Need your thoughts for garage design to minimise presence

[snobetter]

A green wall (foliage not colour)?

[Happy Jim]

Hipped roof and then a couple of pretty windows facing his side?

Edited by Happy Jim on Friday 1st April 14:46

[Muncher]

I would have thought anything clad in oak would weather very nicely and look right at home in a village? Can you post a photo of the street scene?

[hotchy]

Continue hedge around so he see's hedge and not garage? Or even offer to put up a nice wooden fence covering the garage view.

[RichB]

Happy Jim said:

Hipped roof and then a couple of pretty windows facing his side?

This with wood cladding on the rear.

[paulrockliffe]

kryten22uk said:

Thanks for the ideas so far.

Anyone had any experience/understanding of what you can/cant do with a slope leading to a garage? I am finding it hard to visualise what the limitations are for the excavation.

I would have thought the ultimate limitation is going to be the depth of the local drains; if the garage floor ends up lower than those, then surface water will run down to the garage floor level and you won't be able to drain it away without some sort of pumped system.

The next limitation would be the steepness of the slope you'd create and the space available for a transition into the slope, though again without being able to see the pictures I've no idea if that would cause you problems.

[RichB]

From the side elevation you can see that the garage floor is above road level so surface water/rainwater drainage will not be a problem.

[kryten22uk]

RichB said:

From the side elevation you can see that the garage floor is above road level so surface water/rainwater drainage will not be a problem.

Yeah, the garage floor is shown at reference level 8.8m, with the drain connection to mains at 8.2m. So looks like I couldnt go any lower with the excavation, given the drain needs to be lower than the garage floor. Maybe 20cm or so.

[Esseesse]

Could you make the entrance to the garage on the house side (i.e. away from the road).

Then move the garage right up to the road, and drop it down further - low enough for it to pass as the garden wall. Have a flat/grass roof and continue the wall across the front of your property.

[Murph7355]

With the original design I'd be more worried about the view from your house...

As someone else said, I'd got to the left. I'd spin it through 90deg and would definitely look at starting it lower in the ground and/or lowering the pitch.

[hidetheelephants]

Dig it in another metre, shallower roof pitch and skew the garage more toward the drive entrance/parallel with the front garden wall/boundary entrance so the blend into the existing drive gradient isn't too insane.

The extreme/Bond villain's lair answer is to abandon your plan and replace it with an entirely subterranean garage beneath the drive. Making the drainage work would be a bit of a cow but not impossible.

Edited by hidetheelephants on Friday 1st April 19:12

[SAB888]

Hips to each end would lessen the impact of the roof. The design is obviously matching the pitch of the house, but a shallower pitch would also lessen the impact. How about a real "green" sedum flat roof, not grass covered?

[kryten22uk]

I think we decided above that level of the drains means it wouldn't be possible to get the garage lower than shown without some solution. I like the underground villain solution. Reckon drainage would involve pumps etc, and be a real pain?

[hidetheelephants]

It depends where the main drain is and how deep.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

hidetheelephants said:

Dig it in another metre, shallower roof pitch and skew the garage more toward the drive entrance/parallel with the front garden wall/boundary entrance so the blend into the existing drive gradient isn't too insane.

The extreme/Bond villain's lair answer is to abandon your plan and replace it with an entirely subterranean garage beneath the drive. Making the drainage work would be a bit of a cow but not impossible.

Edited by hidetheelephants on Friday 1st April 19:12

That would get seriously expensive and comes very close to the front of the house, and therefore I assume close to a living room or similar.

[kryten22uk]

hidetheelephants said:

It depends where the main drain is and how deep.

In the first picture in my original post you can see the main pipes running straight from the house to the road. The connection to the main drain on the road is indicated by the rectangle, on the road boundary, and shows the level as 8.235m. Ground level is 9.2m, so the floor of any underground garage would likely by 6.5 to 7.0, hence a 1-1.5m vertical difference to pump garage drainage to main drain.

[worsy]

If brick is not wanted, how about wood?

[SAB888]

kryten22uk said:

hidetheelephants said:

It depends where the main drain is and how deep.

In the first picture in my original post you can see the main pipes running straight from the house to the road. The connection to the main drain on the road is indicated by the rectangle, on the road boundary, and shows the level as 8.235m. Ground level is 9.2m, so the floor of any underground garage would likely by 6.5 to 7.0, hence a 1-1.5m vertical difference to pump garage drainage to main drain.

What garage drainage? Do you mean the rainwater collected from the roof or is there a fitting (sink) inside the garage?

[kryten22uk]

SAB888 said:

What garage drainage? Do you mean the rainwater collected from the roof or is there a fitting (sink) inside the garage?

If you have a driveway leading down to an underground garage, then you'll need to pump back up the rainwater which collects/falls at the entrance.

[hidetheelephants]

kryten22uk said:

hidetheelephants said:

It depends where the main drain is and how deep.

In the first picture in my original post you can see the main pipes running straight from the house to the road. The connection to the main drain on the road is indicated by the rectangle, on the road boundary, and shows the level as 8.235m. Ground level is 9.2m, so the floor of any underground garage would likely by 6.5 to 7.0, hence a 1-1.5m vertical difference to pump garage drainage to main drain.

The municipal drain in the road is probably well below your drain cistern, I'd be surprised if it was much less than a metre below the roadway. Assuming you were prepared to have a lower ceiling in there(perhaps ~7') the garage level would be about 7.6m and a drainage ditch at the threshold perhaps 7.3m. You'd need to find out the exact depth of the drain, even then a pump might be a prudent move.