Front garden vs driveway

ChroniC

ChroniC

ChroniC

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I currently have a path down the side of our bungalow, which has a flower bed next to it, I will be extending the path into a driveway however we also have a front garden next to this of about 15/20feet square.

Now my question is, what's a worth more in value. A front garden or a 2nd parking spot width ways... If I add a cars width (plus room to move) to the driveway I'll end up with a basically pointless 6 foot area of grass.

There isn't a problem parking outside tbh, fairly quiet area.
What would you choose?
 
I would have thought a driveway is the more valuable as that seems to be common in most places the lack of parking etc. ultimately if you live there which is more beneficial to yourself and your family
 
That's the thing. It would be only mildly easier to park right outside my house than on a driveway. The driveway could take 3 cars in a row, but obviously that has its downsides of moving them.
Its only me and the misses, so one car on a driveway and a nice front garden, vs two cars and basically what will end up a small flowerbed or similar. I could do the whole thing as a driveway but it does look a bit industrial like that to me.
 
ChroniC said:
one car on a driveway and a nice front garden, vs two cars and basically what will end up a small flowerbed or similar. I could do the whole thing as a driveway but it does look a bit industrial like that to me.
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One car driveway and a garden IMO.

Gardens are great at soaking up water. I see plenty of ugly drives round here that just pool water.

Oh and our has the benefit of a plum tree. Yes I have my plums out on display.

Gardens just look nicer. If you move, someone else can change it but if you only need 1 car, i'd just build for 1 car.

Edit: I misread, so you have 2 cars and park 1 on the road? Hm, well then i'm not so sure. Mind you some green is better than no green.
 
sounds like maybe the front garden is the best option for you then at this stage, if things change you can always revisit in the future I guess. do whatever you will get use out of now
 
Do you still have a nice sized back garden? Have any of the neighbours got a driveway entirely at the front?
 
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sja360 said:
Do you still have a nicc sized back garden? Have any of the neighbours got a driveway entirely at the front?
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It's a fair split of just a single straight driveway (because they're bungalows and the old people only have 1 car in retirement) and people with full brick paved fronts.
Not a great deal of people park on the road. Say about 6/7 cars from 40 houses.

We have a decent sized back garden for the price. 50x30 feet.
I guess I was asked more about value rather than enjoyment. If I do the driveway I might as well do it all in one go if its worth it.
I really don't care about the garden itself, but since parking isn't at a premium here, I wondered if they're would be resale value in a garden over parking.
 
If you can make it so you can swap cars without them leaving the driveway, it's quite handy, especially if you have classic cars etc that may not always be road legal and MOT'd.
 
I'd just put space for the single car you need easy to expand later and you will already have done the difficult bit by getting the council to put a drop curb in. Any potential future buyer will then easily be slake to expand the drive for a minimal cost.
 
Most people don't want a garden theses days, don't have time for them, I would go with a bigger driveway
 
I saw a Landover that someone claimed had been sat half on the drive and half on grass and the constant moisture from the grass had corroded the chassis worse than the other side.
 
Going forward unless there's some curb on car ownership I would tend toward an additional parking space though maybe gravel it rather than hard paving. I think the previous tendency for the older gen to buy bungalows is changing as I'm certainly considering one for my next move and I'm still under 50. Location may dictate that still.

I've converted the small patch of grass under my front windows in a mid-terraced and went from 2 to 3 parking spaces and as mentioned in the not too distant future having a charge point installed will also start to add value to houses. I just got one installed on the 75% up to £500 OLEV grant though you need to show the space is there and have ownership of an EV for at least 6 months after installation to qualify.
 
I could be wrong but I seem to remember that there's planning rules now which mean if you put a drive in there must be provision for it to soak away water rather than channelling it into the gutter. There are permeable dive surfaces - I like the grass one built on special matting detailed ghere somewhere so it looks like you're parked on grass but you dont churn it to mud.
 
Macro said:
I could be wrong but I seem to remember that there's planning rules now which mean if you put a drive in there must be provision for it to soak away water rather than channelling it into the gutter. There are permeable dive surfaces - I like the grass one built on special matting detailed ghere somewhere so it looks like you're parked on grass but you dont churn it to mud.
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Your correct but all it requires is for you to have sufficient soak aways into the grass or under the drive. Ours will slope towards the house so i will be putting those guttered drains around the edge which will drain into the garden.
 
Just because there isn't parking issues now doesn't mean there won't be in the future, as already mentioned further up when EVs become more common then there will be a requirement to have them on charge.

I would block pave the entire front as you seem to have a large enough rear garden (you could always use some planters if you want flowers on the front) and if you block pave it all that will be a permeable surface for the water to soak through.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
2 parking spots, when PHEV's and full EV's take over you will want 2 off street parking spaces near your house for charging.
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This, i keep saying that houses without drives are going to be hard to sell when EV's take over, which they will.
 
Given that bungalows are usually occupied by pensioners.....nothing like a good stereotype.....who would generally have 1 car, I'd imagine they'd prefer a front garden......if you're looking to sell
 
Dazstoke said:
Given that bungalows are usually occupied by pensioners.....nothing like a good stereotype.....who would generally have 1 car, I'd imagine they'd prefer a front garden......if you're looking to sell
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bungalows will all be flattened in the future and a proper house built on top of it. land is worth more than the bungalow.
 
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