Garage (house)
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A residential garage (, ) is a walled, roofed structure for storing a vehicle or vehicles that may be part of or attached to a home ("attached garage"), or a separate outbuilding or
shed A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...
("detached garage"). Residential garages typically have space for one or two
car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...
s, although three-car garages are used. When a garage is attached to a house, the garage typically has an entry door into the house, called the ''person door'' or ''man door'', in contrast with the wider and taller door for vehicles, called the
garage door A garage door is a large door on a garage that opens either manually or by an electric motor (a garage door opener). Garage doors are frequently large enough to accommodate automobiles and other vehicles. Small garage doors may be made in a sin ...
, which can be raised to permit the entry and exit of a vehicle and then closed to secure the vehicle. A garage protects a vehicle from precipitation, and, if it is equipped with a locking garage door, it also protects the vehicle(s) from theft and vandalism. Most garages also serve multifunction duty as
workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...
s for a variety of projects, including painting, woodworking, and assembly. Garages also may be used for other purposes as well, such as storage or entertainment. Some garages have an electrical mechanism to automatically open or close the garage door when the homeowner presses a button on a small
remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...
, along with a detector that stops the movement of the garage if something is in the way of closing. Some garages have enough space, even with cars inside, for the storage of items such as bicycles or a lawnmower; in some cases, there may even be enough space for a
workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...
or a
man cave A man cave or manspace, and less commonly a manland or mantuary is a male retreat or sanctuary in a home, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, basement, or tree house. The term "man cave" is a metaphor describ ...
. Garages that are attached to a house may be built with the same external materials and roofing as the house. Garages that are not connected to the home may use a different style of construction from the house. Often in the Southern and rural United States garages not attached to the home and made from a timber frame with sheet metal coverings are known as "pole barns", but usually serve the same purpose as what is called a garage elsewhere. In some places, the term is used synonymously with "
carport A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from rain and snow. The structure can either be free standing or attached to a wall. Unlike most structures, a carport does not have four walls, and us ...
", though that term normally describes a structure that, while roofed, is not completely enclosed. A carport protects the vehicle to some degree from inclement weather, but it does not protect the vehicle from theft or vandalism. The word ''garage'', introduced to English in 1902, originates from the French word ''garer'', meaning shelter. By 1908 the architect
Charles Harrison Townsend Charles Harrison Townsend (13 May 1851 — 26 December 1928) was an English architect. He was born in Birkenhead, educated at Birkenhead School and articled to the Liverpool architect Walter Scott in 1870. He moved to London with his family in 1880 ...
was commenting in ''
The Builder ''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...
'' magazine that "for the home of the car, we very largely use the French word 'garage', alternatively with what I think the more desirable English equivalent of 'motor house. Today the word is
polysemic Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...
because it can refer to a collection of vehicles as well as the building that contains them.


Residential garage insulation

In northern climates, temperatures inside an uninsulated attached residential garage can decrease to freezing levels during the winter. Temperatures inside an uninsulated attached garage in temperate climates can reach uncomfortable levels during summer months. Extreme temperatures can be a source of energy waste and discomfort in adjoining living areas, due to
heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...
between the garage and those areas. Homes with an attached garage often experience this "interface" problem. Insulating the outside of the building against the elements without extending the insulation to the wall separating the garage from the house, and/or the other garage walls and roof, can be a costly mistake.


In Australia

Australian homes typically have a two, one and a half or double car garage, with some newer houses having a triple garage, with one double door and one single door. Prior to the 1970s most of them were detached from the house, usually set further back with the driveway leading up past the side of the house, common with old fibreboard houses, but not uncommon with earlier brick houses. The most common doors on these garages were either two wooden barn style doors with a standard sized access door on the side of the garage or the B&D Rolla Door, which is described below. The most common garage door to date in Australia is the B&D Rolla Door, having been around since 1956 and still in heavy use today. They are a corrugated flexible but strong sheet steel door, sliding up tracks and rolling around a drum mounted above the door opening on the inside of the garage. These come in manual and remote controlled electric (known as the Control-a-Door), with conversion kits available. Locking is provided by a key lock in the centre of the door moving two square sliding lock bars in and out of holes in the door tracks, locking and unlocking it, or by the solenoid lock in the automatic motor. Newer homes feature more American styled tilting panel lift doors which slide up onto a track on the ceiling via a motor and chain drive. Since the late 1970s most if not all garages are attached, and throughout the 80's it became more common to have an access door into the home from the garage where design permitted, whereas it is commonplace now. Most older unit (apartment) blocks in Australia have garages on the ground floor accessible through a common hallway and access doors, all leading into a common driveway. Newer ones now have underground parking. Australia has strict guidelines in place when building a home and the garage size must conform to the
Australian Standards Standards Australia is a standards organisation established in 1922 and is recognised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian government as the primary non-government standards development body in Australia. It is a co ...
. The minimum size for a single garage is 3.0 m × 5.4 m (9.8 ft × 17.7 ft) and a double is 5.4 m × 5.4 m (17.7 ft × 17.7 ft). However, to comfortably fit two cars in a double garage it is typical to have a size of 6.0 m × 6.0 m (19.7 ft × 19.7 ft).


In the United Kingdom

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
homes featuring a garage typically have a single or double garage either built into the main building, detached within the grounds (often in the back garden), or in a communal area. Traditionally, garage
door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...
s were wooden, opening either as two leaves or sliding horizontally. Newer garages are fitted with metal up-and-over doors. Increasingly, in new homes, such doors are electrically operated. Typically, a small British single garage is , a medium single garage is , and a large single garage is . Family
sedans A sedan or saloon (British English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo. The first recorded use of the word "sedan" in reference to an automobile body occurred in 19 ...
have become bigger than they were in the past, so the larger size has become a preferred option. A typical
large family car The D-segment is the 4th category of the Euro Car Segment, European segments for passenger cars, and is described as "large cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "large family car" size class, and the present-day definition of the mid-size ...
like the
Ford Mondeo The Ford Mondeo is a large family car manufactured by Ford since 1993. The first Ford model declared as a " world car", the Mondeo was intended to consolidate several Ford model lines worldwide (the European Sierra, the Telstar in Asia and Aus ...
is about , meaning that even with the larger size garage, it is necessary to park to one side to be able to open the driver's door wide enough to enter or exit the vehicle. In the early days of the motor car, a garage played an important role in protecting the vehicle from the weather (particularly so as to reduce
rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...
). It was also the case that early motor cars started more easily when they were warm, so that keeping them in a garage rather than outside made it easier to get the engine going in the morning. Modern motor cars, however, are very well protected against rust, and modern engines start with no difficulty even in very cold conditions.


Early history

The common term for these structures in the first decades of the 20th century was motor house. Many garages from before 1914 were pre-fabricated, typically by companies such as Norwich manufacturer
Boulton & Paul Ltd Boulton & Paul Ltd was a British general manufacturer from Norwich, England that became involved in aircraft manufacture. Jeld Wen Inc. bought Boulton & Paul (along with another joinery company John Carr) from the Rugby Group plc in 1999 to ...
. The style was usually in keeping with that of the house and its locale, however, they were mainly of timber construction and few have survived. E. Keynes Purchase, "honorary architect" to what was to become the Royal Automobile Club, did a lot of work on them and recommended in ''The Car Illustrated'' in 1902, that they be of brick construction with cement floor, an inspection pit, good electric lighting and a pulley system for removing parts of the car (in the early days of motoring many car owners were mechanical and engineering enthusiasts). The architecture of garages was ignored in the architectural journals despite famous architects such as
Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...
,
Richard Barry Parker Richard Barry Parker (18 November 1867 – 21 February 1947) was an English architect and urban planner associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was primarily known for his architectural partnership with Raymond Unwin. Biography ...
and
Edgar Wood Edgar Wood (17 May 1860 – 1935) was a British architect, artist and draftsman who practised from Manchester at the turn of the 20th century and gained a considerable reputation in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a proponent of the A ...
all designing garages for their wealthy clients.
Charles Harrison Townsend Charles Harrison Townsend (13 May 1851 — 26 December 1928) was an English architect. He was born in Birkenhead, educated at Birkenhead School and articled to the Liverpool architect Walter Scott in 1870. He moved to London with his family in 1880 ...
was one of the few architects who put pen to paper (in ''
The Builder ''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...
'' in 1908) on the subject and recommended that the walls be glazed brick for ease of washing, air gratings to be low (petrol fumes are heavier than air), and drains half open to avoid build-up of gases. By 1910 corrugated iron and asbestos were being used instead of wood and garages became less imposing. From 1912 speculatively built houses in London were being built with motor houses.


In North America

Many
garage door A garage door is a large door on a garage that opens either manually or by an electric motor (a garage door opener). Garage doors are frequently large enough to accommodate automobiles and other vehicles. Small garage doors may be made in a sin ...
s open upward using an electric chain drive, which can often be automatically controlled from inside the resident's vehicle with a small radio transmitter. Garages are connected to the nearest road with a
driveway A driveway (also called ''drive'' in UK English) is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group. Driveways rarely have traffic lights, but some that bear ...
. Interior space for one or two cars is normal, and garages built after 1950 usually have a door that connects the garage directly to the interior of the house (an "attached garage"). Earlier garages were often detached and located in the back yard of the house, accessed either via a long driveway or from an
alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane ...
. In the past, garages were often separate buildings from the house ("detached garage"). On occasion, a garage would be built with an
apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...
above it, which could be rented out. As
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s became more popular, the concept of attaching the garage directly to the home grew into a common practice. While a person with a separate garage must walk outdoors in every type of weather, a person with an attached garage has a much shorter walk inside a building. Around the start of the 21st century, companies began offering "portable garages" in the United States. Typically, these garages are made of metal, wood or vinyl and do not connect to the house or other structure, much like the garage built before 1950. This portable garages usually have a strongly reinforced floor to hold a heavy vehicle. Garages are also produced as composite fabric garages with metal frames that are lightweight and portable garage compared to traditional brick-and-mortar or metal garage structures. Over the past fifteen years, the portable garage has further evolved into a modular garage or a partially prefabricated structure. The modular garage comes from a factory that assembles the garage in two sections and combines the two sections on location. Partially prefabricated garages are often larger and might even include an attic space or a second floor. Sections of the garage are preassembled and then setup on site over a few days time. The Amish have become popular builders of portable, modular and partially prefabricated garages.


Notable garages

The first planned private garages appeared long before 1900. Early examples of planned public garages appeared at the same time. The first recorded public parking garage in the US (''Electric Vehicle Company Garage'', Chicago) was built in 1898, in the UK (''Christal Palace Garage'', London) in 1900 and in Germany (''Großgarage der Automüller G.m.b.H.'',René Hartmann: ''Die Hochgarage als neue Bauaufgabe – Bauten und Projekte in Berlin bis 1933'' (Magisterarbeit), Technische Universität Berlin 2009 Berlin-Wilmersdorf) in 1901. Possibly the oldest existing garage in the United Kingdom is in
Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...
Lancashire. It was the first motor house or garage to be depicted in an English motoring journal and was in The Autocar of 7 October 1899. It was owned by Dr W.W. Barratt, a local doctor and motoring pioneer and specially designed for his house at 29 Park Crescent Hesketh Park. A two-storey building that matched the style of the house; the ground floor garage having a concrete floor, heating, electric lighting, an engine pit and was fully equipped. The motor house is now in residential use. One of the oldest surviving private garages in Germany today is the 1903 finished ''Automobil-Remise'' (automobile carriage house) of Villa Esche by
Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.'' ...
in
Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
.
Carl Benz Carl Friedrich Benz (; 25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929), sometimes also Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and fir ...
, the inventor of the
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
, had a tower built for himself in 1910, on the first floor a room for studying, on the ground floor car parking space. It still exists in
Ladenburg Ladenburg is a town in northwestern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies on the right bank of the river Neckar, northwest of Heidelberg and east of Mannheim. The town's history goes back to the Celtic and Roman Ages, when it was called Lopo ...
, Germany.


Gallery of notable garages

File:Seattle - 1047 Belmont Pl E garage.jpg, File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor en garage van de Gouvernements Automobieldienst TMnr 60021702.jpg, 1919 File:Paulina Driveway 1938 Russell Lee.jpg, 1938 File:Strasbourg-Hôtel Brion (10).jpg, Garage of
Hôtel Brion The Hôtel Brion, also known as Villa Brion, is a small Art Nouveau hôtel particulier on rue Sleidan in the Neustadt district of Strasbourg, in the French department of the Bas-Rhin. It has been classified as a Monument historique since 1975. H ...
(1904) File:Savigny-sur-Orge 081.jpg, File:Ost Dřevěná garáž.JPG, File:2012-01 Wiederitzsch 03.jpg, File:Bochum Dahlhausen - Dr.-C.-Otto-Str. 186 01 ies.jpg, File:NN Garages in Leninsky City district 01.jpg, Garages in
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...


Carhouses

Garages in the United States and Canada used to store
streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s and buses are often referred to as carhouses or car barns. These storage facilities are either metal or brick structures used to store streetcars or buses away from the elements. In
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
they are referred to as bus depots or depots.


See also

*
Carport A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from rain and snow. The structure can either be free standing or attached to a wall. Unlike most structures, a carport does not have four walls, and us ...
*
Carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...
*
Parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' ...
*
Proof-of-parking Car ownership is the ownership of a car. Car ownership typically requires far fewer permits than driving that car on public roads (i.e. driver's license, car insurance, etc.). History Levels of ownership have risen significantly since automobil ...


References

*


External links

* * {{Authority control Garages Car ownership Home