"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 15:31:12 on Wed, 18 Mar 2020,
NY remarked:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
I have a double garage. I measured the new car. It's too wide to fit
either side.

It doesn't help that many so-called double garages are just two single
garages joined together - ie they still have single-garage apertures and
separate doors, with a huge pillar between, rather than a double-width
aperture and door. I suppose the advantage of two singles is that the
doors are not as heavy (though any reputable garage door should have its
weight almost compensated by springs or counterweights) and they can use
two shorter RSJs rather than one longer RSJ - at the expense of losing the
advantage of having a double garage.

It's actually a planning rule, because they think that garages with two
doors like that look less industrial than ones with a single massive door.

Really? So you are forced to have two doors which are too narrow to
accommodate many modern cars safely, when a single door with no central
pillar would allow both cars to enter with ease? A triumph of aesthetics
over usefulness. That's a real bummer. We were planning to get the two
chocolate-teapot doors replaced with one big one that was actually useful.

Our house has (effectively) two double garages at right angles. The garage
that faces the road has two single doors which are fairly narrow, whereas
the workshop (the previous owner did his own car maintenance) which is at
right angles has a double door. I wonder if the difference is due to
planning regs and the fact that the double door can't be seen from the road?

It would be better if you were forced to have separate doors for the pillar
to be made non-load-bearing and as thin as possible, so as to make the width
of each door as great as possible while paying lip service to the rules.

When did the rule come in? The last house that I've seen with a double door
was my parents' house that was built in 1972, which is a good while ago.