The Right Home For The Car

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

Anyone who builds a house usually wonders how to store their car: in a garage or a carport. Modern vehicles actually do not need a shelter.

The plan for the house is in place. Now it's about what the garden should look like. Especially in metropolitan areas with high land prices, there is often only little space left for greenery. Nevertheless, a parking space for the car usually has to be planned. Carport or garage is then the big question for many home builders.

Protection from hail

"Cars are built for use outside," says Maximilian Maurer from ADAC in Munich. They therefore did not need a covered shelter. For the driver, however, a carport or a garage would have advantages, as the roof would protect the car from storms such as hail. In summer, the car doesn't heat up like an oven. In winter there is no annoying ice scraping. In addition, unlike a carport, garages offer additional protection against theft, vandalism and martens thanks to their closed construction.

But garages are not all about advantages. “Damp heat and moisture in poorly ventilated garages can promote corrosion and thus rust formation in the car,” explains Maurer. In contrast, a car will dry out quickly under a carport.

“A carport made of wood can be adapted comparatively easily to the conditions of the property,” says the architect and specialist book author Thomas Drexel from Augsburg. A carport looks more delicate and is usually cheaper than a garage.

Integrated storage room

For a little more protection, the side walls in the carport can also be closed, for example with panels made of larch wood. According to Drexel, carports are also often combined with an integrated storage room or a bicycle shelter in order to gain storage space. “A carport should be planned individually,” says the architect Holger Reiners from Hamburg. A cheap carport from the hardware store could - similar to a misshapen prefabricated garage - destroy the style of the building and the overall impression of the house. In addition to wood, other materials such as steel and glass are also available as material for a carport, which go well with modern houses.

“There are also numerous design options for the roof of a carport,” adds Reiners. The easiest to build and the most cost-effective are flat roofs. Green roofs or gable roofs that are covered with the same pan as the house would look good. However, due to the roof load, they require a more stable substructure and are correspondingly more expensive.

Best solution?

Once the decision has been made in favor of a garage, the question of the suitable location arises: "The most complex and expensive option is to integrate the garage into or on the house," says Drexel. However, this is a convenient solution because everyone can get dry feet into the house. Such a garage can be easily integrated into the house in terms of style.

Garages can also be set up on the property without being connected to the house. The expert recommends that it is best to choose a location close to the street. This has the advantage that the garden is shielded more from the noise of the street. The garage also offers privacy protection and there is more space in the rear of the property for garden use.

The garage itself shouldn't be planned too small, advises Maurer. In addition to the car, bicycles, gardening tools, car accessories and cleaning products as well as winter tires often have to find space here. (dpa / tmn)