Do I build a Carport or a Garage?
I have just moved into a great new house, with everything that I have wanted, except for one thing. There is no garage. There is not even a carport. Now my wife and I knew that we needed to be able to put the cars under some sort of protection, we are no longer interested in digging the cars out or cleaning them off in the winter everytime we want to go somewhere. Thankfully we got a great deal on the house, so we knew that we could build either a carport or a garage once we took possession.
Now that we have moved in we have approximately 2 months to get the construction done before the snow flies. Of course 2 months is plenty of time to build such a structure but we have to make some important decisions before we can break ground.
So first is deciding whether we want/need a garage. Of course, most would say that a garage should be your first choice if you have the time and budget. But I'm not so convinced. The thing is that I think we could build a closed carport, essentially this will be a carport with partial or full walls on some or all sides. The better half is pretty convinced that a garage is the better option, whereas I think a carport will be sufficient plus give us a few advantages that are not so obvious.
No matter what, a carport is going to be cheaper, easier and faster to build. Building a closed carport will add a bit of time and cost, and might be a good compromise. Adding a structure to the property is going to raise my property taxes, and a garage will cost more in taxes. Perhaps not a significant amount per month, but in the grand scheme, it may be significant by the time we want to retire and we could have put that money into rrsps. One more pro for a carport in my opinion is the simplicity of it, meaning we probably won't pack it full of junk and clutter like we might do with a garage.
There are definite pros to having a garage though. The complete weather protection is a big item, it would be much nicer for loading and unloading the car in the winter. Also it is more secure - a lot harder for anyone to access the cars. Extra storage (although I dread junk) is also a benefit, and perhaps the extra (secure) storage that a garage would allow would warrant the larger building, maintenance and tax expenses. The last point my wife suggested is having a garage would cut down on heat loss as we enter and exit the house from the garage door in the winter time.
Both garages and carports have merit. Both structures would add value and functionality to our house. As I said two months is ample time to build either structure but first we need to decide whether to build a carport or a garage. - 21392
Now that we have moved in we have approximately 2 months to get the construction done before the snow flies. Of course 2 months is plenty of time to build such a structure but we have to make some important decisions before we can break ground.
So first is deciding whether we want/need a garage. Of course, most would say that a garage should be your first choice if you have the time and budget. But I'm not so convinced. The thing is that I think we could build a closed carport, essentially this will be a carport with partial or full walls on some or all sides. The better half is pretty convinced that a garage is the better option, whereas I think a carport will be sufficient plus give us a few advantages that are not so obvious.
No matter what, a carport is going to be cheaper, easier and faster to build. Building a closed carport will add a bit of time and cost, and might be a good compromise. Adding a structure to the property is going to raise my property taxes, and a garage will cost more in taxes. Perhaps not a significant amount per month, but in the grand scheme, it may be significant by the time we want to retire and we could have put that money into rrsps. One more pro for a carport in my opinion is the simplicity of it, meaning we probably won't pack it full of junk and clutter like we might do with a garage.
There are definite pros to having a garage though. The complete weather protection is a big item, it would be much nicer for loading and unloading the car in the winter. Also it is more secure - a lot harder for anyone to access the cars. Extra storage (although I dread junk) is also a benefit, and perhaps the extra (secure) storage that a garage would allow would warrant the larger building, maintenance and tax expenses. The last point my wife suggested is having a garage would cut down on heat loss as we enter and exit the house from the garage door in the winter time.
Both garages and carports have merit. Both structures would add value and functionality to our house. As I said two months is ample time to build either structure but first we need to decide whether to build a carport or a garage. - 21392
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There are plenty of carport options (open carport, closed carport, carport covers, carport awnings) available, so take some time to reaseach all of them before deciding on one of the carport options, or a garage, for your extra storage. Each comes with its own pros and cons; you just need to decide which suits your particular situation the best.
posted by X - Men @ 2:16 AM
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