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Garage Ideas


Cynic-al

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To keep a long story long I'm looking for ideas for a garage & storage space. I was talked into buying this house as SWMBO loved it, it was a bargain and despite a distinct lack of 'man' space and an abundance of 'woman' space I told myself that there was room to redress the balance.

2 years, two planning applications and an appeal to the secretary of states office later, I was left unable to expand as I desired and am now looking for alternatives. Essentially I want a garage big enough to store and work on the Range Rover and a secure place to store the trailer. Both have been in a unit at work for several years and I'm starting to get uncomfortable with how much I'm taking advantage!

I've attached a plan of my plot (red bits are what isn't there yet), my planning application was to move the brick garden wall nearer the footpath giving me loads of space but basically the neighbours didn't like it. So far I've had the dropped kerb extended, moved the street sign, made and installed gate posts for the 'double gate' and the gates are underway. My current plan is to pave the whole area and put a wooden garage where the range rover is shown leaving just enough space for the trailer to sit at the side of the existing garage. It's a bit wasteful of space but about the best I can think of, alternative ideas welcomed :)

Plot.pdf

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Put a new access off Westbourne Drive at the bottom of your garden and build there.

The threat of this alone might encourage your neighbour to let you move the wall!

Or grow a laurel hedge along the Westbourne Drive boundary and do what you like inside of it, once your wall is screened by it.

Laurel is evergreen and quick growing, from a 90cm plant you will have a 2m hedge in 3 years if properly planted and nourished.

Or Go underground!

John

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I did think about putting it at the bottom of the garden but there are already other buildings there which I didn't put on the plan and having it at the side keeps it all out of sight which reduces nagging potential ;) It would lend itself to future expansion though ^_^

The hedge is a good idea, my only concern is after my planning ordeal I've learn't that I can't have any boundary over a meter, if a neighbour ever complained about a tall hedge I would have to trim it back :/ I am tempted to buy loads of scrap cars and mouldy caravans and store them there though :D

Underground, hmmm, that means I would need a digger...sold :D

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Couple of thoughts here,

Where does your land start/finish? Land registry deeds etc. if your land extends beyond the wall, I would suggest that you have a right, subject to planning rules regarding visibility sight lines etc, to move the wall to where you want it to be.

What is the single garage like? Is it single storey, later add on etc?

My initial thoughts are to investigate what you can build under permitted development rights (planning portal has a good explanation of what you can and can't do) but looking at your plan I think you could square off your L shape around your garage as far back as your Range Rover without going over the limits. But not knowing your exact circumstances etc this is very much my opinion as a lay person.

The other option of opening up an access of the other road at the back of your garden is also a good option as again you could build pretty much what you want from scratch, within permitted dev rights)

If you really want the original have you used a planning consultant? I wouldn't normally use one due to money etc, but they are likely the best to get what you want through the planners, as if the planners are ok with it and don't get enough objections then they deal with it outside of planning committee otherwise it gos to committee.

Hope this helps in some way

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....The hedge is a good idea, my only concern is after my planning ordeal I've learn't that I can't have any boundary over a meter,...

That is because it is next to a highway, I wonder at what distance it is no longer next to a highway? I guess this is the reason your current wall is so far from the edge of your property. What if you had a 1 meter hedge and a small fence behind it?

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Lot of ideas there :D

The garage is the same construction as the main house but its tiny. It's single story with an apex roof running away from the house. Originally it was a double with the other half under the house but the previous owners turned this into an extra room. The dividing wall they built makes it very narrow but we do use it for a car. I can't easily extend this garage as the boiler, consumer unit and meters are all on these external walls. I could add another garage on the end which was my first thought but its about 10 foot to the wall which isn't wide enough by the time you've considered the thickness of the wall and I didn't fancy going to planning again to try build past the wall,, although using someone experienced is a good idea! Extending back would be good but tricky due to the direction of the apex roof, I'd either have to put a flat roof on which would end up very low or replace the entire roof on the current garage and the cost would just run away. This is my wife's preferred option, but only because she wants to add rooms above 8-/. In a money no object world this would definitely be the best option!

The land is mine right upto the footpath, there are two houses behind mine and the wall is aligned with the fronts of these - i guess this was the original building like. The town council, parish council and highways had no problem with the development but the 5 neighbours effected by it objected. I can understand why, it would box them in, so my second application was an attempt to find a middle ground, which didn't work as I got the same 5 objections. I don't particularly want to fall out with the neighbours, at the end of the day they're nice people who are just trying to look after their interests.

I wouldn't be comfortable with a 1m wall / fence / hedge as I'm a believer that the best security is to have things out of sight. My last offroader was parked behind a steel palisade fence and an 18" wall at my workplace with CCTV and where people work 24/7 and it still disappeared without a trace.

All things to ponder :)

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Is your neibours objection the only thing thats prevented your application going through?

How reasonable is he?

How unreasonable are you prepared to be?

Theres nothing like a turd with some remaining t&t parked somewhere that inconviences him.

I left a sierra outside one of my niebours houses for 3 months once because of a parking dispute, very effective.

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No, it was all 5 neighbours that were the objection, that's where the idea for scrap cars and mouldy caravans came from :)

I'd like to be a bar steward but as you know in reality I'm just too nice :)

My mrs had an old escort once that grew mushrooms in the footwell, some neighbours objected to me parking it outside their house so they boxed it in with 2 cars. I got it out in a fit of rage by using the bumpers for what they were designed for then spent the next week expecting a knock on the door followed by a broken nose but it never came and I never got boxed in again :D

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Al,

I would say go speak with the neighbours and see if you can get a few on side. If that doesn't work I would bang it through a planning committee and go argue your case there, or at least use a planning consultant to ensure you get what you can.

As a starter I would check the planning portal for advice on permitted development rights and build what you can get away with.

Thinking about what you have said, I would either go with a new place at the bottom of the garden, or bang in for planning to extend outwards and upwards, you don't have to complete it all right away (rooms upstairs) before you use it. Also if you are able/inclined towards it, you could do a chunk of the work yourself (thinking roofing, plaster boarding, pulling electrical wires etc) and save a bit of money.

Htsh

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^^^^ like he said I would check out your permitted development rights , it's usually a certain amount of sq mtrs , no more than 2.4 to eaves and 4 mtrs to ridge , I'm sure it would give you a fairly good size garage . Definitely worth checking out with the council.

Hth

Gary

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I'm pretty sue that because I took the wall to appeal no is no, however I assume a garage is a different project. I might have a word with the council, although I fear at this stage such a big development would be a bit too pricy. Atleast if I put up a wooden garage it would come down easily too.

Think I will do a bit of reading and asking around. Cheers :D

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It might be worth pointing out that the council would have to take you to court before any action could be made to force you to remove a building/wall/modification to your home.

If you've done something reasonable, or borderline breaking the rules - they aren't going to bother spending the time or considerable expense fighting it. Something I've used in my favour with a barn conversion recently - although the disagreement there was over the style of rooflight fitted.

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Build a tin shed, very reasonable, and temporary as it can be unbolted & flat-packed.

Can/could the neighbours see your garage from their houses? As in, are they objecting to something that would affect them or are they just objecting because they're petty c**ts?

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Sounds to me like the latter. There's a house at the end of my road in a similar situation, fence line a meter back from the edge of the pavement and a bit of grass. New owners came in and put a new fence right on the edge of the pavement. council forced them to move it back after a neighbour complained, applied for planning permission, refused, appealed, refused.

What about a house extension? Spare bedroom over garage?

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They haven't objected to a garage, I haven't applied for a garage, if I did I think if I kept it within the boundary of the wall I would have no problem, they objected to me moving the wall which they can see and will mean they will have less pretty garden to look at. If i'm honest if I'd spoken to them all about it before I put the planning in I probably would have had more chance but it just didn't occur to me that there would be an issue, all I wanted to do was move a wall a few meters. I can see it from their viewpoint, new person moves in and I've stuffed a planning application in before they've even met me to change 'their' street.

Anyway back to the garage, extending the house over 2 stories is a great idea, I could make a 6 bed, 3 ensuite monster with a huge garage / workshop, however I don't have the readies for such an ambitious project or the inclination for an even bigger mortgage so i think thats out :blush:

Just doing the wall did cross my mind, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough take that risk. A bloke in teh village did it with concrete posts and wooden fence and the council made him cut it to a meter, out of protest he just sthil sawed through the lot :unsure:

The steel garage is an interesting thought, however I will have to run it past the director of style :D

I think so far the options are bottom of the garden or what i've drawn.

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Why not put the garage on the other side of the wall, level with or slightly set back from the front of the house, and simply remove the wall between the garage and the front of the plot so you can get into it?

Permitted development means you should be able to build a fairly large garage, so long as you keep it at least 1m away from that footpath, without having to apply for planning permission at all?

You cant extend beyond the principle elevation without planning permission, but the principle elevation should be on mulberry drive?

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Only problem with above is there is also a building line on the other road. Also there may be issues with sight lines in to the junction that would have to meet with highway regs.

But you are correct if the other side of the wall is yours, build it on the other side, using part of the wall as your garage (pending suitable foundations being found under your garden wall....they are likely not to be suitable).

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From what i can tell, he wouldnt need permission to remove the wall anyway, so it would simply be a case of removing a section where the garage is to be built, and replacing it with the garage itself.

As for sight lines, move it back far enough within the plot and that shouldnt be an issue? Even putting the garage flush with the rear of the house like this:

TH1yAl3.png

Obviously erasing the area of wall infront of the garage. You could even run a short 1m boundary fence infront of the garage.

that way you get the garage in the extra currently wasted space, but you can leave the existing high wall surrounding the rear garden for security.

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Only problem with above is there is also a building line on the other road.

Actually, yeh you might be right there, corner plots are a special case it seems.

However from a quick skim, it seems that a side elevation would only come into it if your were extending the house itself...

Class E building works (ie a garage) only seem to care about the principle elevation?

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The 2 foot gap was to give me space to get down to paint it as it was going to be wooden. A waste of space agreed, maybe not needed if its pressure treated or as you suggest use some of the wall.

Going either side of The wall is an interesting idea, I'll have to look I to that. :D

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I am lead to believe that from the 1st of April 2013, and for the next 3 years, the permitted development % for any build has been increased by 50% and that councils are legally obliged to consider all applications. Especially those that support the self employed?

I am currently going through the same process with my new house with craven district council,

It may be worth looking at?

Nath

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