Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jan 30, 2011 10:21 am hi, I just read Eager's thread of How important is a car acess to a garden, that reminds me one floorplan I saw when visiting a display house. It was M@con tuscan. That would fit on standard 12.5M frontage block. The " dead side" was about 1.3M with HWU and slim water tank on that side too. Unlike most designs, there was no windows/ no rear access door in the garage. http://www.metricon.com.au/melbourne/homes/tusanne At that time, I loved that plan very much as the sales said the house could sit on the fenceline and better utilized the space in the dead side. We didn't pick that in the end because my husband didn't like that. Now after working on the garden, my thoughts for the access changed. So for you, how important is your garage access to the side/back garden? Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 2Jan 30, 2011 10:28 am I have a 13m frontage block and the house I am building has a door access at the back of the garage but as it is the dead side and I have access from the laundry I doubt I will use it much. I essentiially only left it there so the guys I get in to do the paving/concrete/limestone after handover can gain access. Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 3Jan 30, 2011 10:52 am Our garage has roller door at back which opens to pergola area which then flows to back garden - very handy if haveing a BBQ or other gathering, people can come directly to/from area without going through house. But I guess as long as you can take a wheelbarrow, lawnmower etc along the path around the house, then that would be Ok. Must be difficult for people to get their gardens established without being able to get trailer load off mulch etc directly to back yard. Or do they have such a small garden area that this is not neccesary? There are some very narrow blocks in our development, (they still have PA door at back of garage though) back yard vehicle acccess easily remedied by haveing gate in back fence as we are in a laned area. Surprisingly to me, some of these properties do not get gates put in though. Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 4Feb 01, 2011 7:49 am Our block is 16.5 wide and the new house will have full drive through access on one side with a 2400mm wide roller door @2550mm height (this side is a zero clearance boundary) and the other side of the house is 1200mm off the boundary. Drive through was important early on when we were going to build a big shed out the back of the block and store our things whilst being built (knocking down) but I want to rebuild an old muscle car too, so access for that was needed. The "blind" side of the house can still fit a wheel barrow down it quite easily even though it will have HWU and tank as you say. Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 5Feb 01, 2011 10:32 am I think wheelbarrow access is essential. A dingo can probably get down the dead side as long as its not too narrow. We're lucky enough to have 1.8m on the dead side of the house, so we can bring things through there. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 6Feb 01, 2011 1:32 pm Our garage has a standard pedestrian door to the rear, with the garage being right on the boundary. There is 1.6m between the house and the fence behind the garage, 600mm of which is garden bed. That leaves us 1m of path to access the backyard - so basically whatever can fit through the door. We chose to fully fence the other side from house to boundary with no access gate, although the slats could be taken down if we needed access. So far we have either lifted things over or wheeled them around. We have done this for a very large guinea pig cage, as well as garden edging, 2 cubic meters of soil and 3 cubic meters of mulch. We don't have a towbar or own a trailer, so any deliveries are dumped at the front anyway. Had we owned or considered owning a trailer we would have incorporated this access to the other side of the house due to the garage being situated on the boundary already. For the small amount of time we will be carting things into the yard, I can't justify installing a gate - then you have to worry about locking it, and you can't plant garden in front or behind it, etc. I'd rather know my backyard is secure apart from having to jump the fence. One thing I would add next time (if there is a next time) is extra width to the garage to have a "workshop" where you can store all the tools/camping gear/ junk without it getting in the way. I'd much prefer this to a garden shed. Second Time 'Round Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 7Feb 01, 2011 5:39 pm For our family it is THE important factor. It is actually the first thing we look for in a second hand house or the first thing we add if were building. My husband is a builder though so we have a lot of tooing and frowing from our backyard with materials etc. and after having just renovated our entire backyard, thank goodness for the rear access. A job that has taken all summer and part of last year would have taken us 3 times as long if we have to wheelbarrow/bucket every shovel full of dirt - not to mention broken back! We also wath our neighbours who only have mower space up the sides of their and see how they struggle. Another thing, my brother had no rear access in his new place (old house) and when it came time for him to get his bird avery out the back, it had to go through his neighbours yard with rear access and then over the fence So it can be the last thing on your mind until you need it. If its not too big a deal, I definately recommend it. And it is still a big seller. We've had trouble selling houses with only narrow footpaths up the side of house. Literally peoples comments have been towards no rear access. Old fashioned I know, but it is still high on a lot of peoples thoughts. Re: How important is a rear access in garage to the garden? 8Feb 01, 2011 5:50 pm We don't have any access in/out of our garage except through the roller door, but we have full drive through access into the backyard through the side gate. We only had wheelbarrow side access with our old place, so drive through access (via side gate) was a must this time round. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 8339 Hi All, see above image. The required setback from the rear boundary in my case is 5m, as you can see the shape of the site and location of the boundary is slightly… 0 8451 |