver's door so I had to crawl out the sliding door. Wwe didn't try parking a car in there again for a couple years until we got a smaller car that did fit, and my wife parked it in there in the winter. That worked for one winter, but then the next winter, the door broke and fell on top of the car. The door was an old fashioned one piece flip up door that was starting to rot, and the springs that attached to the sides of it broke and the door fell  on the car. Since then we've boarded up the door opening and just use the garage for storage and the cars stay outside. One day if we get the money we might get a new overhead door put on.

[SectorZ]

We have a one car garage attached to the house through a breezeway, but for us it's never been useful to park a car in. It's barely big enough to fit a car into, and the house was built in the 1950's, and I've always wondered how the big boats from the 60's, 70s, and 80's ever fit into it. We've always used it primarily for storage of the lawn mowers, snowblower, yard decorations, etc. When we did try parking our van in it, there wasn't enough room to open the driver's door so I had to crawl out the sliding door. Wwe didn't try parking a car in there again for a couple years until we got a smaller car that did fit, and my wife parked it in there in the winter. That worked for one winter, but then the next winter, the door broke and fell on top of the car. The door was an old fashioned one piece flip up door that was starting to rot, and the springs that attached to the sides of it broke and the door fell  on the car. Since then we've boarded up the door opening and just use the garage for storage and the cars stay outside. One day if we get the money we might get a new overhead door put on.

My wife's grandparents had a garage just like this (in a 1950's ranch), and somehow her grandmother managed to shoehorn every iteration of Mercury Grand Marquis she owned into it. I don't know how; I did it once and I was terrified I was going to do damage to something. She successfully did this into her late-80's.

That garage literally had nothing in it, it was dead empty when the car was outside.

[ClassicHasClass]

My garage is largely now a shrine for a car, road signs and maps. 

Car, check. Road signs, check. But I also use it as a workshop (there's a couple workbenches and pegboards for tools). That said, I cop to storing stuff there I should really move to the shed in the back.

[Max Rockatansky]

My garage is largely now a shrine for a car, road signs and maps. 

Car, check. Road signs, check. But I also use it as a workshop (there's a couple workbenches and pegboards for tools). That said, I cop to storing stuff there I should really move to the shed in the back.

More or less my current work shop tends to spawn out of that side run to the house or wood back on an old wooden park table I have.  We have a shocking lack of power tools that I've gradually rebuilding my assortment of.

[Road Hog]

Largely my garage is where I do auto maintenance like rotating tires or changing brake pads. It's the only flat place I can park to do work safely.

I will park inside if there is a hail threat or a chance of wintry weather.

[abefroman329]

We currently have one parking spot in a three-car garage and we share the garage with two neighbors. 

In warmer months, it functions as a storage space for larger outdoor toys and accessories and, when I tried (and failed) to strip some painted wooden doors and stain them, a workshop.

In colder months, we park our car in the space, because hell if I'm digging our car out of the snow.

[JayhawkCO]

My two-car garage houses both cars, all of our camping gear (which is substantial), and various things like paint, yard maintenance tools, and a few bikes. My sister joked when I first bought my house that it would eventually be storage for all of our crap and not for the cars. I said I would rather not have a car than let than happen.

[Road Hog]

When garaging your vehicle is not an option:

[SSOWorld]

2 car attached garage here- had drywall on the floor covering half of it for 4 years until I sliced it up and tossed it.  Still some stuff that prevents a second vehicle from entering but I'm not concerned as I only have - and need - one vehicle.