December 2022 - American Carports Inc.

Having a garage on your property in any form is a big win. Whether it’s being used for parking, storage, projects, or some combination of those functions, garage space is a big advantage. Garages on residential properties tend to come in two forms – attached and detached – and we’d like to explore the pros and cons of these options in the article below.

Here at American Carports, Inc., we specialize in building beautiful, durable detached metal garages for our customers. The journey toward adding a detached garage starts with our Build & Price tool, which is a quick and easy way to customize one of our standard buildings to make it fit your vision perfectly. Need help along the way? No problem – just contact us at your convenience and our team will jump into action.

Two Quick Definitions

There probably isn’t much confusion regarding these two types of garages, but just in case there is, we’d like to take a moment to define them accurately.

An attached garage is a garage space that is physically attached to a house. In other words, it is built into the design of the house, and there is a door (or two) from inside the house that allows residents to access the garage space. In many cases, the garage will be a part of the lower level, with some of the upstairs living space being located on the top of the garage area. While it’s possible to add an attached garage later on after a house has been built, these types of garages are usually included as part of the original floor plan.
A detached garage is any type of garage structure that is not connected to the house. It could be located only a few steps away from the house – or it could be on the other end of a large property. As long as it is not connected to the home, it is considered a detached garage. This type of structure can be built from a variety of different materials, with wood and metal being the two most popular options.

For the most part, what you can do inside of an attached or detached garage is going to be pretty much the same. The space inside the garage is what it is, and you can use your creativity and imagination to put it to use for your needs. With that said, one of these two styles is going to be the right choice for your situation, and we’ll help you get to the bottom of the matter with the pros and cons below.

The Benefit of Distance

One of the immediate benefits that we can point to as a pro in the favor of a detached garage is the distance that you’ll have between the garage and the house. This is a great thing when you are going to be doing things inside that garage that make a lot of noise and might disturb people trying to sleep, study, or just relax. Getting away from the house will free you up to make noise without feeling bad about bothering people inside, and that should immediately mean more enjoyment while doing your work.

For example, if you are into woodworking – whether as a hobby or a profession – you may have plenty of tools that make a lot of noise. Routers, saws, sanders, and more can all make quite a racket when they are turned on. In an attached garage, you might not make people in your family happy if you are working on a project early in the day or late at night. By having a garage space that is detached from the house, this concern will be a non-issue, and you can get to work whenever the time is right for you.

This same concept applies well beyond woodworking, as many things that are done in a garage come with some level of noise. Working on cars often means turning on an air compressor, which is out of the loudest pieces of equipment around. Or, even if you don’t have an air compressor running, you might be banging on things with a wrench or hammer. No matter what it is you’ll be working on in the space, it’s likely to make some noise – and that noise won’t bother anybody when you go with the detached arrangement.

Detached Is Easier to Add Later

There is no way around the fact that it’s hard – and expensive to add an attached garage to an existing house. If you have been living in your home for years and have always wanted a garage space to use for storage or projects, the thought of attaching one to the house might be too much to take on. First, there is the design challenge, as it could be hard to properly integrate the new space into the existing house, especially if the house has been standing for decades. And, even if you figure out the design part sufficiently, the cost of the project might be prohibitive.

None of these things are a problem when you decide to build a detached metal garage with the help of American Carports, Inc. As long as you have a suitable building site somewhere on your property, you’ll be ready to get started. And, since you aren’t trying to get the new building to attach nicely to an existing structure, you won’t be limited in any way in terms of the design of your new garage. Whatever features you want to include, you can do so – just establish how much space you have to work with on your land and get to work designing a garage that will suit your needs nicely for years to come.

Convenience Is a Factor

So far, we’ve been saying a lot of nice things about a detached garage, and that is for good reason. However, the convenience factor is one point where you might give the edge to an attached design. Since you can walk into the garage directly from the house, it is easy to use the room in the garage for storage – you can just hop out there without even putting on your shoes to retrieve some supplies.

That’s a nice benefit, to be sure, and it’s something you’ll appreciate if you do have a house with an attached garage. But that doesn’t mean a detached garage has to be a hassle. In fact, it can be nearly as convenient as the attached version, as long as it is designed strategically. If ease of access is one of your primary concerns, place the new detached garage relatively close to the house and add a covered walkway to connect the two. You’ll still technically need to go outside to get to the garage, but the walk will be short and covered.

Detached Garages Can Make Home Shopping Easier

Are you currently in the market for a new home? If you have been house shopping for a while, you already know just how hard it can be to find the perfect property for your needs. It seems like every property you look at has 90% of what you want, but that last 10% can be extremely difficult – if not impossible – to find.

Keeping the idea of a detached garage in your back pocket can go a long way toward making your search a little simpler. Instead of being hung up on the need to find a property with the perfect garage, remember that you could always build a detached garage on a property that you purchase. So, for example, if you find a house that you love but doesn’t have a garage – or it has a small attached garage that isn’t enough space for your needs – you could plan on building a metal garage apart from the house to finish off the property.

Keep the Mess Away

Let’s face it – garages are often messy places. The types of projects you are likely to work on in a garage will often lead to a mess, and some of that mess might get carried into the house if the garage is attached. Whether it’s sawdust from woodworking, oil from caring for a car, or anything else, you’d probably prefer to keep that mess as far away from the house as possible.

This is another point you can place in the “pro” category for a detached garage. The distance between the garage and the house will create a reminder that you should clean up before going back inside. You’ll probably even get into a habit of changing out of some messy clothes before you go back inside, and you might add a sink to your detached garage, so you can wash up regularly.

Consider the Impact on Landscaping

This isn’t a point that will fit neatly into a pro or con category, but it is an important topic to discuss related to garages. If you like to take care of your property and you want your landscaping to look beautiful throughout the year, the placement of your garage is going to be a factor in that process. With an attached garage, you might not be able to plant right in front of your house as you would like, because you’ll need to keep that area open for vehicles to drive into the garage space. In that sense, having an attached garage could be a negative for landscaping purposes.

Yet, at the same time, you could turn that point on its head and argue it in the opposite direction. If the only space you have available for your detached garage is right in front of the house, you will again be impacting your landscape design options. Of course, this won’t be a problem if you can put your garage somewhere out of the way in a corner of the property that wouldn’t otherwise be used often. So, how a detached or attached garage plays into your landscaping is highly variable and needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

American Carports Has You Covered

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article, and we hope the value of a detached garage is clear to you at this point. Of course, there is nothing wrong with an attached garage, but if you find yourself in the position of needing garage space added to your property, a detached garage is the best solution. Explore the options available here at American Carports, Inc., and get in touch with us directly if you have questions or are ready to start the project. We hope to serve you soon!

There is a lot to love about adding a detached garage to your property. Of course, it’s easy to be sold on the benefits of a detached garage, but it’s a little harder to convince yourself – or your spouse – to spend the money. Not only is there the cost of construction to consider, but you’ll also need to think about any additional costs that will come along with the project.

This brings us to the potential of additional property taxes. Paying property taxes is one of the unwelcome responsibilities that come with owning land, so adding to your property tax bill is something you probably aren’t in a hurry to do. So, what kind of impact will a new detached garage make on your tax liability? Let’s take a closer look below.

If you decide to go ahead with a new detached garage project, turn to our team at American Carports, Inc. for help. We make it easy thanks to our Build & Price tool which allows you to customize a metal structure to perfectly suit your needs. You can also contact us directly if you need assistance. We’d love to work with you!

A Simple But Complicated Equation

When you increase the value of your property, your property taxes can be expected to go up at the same time. So, doing something like building a new detached garage on your property is going to elevate the value of that property, and you will be faced with a bigger property tax bill as a result. In that sense, this is a simple enough situation to figure out. When you add value, you pay more.

The tricky thing here is determining just how much of a tax hike you will experience. Tax rules vary somewhat wildly from one place to the next, so you might find that your structure doesn’t have much of an impact on your bill – if any at all – or it might make quite a difference. It could be useful to do a bit of homework before taking on this kind of project, including contacting your local tax authority, to gain some clarity on how these things are calculated where you live.

What About a Business Addition?

If the detached garage you add to your property is for business purposes, the tax picture will look somewhat different. It’s quite likely that you’ll be able to write off the expense since it was for your business, as long as you meet the qualifications for doing so (such as using the space only for business and using it as your primary location). Again, as with all tax situations, the right thing to do is connect with a professional to discuss the situation and sort out what the outcome will be based on the specifics of your project.

Explore Exemptions

There are certain cases where property owners qualify for tax discounts or exemptions based on their personal status. Being a veteran is one common example of this type of benefit, but that’s not true in all places. A local tax professional with knowledge of the rules in your area would be able to help you understand if any available exemptions apply to your situation. Even if you don’t have a connection with a tax professional, an experienced real estate agent who regularly works in your market may have some knowledge that could be helpful.

Value on Your Purchase Matters

Knowing you might wind up increasing your tax liability a little bit through the addition of a new garage, it would be smart to make sure you get the best possible value for your money when buying the garage itself. That’s easy to do when you choose American Carports, Inc. for the project. Our metal garages are affordable yet durable, meaning they deliver value from the start – and that value only grows as the years pass and the building continues to get the job done.

You won’t mind those extra taxes so much when you remember just how much your new garage is doing for you day after day. And, whenever the day comes to sell your property, that value you added will come in handy and you should be able to command a higher sale price.

While you might need to pay some extra property taxes for the value you’ve added to your property in the form of a detached garage, that bill might not be as bad as you fear. The best approach is just to consider the property tax factor as one component of the overall price of the project. If the job still falls within your budget, and you are excited about everything that a detached garage can offer, reach out to American Carports, Inc. to get started. We hope to serve you soon!