Garage vs Car Port / Open Air

[Eddy77]

Hi all,

My CLK currently resides in a rather nasty, damp, asbestos-roofed concrete sectional garage. Said garage is an eyesore and ever since buying the house ten years ago, it's been on my list of things to replace.

I'm now looking at what to replace it with. Current garage is 24ft x 10ft. The car sits at the front with a workshop / storage area at the rear.

My initial thought was to have the old garage removed and build a new one from blockwork (similar dimensions). But I'd want it to be double-skinned to avoid damp and the cost is actually quite high if you want to go to town. Taking a step back, this seems a bit extreme to house a 13 year old £5k CLK. So I've started to think in terms of removing the garage, removing the concrete slab and just creating a large parking area where the garage used to stand, open to the elements, possibly with a car port structure over the car to protect it from the worst of the weather. The storage element of the current garage would be replaced with some kind of modern shed / workshop / garden room structure which can be bought pretty cheaply.

My question is whether the car will deteriorate if it's kept outside under a car port. I'm not sure that the current damp garage does it much good. I'm thinking I might get it treated with Dinitrol to keep corrosion at bay. And I think that might be a more sensible solution. I can't see I am reducing the desirability of the house by losing the garage and replacing it with a big parking area and separate new shed / workshop.

Anyone got any comments, good or bad?

 

[daveenty]

By the sounds of how you portray your garage, the car may actually benefit from being outside, at least it will stand a chance of drying out in a bit of a breeze whereas being locked up in a damp environment does them no good at all.

As for the protection of a car-port, the only benefit I've found is physically walking from the car to the house, which is a couple of metres at the most. It doesn't really offer anything else to justify it's existence.

If it were my choice, I'd be removing the asbestos/sectional one and replacing it with a concrete block one. In fact, this is what I did with mine some 15 years ago now. Mine too is only single skinned yet I have never had any problem with dampness, at least since I sorted the leaking door out. I did render the walls on completion though nothing else. It has a decent tiled pitched roof, vaulted on the interior to allow the height required for the lift.

Some pictures HERE on this little web page I made for it (hopefully) and some more HERE of the completed job. These are mainly of the ceiling alterations though there are a couple of exterior shots.

I've since put a drain in by the front door which, coupled with the attached car-port connected above the door, keeps it nice and dry. I did keep a W213 outside for a year or so under the car-port but it was pretty useless at saving it from the elements really.

E63 in Winter, car port not really helping: - (Edited post for more dramatic picture )



Drain going in (seen in situ on the above picture): -

 

[Spider10]

Just put this inside the garage best thing I ever bought

 

[baxlin]

Well I have all 3: the 3-wheeler lives in the garage, (1.5 length single, my workshop at the back). Mrs B’s car has the carport, my daily ‘enjoys the elements’.

The garage is single skinned (brick) with flat felted roof and triple wall polycarbonate over the workshop. No problems with damp at all.

The carport is like a garage open both ends, and it’s long enough (7 mtrs) to shield the car from the weather, including frost, so no scraping the windscreen.

Although my present car is a saloon, the last one was a folding hardtop convertible, and being kept outside did it no harm whatsoever. I had previously owned a Saab ragtop, which was also kept outside, again with no real problems, but I did take care to regularly clean and protect the roof.

So you takes your choice!

 

[chic0821]

Why would you want it double skinned to prevent damp, when you drive a wet car into it & the door is almost as wide as the garage & its not exactly sealed like your front door. Dampness coming through the brickwork is the least of your problems

 

[Petrol Pete]

Clarke CIG81220 Garage / Workshop – Green (6.1 x 3.7 x 2.5m) - Machine Mart - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

 

[MrGreedy]

I have a carport which is open on two sides, a bit like the one Daveenty has. I've noticed that the car seems to get DIRTIER under the car port. I kid you not. I think this is because there is no rain to wash off all the dust that lands on the car on dry, windy days.

 

[Ted]

I had a similar quandary, with a horrible cold damp sectional concrete garage with rotten doors.
Bit the bullet and had a new brick built garage to roughly the same dimensions but much more height.
Added lots of power points, lots of lighting, and a good flooring that leaves an air gap underneath and is never cold to work in it. A real man cave now.
Don’t regret it one bit. The quality is remembered long after the cost is forgotten.
Don’t regret it one bit

 

[Eddy77]

Hmmm. Some food for thought! Thanks for the feedback so far. Seems like a few of us have faced a similar conundrum as to what to change an old sectional garage for.

 

[Headhurts]

Garage all the way from my point of view.

My garage is an old brick one which I had extended to allow for car, as it’s an old garage it was relatively small as were cars when it was built.

I no longer get the green mould that seems to appear around windows and light fittings, my garage is cold but not damp but too draughty to heat in a meaningful way.

Car ports do give some protection but not enough to make a huge difference in my opinion but I have never used one so I cannot comment from experience.

Robin

 

[Fununcle]

How about building the garage in timber, much cheaper to put up, you can insulate and clad yourself if you are even a tiny bit handy.

 

[V6GBJ]

Hmmm. Some food for thought! Thanks for the feedback so far. Seems like a few of us have faced a similar conundrum as to what to change an old sectional garage for.

Garage every time. Include provision for ventilation. Swapping the garage for a car port will devalue your property by more than £Ks spent on a new garage, which will add value to the place. If you build one build it bigger! All IMHO of course

 

[KennyN]

We have an 8m x 3m concrete sectional garage with an apex tiled roof that was built around 15 years ago and has been moisture free since it was built. Even in the coldest temps a small oil filled heater keeps any condensation at bay.

Built in just two days by a local company once i had poured the foundations.

IIRC it was £6.5k , but that was a few years back.

K

 

[pillow]

I’m not rich enough to own a house with a car port or garage yet but when the time comes it will need to have a decent garage. The provisioning of electricity, being able to work on the car inside where it will almost certainly be warmer (at least shielded from the wind) and drier... if I were in your shoes I would be putting the money down on a proper garage.

As far as conditioning the car is concerned I don’t think there is too much difference. All of my cars have always lived outside and are kept immaculate by me. (My only irritation is finding dead insects on the paint). There is probably less effort in maintaining a car that is kept in a garage instead of a car port (and less comparing a car port to out in the open) but as long as you put the effort in either option should be fine.

 

[Headhurts]

Something I forgot to add regarding a garage is that it’s not just housing my car, it houses a fridge/freezer, lots of cleaning stuff for car, various things like a heavy duty vacuum, cool boxes, selection of beers and wines, the list goes on and on.

Robin

 

[190]

How about building the garage in timber, much cheaper to put up, you can insulate and clad yourself if you are even a tiny bit handy.

Timber makes an excellent garage, If I had to have a detached garage it would be timber every time, nothing ever goes rusty in my timber shed. The one time I had a detached concrete garage it was always damp due to condensation.

One potential issue though is that regulations stipulate a minimum distance from the house for a timber garage because of the perceived fire risk.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Do you use your car every day and all year round, and if so, do you really need to keep your cars indoors?

Personally I don’t like parking anything other than clean & dry cars in a garage and prefer to keep wet and dirty cars outside.

I believe that the benefit of keeping regularly used cars outside exceeds the risk presented by the elements.

Special and rarely used cars are different. That’s more a question of correct storage rather than parking.

 

[Piff]

One potential issue though is that regulations stipulate a minimum distance from the house for a timber garage because of the perceived fire risk.

Not sure how correct that is as we build timber framed houses.

Front of a house I finished in 2018. House is timber framed, attached to the front of the house is oak framed carport & hidden behind my truck is a single timber framed garage beside the carport, all attached to the house.

 

[190]

Not sure how correct that is as we build timber framed houses.

Perhaps it has changed or it was only a local requirement, we were not permitted to build a timber garage within 2.5 metres of the house. The current regulations seem more relaxed with nothing specified about proximity to the house and only 1 metre from any boundary for garages between 15 and 30 square metres unless the garage is of non combustible materials.

 

[Dickster]

I have a similar garage and the same issues. It’s been damp for ten years, and I’ve dealt with mould inside my two cherished cars.

yes, ideally, have a nice new garage built. I’m not sure my wife would see it as a priority. Are you sure the roof is not cement based?
Anyway, I invested in a big roll of insulation, the foil backed, bubble wrap type. I lined the whole inside of the roof with it and it had transformed the garage. Damp and condensation has gone completely. And it only cost a few hundred quid including battens.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dripex-Double-Aluminium-Insulation-Caravan/dp/B07QPNYYN1