The Thunderbirds garage

The Thunderbirds garage - hidden parking is latest London craze

We have lift off: the Cardok would be familiar to John Tracy

DEEP beneath Tracy Island, somewhere in the Pacific, International Rescue's rocket-powered craft lie ready to emerge from their hidden hangars.

But this sort of hi-tech subterranean concept is no longer the sole preserve of the Tracy family and their fleet of Thunderbirds - you too can park futuristically, if you have £50,000 to spare.

The garage, which "pops up" from underneath a garden, has become the latest home-improvement craze. It uses a hydraulic platform and can be hidden under a water feature, flowerbed, or patch of gravel - or a second car.

Manufacturer Cardok has seen enquiries for its park-and-hide soar "astronomically" - sales have doubled since it was first promoted at last July's Hampton Court Palace flower show.

The garage is popular with owners of vintage cars and has been likened to the Thunderbirds aircraft hangar hidden in a mountain on a Pacific island.

Whenever the International Rescue team of puppets needed to set off on a mission the ground opened up. The modern Cardok lifts out of the ground at the touch of an electronic key fob.

Eight underground garages have already been built, four are in production and more than 10 are on order, with interest highest in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Ealing, Dulwich and Highbury.

The waiting list is already four months long and experts predict demand will continue to grow as families choose to improve their home rather than try to sell in a weak property market.

Cardok managing director Alastair Soper said: "It's 100 per cent secure, far more so than a garage or driveway, and the vehicle's completely protected from the elements.

"It goes down well with insurance companies. One man with a Bentley had been charged an annual premium of more than £5,000 when he parked his car in a well to-do street but that fell to £1,500 when he installed the Cardok.

"In London a lot of people who have garages want to use them as extra rooms because of the value that adds to the house. Installing a Cardok allows them to use their space most efficiently."

Local councils are waving through planning applications because the Cardok construction allows far more rainwater to drain away into the soil than traditional paved drives.

Experts have said that the floods which brought areas of London to a standstill in the summer of 2007 were partly caused by a lack of soil to absorb the rain.

Nearly two-thirds of the capital's gardens are already at least partly paved over, amounting to an area equal in size to 22 Hyde Parks and this hugely increases the load on London's creaky drainage infrastructure.

Mr Soper said: "We install a gutter around the perimeter of the hidden platform and container at the bottom of the Cardok to collect rainwater running off a wet car when it's parked. That can be directed to water the garden and filter through the soil, rather than running off onto the pavement and putting pressure on council drains. Planning officers are very keen on that."

The lift, which takes 10 weeks to construct and about three days to install, operates silently.

Councils have given permission for them to be built in conservation areas, including the one around Ealing cricket ground, and the grounds of GradeII-listed buildings.

A Cardok "mono" lift with a flowerbed or water feature on top costs £42,000 plus VAT - plus the installation charge which varies according to ground conditions.

A lift robust enough for another car to be parked on top and lifted up costs £48,000 plus VAT and installation.

This article is by Sri Carmichael and published in The Evening Standard.

You can read the article here:- http://tiny.cc/j1iwbx

How much does it cost to build a garage?

This is what Ted Hutchinson has to say about the cost of building a garage.  It is from the Money Saving Expert Forum and you can find it here:- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=104569

From an insurance companies building cost estimator.  For garages (other than integral), rebuilding costs can range between £5000 for a single pre-fabricated garage to £8600 for a double pre-fabricated garage. Costs for a purpose built garage range between £11800 for a single to £16000 for a double built garage.

Before you start, however, you should consider if you or any future purchaser of the property might at a later date wish to expand over the top of the planned garage. It may be a selling point later on to be able to show that the garage had planning permission and appropriate footings/walls to cope with a bed/bathroom extension above it. The additional cost now would be miniscule compared with the potential cost of demolishing this planned garage and starting again with a full extension. 
When I did mine at my previous property the cost of materials wasn't significant. You will be mainly paying for labour. If you are handy DIY persons you could manage such a job.

And "Nuisance Value", in 2010 (http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=863822) had this to say:-

How long is a piece of string? Garage - you could spend £5k or £30k depending on what you want. You've not mentioned what sort of roof you want, i.e. flat felted or pitched with pantile or slate, though I will presume you're going for a single skin block wall. 

Block prices vary depending on the following;

size - 4" or 6" (just to keep it basic we'll stick with these)
fair faced or not (for painting, or not)
strength (depending what sort of roof it's supporting)

So really you need to know what you want. Aside from all that, you could try ringing up a few local building suppliers and asking how much blocks are? I've not bought any for a couple of years now but you should allow about £1 per block for 4" and about £1.50 for 6", you're not going to be buying enough to get quantity discounts. You'll need about 50m2, or 500 blocks so anywhere between £450 to £800. Plus VAT of course, maybe delivery too.

Depending on where in Glasgow you are try Beatsons in Cumbernauldhttp://www.beatsons.co.uk/contact.php#Cumbernauld

Crispy Bacon had this to say a few years ago (http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/any-builders-on-here-how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-a-garage)

When I had my detatched double garage built 10 years ago it cost 17K (the garage door alone was 2K), it's 7m x 5m with a tiled pitched roof. It has a breeze block inner, a brick outer & if we insulated the cavity you could live in it 

Personally I'd suggest that you build the garage as big as you can get away with on the ground available, I'd also go for a flat roof as you may wish to, in time, build on top of the garage to make more bedrooms/nursery rather than say moving elsewhere. If this is a possibility then make sure the garage foundations put in now are able to take the extra weight of any future extention of the garage upwards.

Here is a more recent discussion (2013) with the original question by "Jan12"

(http://www.diynot.com/forums/building/cost-of-building-garage-27k.366295/)

So I think we can conclude that it is not cheap but at least if you have one built you can actually make it the dimensions you want and your car will actually fit in it.....................

Rent Out Your Drive

ParkatmyHouse.com helps property owners raise extra cash by renting out their empty parking spots  

An online parking marketplace matches homeowners with drivers looking for parking space

ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

Homeowners and business owners who live near destinations like Yankee Stadium can use ParkatmyHouse.com to rent out their parking spaces.

Live near Kennedy Airport? Great. Is your property near Yankee Stadium? Even better.

You might be able to turn your empty parking space into some cold, hard cash courtesy of ParkatmyHouse, an online parking marketplace that’s rolling into the city.

Based in the U.K., the website is making a big push into the tri-state area, Boston, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. ParkatmyHouse.com matches homeowners, business owners, churches and schools who have spare parking space with drivers looking for a place to park.

Launched six years ago, ParkatmyHouse has so far taken in $5 million in fees for people, mostly in the U.K. who have listed on its site. After a recent round of financing led by German car giant BMW, it is hoping to do the same in the U.S.

“This is a great opportunity for homeowners to make some money,” the company’s founder, Anthony Eskinazi, told the Daily News.

It is free to list your space. ParkatmyHouse, which just opened an office in the West Village, takes a 15% commission from each transaction. Sometimes people who park at a home will arrange for the homeowner to drive them to their destination.

The closer you are to a hot spot, like a sports arena or train station, the more you can expect to get. So how much is that driveway near Yankee Stadium?

“On average, you could get $40 a game,” Eskinazi said. “You might be able to charge $60 or more. It depends on the proximity.”

PHYLLIS FURMAN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

pfurman@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/parkatmyhouse-helps-property-owners-raise-extra-cash-renting-empty-parking-spots-article-1.1000464#ixzz2nLiNIiSD

What a waste, all those empty seats

Another way to not have a garage....................................

Empty Seats in Your Car? Start Ridesharing to Stop the Waste.

Odile Beniflah is ready to rideshare and save resources caused by inefficient commutes (Image: Courtesy of Odile Beniflah)

GUEST POST FROM ODILE BENIFLAH OF CARPOOLING.COM

The next time you drive, try ridesharing as an alternative to driving alone.

Each time you drive alone, the empty seats in your car go to waste. Here’s the ‘sitch’: there are 1 billion cars on the planet and every car that’s now driving down a country road or highway has an average of 3.75 empty seats. Now multiply that by 3 trillion highway vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. each year. And factor in the $8,000 cost to own a car and the fact that the average American commuter spends 38 hours a year stuck in traffic. Come on you people: wake up and stop the waste. Try Ridesharing instead.

Solo Drivers Need to Go to Rehab!

For me, driving alone is like smoking. People get into the habit of doing it at a young age and simply can’t stop. They may suffer nasty side effects such as huge costs, sitting alone in traffic, or stress during long commutes but can’t seem to see a solution to their misery! Meanwhile, those who don’t have a car (like me) are always looking for a lift. We car-free people may love buses and trains but what’s better than ridesharing with friendly people?

Carpooling.com services 9 countries in Europe and will be available soon in the U.S. (Image: Carpooling.com)

Enter Carpooling.com for Ridesharing

When I moved to Germany in 2008, I discovered “mitfahrgelegenheit” and “mitfahrzentrale”: a service that connects drivers and passengers so they can share their rides together and share costs for gas. It was such a simple idea and it worked: the site was as big as Expedia and LastMinute! I was so excited that it was easy to land a job when the site expanded internationally as carpooling.com.

So Why Not Practice Ridesharing in America?

To those who come up with lame excuses such as lower gas prices, cultural differences, entrenched consumerism, selfishness, inconvenience, fear of strangers etc., I say Not So Fast! Americans love FUN and FREEDOM — so ridesharing via a service like carpooling.com would be perfect here as well.  And please stop saying that these green, social, smart behaviors only happen in Europe! I personally believe that America is the country that can make carpooling and ridesharing so cool that the entire world will follow. This is why I can’t wait to see the launch of carpooling.com in the U.S. Stand by…it’s coming SOON.

Ridesharing is Fun – Time to Show and Tell

Think about booking a ride in a fancy 4×4, comfortable sedan, funky pick-up truck, classy Cadillac, outrageous Jacuzzi-limo, luxury convertible, cruising Harley-Davidson, urban Zipcar, VW minibus. Imagine picking up a chef, a writer, a baseball fan, a folk singer from Tennessee, a French tourist, a student in philosophy, a developer of violent video games, a Kindergarten teacher, a BBQ master.

Ridesharing with Odile Beniflah is never boring (Image: Courtesy of Odile Beniflah)

Technology has finally enabled the ridesharing revolution to take off. With smartphones, people can now offer or book seats on-the-go. With user profiles and social networks, people can get to know each other online before meeting en route.

So I am calling all the people who already carpool “21st century style” to speak up and share their stories of cheap, convenient, happy, comfortable transportation. Please show and tell the world about how great ridesharing can be.

Welcome to the Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy and a World of Infinite Possibilities

Now you can sell empty seats and reduce your car ownership costs by 75%. You can have access to millions of individual, affordable ride options. Carpooling and ridesharing is a real opportunity to celebrate equity and diversity, and to put human relationships back at the center of our daily lives.

So What Can You Do Until Carpooling.com is Launched in the U.S.?

Here’s how you can start to get out of your solo-driving addiction and start ridesharing. Start reaching out to friends and colleagues and offer them a ride. Ask neighbors if they want to join you on a trip to IKEA. Start a carpool group on Facebook. (Offer a free lunch to anyone driving you to a beach this summer.) And if you are lucky enough to travel to Europe this summer, carpooling.com  — it’s up and running in 40 countries.

All you need is to use your imagination and watch out for that ridesharing bug: it’s contagious! 

This article is by Odile Beniflah and you can read it here:- http://www.wehatetowaste.com/rideshare/ 

What if......?

Your car doesn't fit into your garage?

Well, just get rid of it (the garage) altogether then!  Much cheaper.  AND.....You get to have an extra room in your house.

Or get rid of the car - why not?

Work out how much you could save

In the Telegraph it is reported that "The RAC is refusing to budge on the pessimistic claim in its recently published Report on Motoring that it costs "an average of £6,689" per annum – or £557 per month, if you prefer – to own and run a car in Britain today."

There is a calculator for motoring costs on the AA site. http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/

You could use a car pool like zipcar or http://www.hourcars.co.uk/ or http://www.easycar.com.  This arrangement is generally cheaper if you only use the car for a few hours.

Picture courtesy of graur razvan ionut / freedigitalphotos.net

Or, if you don't use the car regularly you could just take a taxi and hire a car for your holidays and have the weekly shopping delivered by whoever your favourite supermarket or shop is.