Is Building a Garage Addition a Smart Investment? – Home …

Building a garage addition can be an expensive home addition. A garage addition might be cheaper than other home additions but the question is whether the value justifies the cost for space that will only be used to store cars and/or stuff.

If you're thinking about building a garage addition, here are some of the things you want to take into consideration when planning your project:

The American Housing Survey in 2009 showed that 66% of homes have a garage or carport. This number might be skewed by new construction because most new homes include a garage, where costs for excavation, foundation, framing and roofing are shared across the entire house.

When building a garage addition, the new structure must bear all of these structural costs. That's why many homeowners decide to turn their garage addition into a 2-story addition with living space above the garage.

If you're going to keep your cars or trucks in the garage, you need it wide enough to open the doors and walk around the front of the cars. The challenge when building a garage additions is our cars and trucks are much bigger.

Everyone has different ideas about the type of car/truck you should use to size your garage. Not being an expert on cars and trucks, I found thishelpful table at ConsumerReports.org. You will need to identify three measurements maximum car/truck length, width and height.Ceiling height is key for larger trucks which are much taller than the average car, affecting building height as well as the size of your garage doors (width and height).

Then you probably want to add space for aworkbench and storage shelves, which are typically 2 feet deep plus you need another 2 feet to access them comfortably. You can add these on one or multiple walls, depending on how many different activities you want to use your garage for.

But wait, when you're building a new garage you have lots of options about the floor plan. When you've got the space, you can get really creative like this carriage house plan (below) from TheHousePlanShop illustrates:

We listed the decisions you have to make earlier. Here are some of the tradeoffs you can make that affect costs.

This article has been updated to include new information in the 2015 Cost vs Value survey, which is the last time a garage addition was included.

From 2015 Hanley Wood Cost vs Value Survey

This report can help you set a reasonable budget for your project that will maximize how much you should recoup when you sell your home. If you do move forward building a garage addition, you can alsolook for ways to cut costs to increase your ability to recover more of your investment.

The very, very first thing you need to think about if youre considering building a garage is how long you plan to stay in your current home. A typical double detached garage project could cost you around $50,000 andmight only add $30,000to the valueof your home. If you plan on staying for 5 years, that garage would cost you $4,000/year. Is it worth it? Only you can decide that. Now lets assume you still want to add a garage to your home. Here are some books that can help you identify and prioritize your requirements.

Sheds & Garages: Building Ideas & PlansGarage: Reinventing the Place We ParkGarages & Carports: Step-by-Step ConstructionBuilding a Garage: A Complete Guide

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