Garage not from house building company - Appearance

Hello forum,

we are currently in the process of or about to commission a construction company. Single-family house, timber frame construction with garage. Nothing wild.

Now our preferred company for the house construction is by far the most expensive when it comes to the garage. I personally don’t like that. Especially since they don’t budge at all on the price.

The plan would therefore be to commission without the garage and possibly get the garage as a prefabricated garage. I am inclined towards Fa. Hoffmann Fertiggaragen. I have already obtained an offer there. It would fit.

Now to my question. I am somewhat concerned that the garage will end up looking different from the house. Meaning in terms of color and the surface structure of the plaster. Also, with the connection to the house I have seen many adventurous things.

When I walk through our new development area, you can immediately see who had their garage built as a package with the house from the same company, and who, colloquially speaking, just "added it on." Sometimes it’s such a dreadful sight how it is connected to the house and how obviously different and inappropriate the exterior facade looks, that I would like to ask about your experiences with such actions.

Is it possible to visually connect such a garage (e.g. from Hoffmann) properly to the house, or is that hopeless? And will it always look patchy and you only have the choice to have it done from one source if it should look seamless?

You can simply ask your construction company in advance what exactly they want to use for plaster & paint, and then order the garage accordingly. Moderately experienced painters can manage without any problems to make the plaster texture and paint look identical. We did this between the basement + garage and the prefabricated house ground floor/upper floor, in my opinion without it being visible (except for the technically necessary drip edge).

What becomes noticeably more complicated, however, is the installation. Timber frame construction is usually delivered as wall modules, and I cannot imagine that they would agree to having less than 2 meters of clearance space around the installation site. In other words: the garage will probably have to be installed later, and it is very likely that it cannot be done without a joint (both for assembly reasons and with regard to expansion/movement joint between the building structures). You can hide this more or less elegantly, but it is always visible.

Is the placement from current, meaning the garage would be placed in the building line, directly attached to the house, i.e. also under the roof overhang? Then you must not only ...

Garage probably has to be installed later,

... take that into account, but for an on-site assembled garage you also have hardly any alternative, and from this technical aspect it is also the best choice, as in the construction system of Bimsfertigbau Hoffmann.

Can you visually connect such a garage (e.g. from Hoffmann) properly to the house, or is it hopeless? And it will always look patchy and you only have the choice to have it done from one source if it is to look seamless?

I live close enough to their location, where they have a large market share, to know countless of their products (and to recommend them, since I know how long they stay fresh).

Wait with building the garage until the house is finished and everything can be measured in. That way you will get the best result.

Yes, okay, thanks first of all for the statements.

The layout is a bit different. The garage was made flush with the house on the garden side.

As I said, whether the garage comes later doesn’t bother me. It just shouldn’t look like a foreign body on the house. When I see that, it almost gives me eye strain. Yes, the joint and also the thick strips on the roof of the garage towards the house wall have stood out to me as negative so far. Moreover, on many houses the plaster and the color are different. So the white of the house isn’t matched. If it has to look like that in the end, it wouldn’t be so cool.

The Hoffmann garage itself is certainly a good solution. Compared to the construction company, about ~40% cheaper and technically apparently very usable.

It was only meant as an example regarding color/plaster matching.

In our case, the garage was built at the same time as the basement using precast concrete elements, so it was possible to work flush to the “mm.” However, it is also thermally separated (insulation) up to the bottom edge of the house’s floor slab, so in that respect, it is not unlike a prefabricated garage. Between two building structures made of different materials and with different foundations, you will always need a joint – you can plaster over it, but a crack is long-term inevitable.

You could certainly build your garage without a parapet flashing, but I would never do that – especially not if it’s greened, as in our case, because you should connect and then protect the sealing membrane somewhere.

You can only achieve a completely seamless result if the garage is within the thermal envelope of the house and therefore built with the same structure and on the same floor slab. And even then, you still have a garage roof (see the topic of parapet/sealing above).

The Hoffmann garage itself is certainly a good solution. Compared to construction companies, about 40% more cost-effective and technically apparently very suitable.

I know from my own observation that they are still as good as new after fifty years. Hoffmann is affordable, but not cheap. In this respect, an offer from your local provider being so much more expensive is probably also a defensive offer.

Now our preferred company for the house construction is by far the most expensive when it comes to the garage. I personally don't like that. Especially since they don't budge on the price at all.

"The profit is made on the drinks."

We are currently in the process of, or shortly before, commissioning a construction company. Single-family house, timber frame construction with garage. Nothing wild.

Even from the whole construction logistics perspective, it is unattractive for the "prefab" house builder to mediate a garage builder. Do I understand correctly that you originally searched for the lowest total price for house and garage and now separate because the bundle doesn't convince you anywhere for price reasons? – You know my consulting services?

You could certainly build your garage without an attic flashing, but I would never do that – especially not if greened, as with us, because you should connect and then protect the sealing membrane somewhere.

The Hoffmann garages do not have metal attic flashings like a Chiara-Ohoven lip, but rather a plastered attic with an aluminum drip edge. Just such that it looks discreetly good next to any "architect house" and remains technically and visually neat and low-maintenance forever.