Tandem garage vs. side-by-side - Value Adjustment

[inv0ke-epipen]

It's interesting seeing my old posts and what I was thinking at the time!

I ended up with a 2 car garage that also has space for a small workshop. The main selling point for me was convenience. Although I can drive my wife's car and she can drive mine, it is just easier to have 2 car side by side. There are many tandem garages in my community and I have yet to see any of them have 2 cars parked in the garage. Most people just park their car on the spot closest to the garage door and use the inside spot for storage. In addition, they usually just park their 2nd car in guest parking or on the street. Parking has always been a hot topic in the HOA meetings. There are people with a 2 car side by side but still only park one car in the garage and HOA says to rat them out. haha

Let me know if you have any other questions.

As a follow up to this, the HOA for my community just sent out a letter to all residents asking for pictures of everyone's garage (with address) showing either 2 cars parked in garage or 1 car parked in garage and other spot showing that it is not used for storage. They are giving everyone some time to fix it. Parking has been an issue in my community as some people have only parked one car in their garage and their second car has not moved from guest parking for several months.

Reading these forums and others, sounds like this is a futile effort by the hoa, and people move the cars for the photo and then go back to their old ways. HOA should just construct everyone a 3 Car Wide garage    ;D

 

[inv0ke-epipen]

Anyone put something like this in a tandem? Seems like it would be awesome to have this lift in the first spot so you can have an easy escape with the 2nd car, or play a high stakes game of mahjong under your m3.

 

[daedalus]

Side benefit is if you get the rolling jacks you can also work on your car, if you're in to that sort of thing.  Definitely get the drip pan option to keep the dirt and crap from falling on to the car below.

Obviously ceiling height is the limiting factor for most people, but if the garage is narrow, that's also a hard stop.    The onboarding ramps have a length so you'll have to decide how close you want the lift to the door, and whether you're OK moving the ramps on and off every time you want to move a car.  Don't forget, a roll-up (and over) garage door won't work unless the lift is in the back.  If the slab is post-tensioned, it might be a deal breaker.  Even hitting rebar might prevent installing some kinds of anchors.  Lastly, most lifts nowadays require a compressed air supply.

I have had a 2-post lift for years for doing car repairs.  Will be buying a side by side 4-post lift soon, hopefully.  Not because the garage is small but because I just have too many cars.  I'll be able to get 6 cars in the garage while increasing my repair options and without reducing the storage/work space, except for a small part of a storage mezzanine that will have to come down to make room.

 

[momopi]

Side benefit is if you get the rolling jacks you can also work on your car, if you're in to that sort of thing.  Definitely get the drip pan option to keep the dirt and crap from falling on to the car below.

Obviously ceiling height is the limiting factor for most people, but if the garage is narrow, that's also a hard stop.    The onboarding ramps have a length so you'll have to decide how close you want the lift to the door, and whether you're OK moving the ramps on and off every time you want to move a car.  Don't forget, a roll-up (and over) garage door won't work unless the lift is in the back.  If the slab is post-tensioned, it might be a deal breaker.  Even hitting rebar might prevent installing some kinds of anchors.  Lastly, most lifts nowadays require a compressed air supply.

I have had a 2-post lift for years for doing car repairs.  Will be buying a side by side 4-post lift soon, hopefully.  Not because the garage is small but because I just have too many cars.  I'll be able to get 6 cars in the garage while increasing my repair options and without reducing the storage/work space, except for a small part of a storage mezzanine that will have to come down to make room.

Just curious, who did you go with for auto insurance?  I have 3 cars and State Farm insurance, even with multi-vehicle discount, gets expensive.

 

[daedalus]

I don't keep all cars on the road at once.  For our daily drivers and the truck we have Mercury, and they are by far the cheapest for us (I get quotes every few years), but we drive relatively few miles in a year...maybe 5000 total on all cars.  The cars aren't anything special, and our risk profile is diddly, so we only keep basic liability on them and have not had a problem in ~20 years.  The garage queens are insured through Hagerty for stated value, and with a cap of 3000 miles per year.

I went through AIS (insurance broker) when I first moved out here, and I think they did find me the absolute best rates on insurance with Mercury.  I don't really know how customer service compares at Mercury, except that when I had a fender bender some years back (I was at fault), I was amazed they did not raise my premium.

Edit:  They're even in Irvine! https://www.aisinsurance.com/irvine