What are your thoughts on tandem garages?

[danielhv]

For those of you that own homes.... Thoughts on a traditional 3 car garage vs a tandem 3 car garage?

Wife and I looked at a couple of houses yesterday.... The traditional 3 car has a bad ass driveway.... Could easily fit 6 cars/trucks in the driveway so that's good for parties and get to gethers with family and friends, but the house isn't quite as nice. Not much storage space in closets, built in 2006, don't like the flooring, and the pantry is ridiculously tiny. It does have a bigger yard and is cheaper. Better curb appeal.

Other house is more expensive, has an extra bedroom, brand new, big closets, lots of storage, tandem 3 car, small driveway, smaller yard.

My thoughts on the tandem.... Have never seen one till yesterday. Kinda impressed, could park the Mustang in there and the wife's car easily. I could easily fit a full sized truck in there if needed as well. Could fit 2 cars and have a shop space that doesn't require walking around cars to get to. Would be easier to dip in if I continue that operation. Wife likes this house more due to the closet space, overall design, and flooring.

I don't even have 3 cars to put in the garage. My truck won't fit with the other two in the tandem and would t fit in the traditional either so it's just the foxbody and the wife's car. So really it's just functionality between the two we are looking at.

Thoughts?

[s1lv3r]

When you say tandem do you mean three cars can be parked single file front to back? If so, that's kinda cool as i've never seen that before. Now having a lot of driveway is cool as hell and I personally like it, but my experience has been when family comes over they park in the bottle neck where no one else can take advantage of all the space we have. Everyone seems to be concerned with getting blocked in. Then when they leave they drive off the driveway into the yard. What i'm getting at is if what you like with the house and garage is what you want, run with it. Because people will always come over and fuck up when they park where you can't even take advantage of all the space! LOL

[black2002ls]

When you say tandem do you mean three cars can be parked single file front to back? If so, that's kinda cool as i've never seen that before. Now having a lot of driveway is cool as hell and I personally like it, but my experience has been when family comes over they park in the bottle neck where no one else can take advantage of all the space we have. Everyone seems to be concerned with getting blocked in. Then when they leave they drive off the driveway into the yard. What i'm getting at is if what you like with the house and garage is what you want, run with it. Because people will always come over and fuck up when they park where you can't even take advantage of all the space! LOL

All of our 3 car tandems are 2 tandem and 1 single, an L shape. Still a pretty useful set-up. It gives more yard and a smaller footprint. A lot of times allowing for a 3 car garage with bigger sq ft on a smaller lot

[danielhv]

When you say tandem do you mean three cars can be parked single file front to back? If so, that's kinda cool as i've never seen that before. Now having a lot of driveway is cool as hell and I personally like it, but my experience has been when family comes over they park in the bottle neck where no one else can take advantage of all the space we have. Everyone seems to be concerned with getting blocked in. Then when they leave they drive off the driveway into the yard. What i'm getting at is if what you like with the house and garage is what you want, run with it. Because people will always come over and fuck up when they park where you can't even take advantage of all the space! LOL

Like this :

[s1lv3r]

All of our 3 car tandems are 2 tandem and 1 single, an L shape. Still a pretty useful set-up. It gives more yard and a smaller footprint. A lot of times allowing for a 3 car garage with bigger sq ft on a smaller lot

OK, I see. That went right over my head. We're "traditional" then. With a double and single next to it.

[s1lv3r]

Like this :

That is cool. I haven't seen one like that. The main disadvantage would be if you really needed the 3rd space on a regular basis. Then the advantage would be if you had a suburban or really long truck you could park easily or for a work area like you mentioned before.

[LANTIRN]

I would personally go with what is cheaper and has a bigger yard. But be honest with yourself; your wife liked the new house because it is newer and more expensive. That is all wives seem to give a shit about when looking at houses. They try to make up excuses about flooring, or storage, or size to sound less petty, but bottom line is they expect new shit and for some reason want to pay as much as possible. Same shit I saw with my wife when we bought last year, and believe me I feel for what you are going through. Don't get tired and give in like I did. I ended up in a brand new house, fucking small yard, and it wasn't nearly as cheap as I wanted to go for just a house and no land. Grow the set that I didn't, find what you want, and push on that. Women do not have the ability to choose houses based on usefulness. They want it pretty, new, and not cheap. Brother, it is time to nut up or shut up!

[Denny]

They pass that off as a three-car garage? I see a two-car garage with extra work space.

[juiceweezl]

They pass that off as a three-car garage? I see a two-car garage with extra work space.

Yep. To me, that's for a boat. Just back it in and unhook and still have room to leave truck in garage.

[David]

They pass that off as a three-car garage? I see a two-car garage with extra work space.

More or less 2.5. I've even come across a few that the only way you were getting out of the car parked in that third slot was trunk or backseat.

I always liked the traditional setup with the third slot added next to it and extend that.

[Big A]

I would personally go with what is cheaper and has a bigger yard. But be honest with yourself; your wife liked the new house because it is newer and more expensive. That is all wives seem to give a shit about when looking at houses. They try to make up excuses about flooring, or storage, or size to sound less petty, but bottom line is they expect new shit and for some reason want to pay as much as possible. Same shit I saw with my wife when we bought last year, and believe me I feel for what you are going through. Don't get tired and give in like I did. I ended up in a brand new house, fucking small yard, and it wasn't nearly as cheap as I wanted to go for just a house and no land. Grow the set that I didn't, find what you want, and push on that. Women do not have the ability to choose houses based on usefulness. They want it pretty, new, and not cheap. Brother, it is time to nut up or shut up!

Don't pass off you experience as gospel, not everyone has a wife like yours, and the inability to communicate with her like you do.

This is a personal decision that only you know the answer to, if you are in the garage a lot, have lotsa of tools/projects, and a definite need for one configuration over the other, then the garage should have a play in the decision. I'm also not talking about the "If I had garage X, then I'd certainly get into doing more out there," that's not enough to sway a decision on your living space, nor should you decide based on party parking for a handful of parties that you might have.

Bottom line, the family as a whole will be spending most of y'alls time inside, so choose a home that you can live in comfortably, without anyone feeling like there was an unnecessary concession made. Both garage set-ups are plenty useful,.

How much you spend is a whole different conversation, which should have been decided before you started looking, and you can expect to be pretty close to the limit that is set. In our case my wife and I both wanted as much house as we could safely afford, so we defined what that dollar figure was, and looked at homes in that range.

[whitetrash]

I had never considered a tandem garage until a friend of mine bought a house with one. He can fit his vette, trailblazer, and f250 in it. Doesn't leave work space but being able to get 2 smaller vehicles and a large truck inside has me considering them. Cars aren't hard to roll for room to work

[GeorgeG.]

In reference to that pic you posted, that 3car is all one level. Not a bad setup if you have a smaller project like a car or small suv. The ones ive seen, the 3rd (tandem) spot was actually raised about 4-5 inches (it was an optional media room) so if your project is ever in a non running state, you'd have to push it up that curb. Also, the ones ive seen may hold a very small boat.

[krazy kris]

I don't see an attic in the pic posted if thats the case then thats probably where all your attic shit will go.

[snacksnack]

I don't see an attic in the pic posted if thats the case then thats probably where all your attic shit will go.

Attics aren't always accessible from the garage.