Attached vs Detached Garage (Pros & Cons)

Here we explore the pros and cons of an attached vs detached garage including which has the best resale value.
There’s no doubt a garage is a convenience that most homeowners enjoy and appreciate. They offer a wide variety of benefits that from keeping your car protected to providing extra storage for the home. Below we help you break down the advantages to decide which type of garage is best for you.

What is an attached garage?

An attached garage means that the garage is attached to your home, in the sense that it shares on or more walls with the structure of the home and is under the same room. This could be place on the side, the front, or the back. An attached garage typically has a door that allows a person to exit the garage to the home, commonly through the pantry, or the laundry room. See more examples of garage doors ideas here.

What is a detached garage?

And attached garage means that the garage is NOT attached to your home, it is its own freestanding building on the property. It could be a few feet away from the home or many yards away. These commonly have a door on the side or back that have a path that leads from the garage to the entrance of the home.

Attached Garage Pros & Cons

Attached garage pros: Attached garages are great for protecting your car from the weather. Sharing a door with the home means that you can go right from the car to the house without ever stepping foot outside, whether it be snowing, hailing, raining, or sunny.

Attached garages are cost effective in most circumstances as they are able to use structural, heating, electrical, etc from the home instead of having to wire for another building.

In certain towns and subdivisions there are certain requirements to meet homeowner’s codes or town standards. Having an attached garage is typically one of those things. Attached garage also typically raise property value.

List of Attached Garage Pros:

• Easy access to the home
• Increases home’s resale value
• Has connection/easy access to to electricity and HVAC
• Avoid exposure to rain/snow
• Less expensive than a detached garage

As with every pro, there are some cons of having an attached garage some include:

Attached garages can be somewhat difficult to place of on a thin lot. This could mean you have to reshape the home (Which is not always doable), buy a larger lot, or shrink the garage (Which you can only do to a certain extent). This also makes it extremely difficult to expand in the future as there are setbacks that cannot be encroached upon.

Since an attached garage is attached to the home, it could be a potential security risk. Everyone has left home once or twice and thought they left the garage door open, that leaves the entire home wide open. Some garages have number codes, or buttons that open the garage, these could be somewhat easily stolen to break into the home.

Attached garages could also lead to greater fire risk, which makes permitting a bit harder as well as more expensive. Following the correct standards can protect from the added fire risk of keeping vehicles in an attached garage.

List of Attached Garage Cons:

• Work noise can be heard from inside the house
• Building permits can be costly
• Increased fire risk
• Potential for exposure to harmful emissions inside the house
• Can provide the security risk of another entry point inside the home

Detached Garage Pros & Cons

The pros of having an detached garage include: Detached garages are extremely flexible in size, location, shape, etc, based on the size of the lot. This can also make it easier to expand the garage in the future if needed, since it is not blocked in one or more ways by the home.

Detached garages can be more secure as they do not have access directly to the home. These can be under a separate lock and key, and vehicles often have their own security systems as well.

This type of garage can also give more curb appeal, as it is not part of the home, so the home can have more architectural and decorative qualities without a large unsightly garage door getting in the way.

Detached garages are also handy ways to create a space away from home, whether it be a place to work on cars, a place to create a spare bedroom, garage storage, or even kid hangout area. This space can also have electrical and HVAC power if needed, or can be a standard run of the mill detached garage.

List of Detached Garage Pros:

• Can work well for a narrow lot
• Increases home’s resale value
• Minimizes noise to the house
• Provides privacy away from the house for a workshop/man cave
• Allows more room for expansion
• Can provide more area for landscaping
• Often allows for bigger garage dimensions
• Keeps potential harmful emissions away from house
• More attractive for an older style home

The cons of having a detached garage include: Detached garages are the opposite of great for bad weather. Being detached from the home means that you have to endure the elements, whether it be snowing, hailing, raining, or sunny with yourself and any items you need to carry from the car to the home. This can make grocery shopping or moving things a real pain.

Detached garages are a great deal less cost effective in most circumstances as you are basically building an additional building. You need a new roof, walls, electrical, and anything else you want to incorporate into the garage. All of those have to be wired and built in the additional location which can be costly and time consuming.

Not only is it expensive to create another building just for cars, but it also requires a great deal of space. You need a spot to build, and a spot for the driveway and a way to get from the garage to the home in a relatively unobstructed way. This can eat up a vast amount of yard space and is often not even an option for urban areas, or may not be allowed by certain local codes and homeowner’s requirements.

List of Detached Garage Cons:

• Less accessible (stored items/freezers are further away)
• You have to walk through rain/snow to access
• May need to run electricity for a workshop
• Requires a large amount of yard space
• May be restricted by homeowners association

Attached vs Detached Garage Resale Value

The resale rate of an attached garage is about eighty one percent. The typical two car garage can run you about twenty seven thousand dollars to construct. That means when you sell the house, there is an added twenty one thousand dollars that the house can be sold for.

There are some considerations the appraiser takes when deciding the value. For instance the location of the property can play a big part, as homes in urban areas have an extremely high demand for garage, seeing as parking is slim in higher density cities.

The resale rate of a detached garage is about sixty four percent. The typical two car garage can run you about fifty thousand dollars. That means when you sell the house, there is an added thirty five thousand dollars that the house can be sold for. This is for the standard, run of the mill garage.

Sometimes adding more intricate details like cabinetry, tandem garage design, specialty flooring, special painting or decorations runs the initial cost up while the return price stays as is, since these items are less important to the average buyer.

For more related ideas visit our garage door colors gallery page.