Is it less expensive to add a garage onto my home or build a free standing one?

Deciding to build a garage can be a major and useful home renovation, but there is an important question to settle first- whether the garage will be connected to the house or will be free standing. Settling this question is the first order of business for anyone planning to build a garage. The planning about the size and features of the garage can come after that, once the question of where the garage will be is answered.

The first thing to think about is the zoning requirements for Utah. Garages that are attached to a home have significantly more regulatory barriers to overcome, to ensure that the new composite structure is compliant with all relevant fire and safety codes. This process can be expensive and time consuming. Constructing a garage that is directly attached to the home is more expensive than a free standing one because of these regulatory requirements, and the additional infrastructure that building against the home requires.

Next, consider the use of the garage. If it is primarily going to be used for a car, then having it attached to the house can be convenient during bad weather. Similarly, if the garage will be used for storage as well as for cars, then having it attached to the house avoids the problem of going out to the garage when the weather is bad. On the other hand, a garage that will hold a car and is part of a house needs to have a special foundation, and that adds to the regulatory barriers outlined above. The convenience of having the garage part of the house has its price.

After considering these and other factors, it almost always works out to be the case that the freestanding option costs less money to install. These costs will increase as the garage gets larger and more elaborate. Think about exactly what you want to do with this garage and how much you want to spend on it, then talk to some local contractors and builders to get estimates of how much it will cost.
