Building a new house - Narrow block - Suggestions

I'm contemplating knocking down my existing home (older Victorian style home) and building a brand new double storey.

Now i do like the character of the house, but what i don't like is the mould and the dampness that comes with it - and truthfully, my kids' health comes first.

It is a single fronted Victoria house and I'm trying to find double storey designs with a garage at the front. Based on the width of the block as well as factoring in right of carriage ways, i've estimated the total width of the building cannot exceed 5.5m, which realistically doesn't leave me with many (if any) visually appealing designs.

Has anyone come across narrow designs with garages which they have found to be visually appealing? Please share. Thanks!

 

Tricky one

There was a show on tv (no idea which channel) and they built in mosman and had a lift up garage with door panels to match the facade. They did a reno and had to meet heritage spec etc plus wanted off street parking

 

Rawson Homes do narrow blocks.

How many streets off did they have to park?

 

That's the driver's problem! The garage was to small for a limo anyway

How are rawson going? Did plastering on a 3 story split level many moons ago in northbridge fancy house with a lift ... shame the block work for it was on the ****

 

My place isn't heritage listed, but so far all the designs I've seen with a garage for a narrow block looks like rubbish

 

This might give you some inspiration if you are happy to consider a carport instead of a garage

I made the roof of the carport seem cantilevered out using some steel beams and the brick column as support.

Each half of this is 4.5m of house and 1.5m of side setback.

 

Had a look at Rawson homes, nothing as thin as 5.5m

 

@Westminster i can't seem to see the image from my phone.

 

Hey Nek,

Wisdom homes now do a range of narrow homes called "Metro"? They did have one of these ("Metro 25") on display at one of the display villages and I was amazed at how much they utilized the space and it didn't feel narrow at all. They also have a few options for facades to look at as well.

Looking at the floor plans they do have as standard it looks like the most narrow of these is 7m wide though so still doesn't help you without adjustments. We've built with them in the past and they were flexible with adjustments on sizes at the time. (this could have changed since considering they are a lot larger now.)

Best of luck with it though

 

@neK you mention a right of carriageway - is that a rear laneway? If so could the garage go at the rear instead of the front?

If it has to be at the front this photo of a house in Melbourne gave me a lot of inspiration for how I wanted my carport to be so that it's not so fugly

http://www.decoist.com/2013-03-13/modern-home-in-melbourne-robert-simeoni/

 

@Westminster Unfortunately the right of carriage way is between the two houses. Its instead of a 1.8m gap between me an my neighbour, it is a 2.4m gap (no fence).

But this gap is way too small to drive a car properly without scratching it - easy to drive forward, takes forever to reverse out.

Thanks for the link, it has given some inspiration and I am willing to let go of the garage <sigh>, but it seems that narrow houses just simply look odd when they are standalone.

With duplexes, because of the overall width of two houses, it doesn't look as bad. Same for terrace style houses, looks good together, but standalone doesn't look crash hot.

@Bwinny - its not so much the internal layout, but rather the facade.

My other option is to figure out how to deal with the dampness of the house.

 

So how wide is the block and how close can you go to the carriageway?

It's such a shame it's such a useless carriageway - it's a glorified footpath.

 

Which is exactly what me and the neighbour use it for.

The good thing is that as we both have kids, they happily play in the carriageway as its 2.4m wide and about 15m long.

As for the block size, its 7.62m wide.
But if i take the setback from one neighbour (no carriage way) - i assume it to be 0.9m
And the other setback with the carriage way - 1.2m (which is where the existing house is - i am assuming i can go to that setback).

That leaves me with 5520 (7620 - 900 - 1200)

 

@neK I think it's time to call the council and confirm those setback requirements.

They tend to vary based on the height of the wall, so a 2 storey wall might need more than a metre and a single storey wall can be on the boundary or 1m off etc.

Also around here we can have reduced setbacks to something like a carriageway so even though your neighbour is you might not need to and could use more of the 7.62m

At the end of the day most 6m wide rear loaded designs can be turned around and have garage then a courtyard then house

Imagine this with a footpath down the side of the garage (or carport) leading to an entrance at the courtyard corridor

Chantilly | Hickinbotham Homes

 

Ask the council if you can build right up to one side boundary on the lower level then step in for the second level to give the required upper setback. Also you may be able to arrange your home with the neighbour so that your house is set in from the neighbour's main living areas but extend all the way to the boundary where they have not built or where there is a shared garage firewall.