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.
Time is a bit of an issue in our decision. We definitely want to get our car storage up and completed before it starts snowing, which gives us about two months to build. That is more than enough time to put up a carport, but if we decide on a garage, then it will be cutting it close.
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.
From my perspective, building a carport would take less time, cost less, and require less effort. On top of extra expense for a garage, there are also some hidden costs. Property taxes will go up regardless of which one I build, but they will go up more if we choose a garage. It might not seem like much of a difference now, but every bit counts, especially if you invest that money. Over the life of a garage, the cost difference is much more than you might initially think. One last pro to building a carport is the fact that we won’t be storing junk in it just because we can – it is much easier to keep a carport tidy and clutter free, because it doesn’t lend itself to storage.
The garage pros include extra security – there is no open access to the vehicle or anything that we store inside, including things like bicycles. The other benefit is also the additional storage – even though there is a chance it will get cluttered, having space to store seasonal items like Christmas decorations actually has a lot of merit. And one last big item for my wife is the protected access to the house that a garage would allow. There would be much less heat loss though a garage doo in the winter, as opposed to a door out to a partially closed in carport.
We know we need to get something up to keep the snow off the cars this winter and time is running out. Either a garage or a carport would serve the basic need for weather protection (for us and the cars), the only thing left before we start constructing one or the other is to decide whether the extra benefits of a garage are worth the extra time and money.
