driveway safer then garage?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

There's a reason why modern garages are fairly small: laziness on the part of Architects.

 

There's a reference book out there for them called the Metric Handbook, with standard sizes of everything to do with building work. It originally came out in the early '70s (around the time that the UK went metric - hence the title) and the size for a standard garage (and parking spaces, for that matter) was based around the dimensions of a FIAT 127, with enough space to get in and out of it. For years many Architects have blindly, and unquestioningly, used these dimension unless told otherwise.

 

Outside of the very top end of the market, I can't imagine there having been any architects designing houses in the UK in the last couple of decades. Everything seems to be mindlessly lifted from a 1975 council housing blueprint, with each room shrunk by about 10-15%.

 

FFS, even blocks of flats are identical to each other (most newer ones sporting a nasty yellow-beige brick facade) and room sizes, plumbing and ventilation all seem to be afterthoughts.

 

The nastiness of the housing market is summed up by the fact that it's 2011 and most dwellings for sale/to let are advertised without a clear mention of the square metrage/footage (maybe you can work it out by looking at dimensions on a room-by-room basis then estimating numbers for the staircase, hall etc). A bit like selling a 150k car and not telling the buyer the engine size.

[ProgRocker]

Seems like the 1950s/60s council estate lock ups are one of the best. In the early-mid 80s my parents had a mark 1 Granada and then a Vauxhall Royale, which fitted perfectly. Just enough space to get out of the driver's side but I doubt there was enough space to work on those cars if need be.

 

My dad attached a string with a tennis ball to a roof beam so that when the suspended tennis ball hit the windscreen, he knew that the back of the car was inside the garage (just!). The tennis ball wasn't needed for the Talbot Horizon or MG Maestro 1600 but I think it came out of retirement for the erstwhile 1986 Carlton CDi.

 

Dad's garage was the third one along from the left. He even managed to get electrickery into it, running a cable along the shed along the tops of the other 2 garages and then into his garage with a double socket. I eventually rented the 4th garage along for a couple of years, until I moved out.

 

Did anyone ever used to watch Property Pr0n TV show 'Property Ladder' with the lovely Sarah Beeny? One development was of a stunning luxury home in Poole, Dorset. Post development, the front of the house proudly displayed off road parking, with a double garage door. Except it didn't open onto a garage - more of a storage/boot/utility room. It was only a couple of metres deep. One of the Estate Agents did comment that you could get a Smart Car in there!

[ProgRocker]

Outside of the very top end of the market, I can't imagine there having been any architects designing houses in the UK in the last couple of decades. Everything seems to be mindlessly lifted from a 1975 council housing blueprint, with each room shrunk by about 10-15%.

 

FFS, even blocks of flats are identical to each other (most newer ones sporting a nasty yellow-beige brick facade) and room sizes, plumbing and ventilation all seem to be afterthoughts.

 

The nastiness of the housing market is summed up by the fact that it's 2011 and most dwellings for sale/to let are advertised without a clear mention of the square metrage/footage (maybe you can work it out by looking at dimensions on a room-by-room basis then estimating numbers for the staircase, hall etc). A bit like selling a 150k car and not telling the buyer the engine size.

 

Well said. The Parker Morris standards of council houses disappeared sometime in the 1970s.

 

The housing market is shit at the moment. People bang on about getting the maximum number of bedrooms but quite frankly I'd be happy with a 1 bedroomed house with decent sized rooms, plenty of storage space for my car mags & other crap, + 1 garage + 1 extra parking space for visitors.

[eddyramrod]

There's a reason why modern garages are fairly small: laziness on the part of Architects.

 

There's a reference book out there for them called the Metric Handbook, with standard sizes of everything to do with building work. It originally came out in the early '70s (around the time that the UK went metric - hence the title) and the size for a standard garage (and parking spaces, for that matter) was based around the dimensions of a FIAT 127, with enough space to get in and out of it. For years many Architects have blindly, and unquestioningly, used these dimension unless told otherwise.

 

Given how cars have grown over that time (could you conceivably even fit a 127 into the shell of its desendant, the Grande Punto?), its no surprise that cars struggle to fit in these garages.

 

The Metric Handbook isn't at fault as such - it says it's a garage for a small car (which is now a Mk.II Clio, in the most recent copy I've seen), but the dimensions have been used in any case.

 

So next time you bang your car door into a garage wall, or into the car in the next parking space, you know why.

 

Or you could buy a 127 and act all smug, of course ......

 

I've been saying this for years! Not least because I've been using supermarket car parks with a Cadillac... but also because for a while I was driving a timber truck, delivering to new-build estates. One in particular stands out. I asked about the cost of the houses, out of curiosity, and was told they started somewhere north of a quarter million (8 years ago-ish). So the people who live in these houses are going to come with his'n'hers Merc MLs, and the kids will have an M3 or Skyline, and a Bimbofied hatchback. Not to mention the cleaner, nanny, etc. Unfailingly, these houses were being supplied with one Fiat 127-size single garage, and if you were lucky, one 127-size parking space in front of it. OK, so people park on the road, that's normal. The kerbs were a foot high, so nobody was up on the kerb: the only vehicle with tyres that would stand that was my ERF. The roads were wide enough to get a truck down... as long as nothing was parked, which meant I was up on the kerbs a lot. On the estate I'm thinking of, at Adlington in Lancashire, there was no straight section longer than my truck, and they were all joined by rightangle bends. Naturally houses at the "front" of the estate, i.e. bordering the main road, were built and sold first, and construction continued further and further back. Er, yeah, how do I get down with your timber, boys? More to the point, who would buy a house further in than the first bend? If I can't get down, neither can a fire engine, as my ERF was the same size. I'm sure this is one of the subjects I railed about when I joined an architects' forum a few years ago...

 

Sorry, Hannu Mikkola moment...

 

Oh yeah, and the salesman who said sell one of the cars? Step out in front of me on the road, you arrogant turd. I'll make sure you never insult anyone's lifestyle choice again.

[eddyramrod]

I'd be interested to see a scan of that. It'll probably turn out to be a Ford Falcon or Rambler American, both of which are smaller than a Mk1 XJ6.