Using a garage as a caravan awning.

[epsilonGreedy]

It has been suggested to me that I should get onsite asap and live in a large touring caravan. Then when winter sets I should in drive the caravan into a completed garage (minus door) as the garage will act like a large awning and also take the sting out of the weather.

 

Has anyone done this? It feels unconventional but I cannot find fault with the plan. 

[newhome]

20 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

It has been suggested to me that I should get onsite asap and live in a large touring caravan. Then when winter sets I should in drive the caravan into a completed garage (minus door) as the garage will act like a large awning and also take the sting out of the weather.

 

Has anyone done this? It feels unconventional but I cannot find fault with the plan. 

 

My caravan wouldn’t have fitted in the garage. Too tall. 

 

[Temp]

The doors on most caravans I've seen are on the sides rather than the ends :-)

[Russell griffiths]

Have a look at the you tube series

pure living for life. 

They are living in an rv whilst building a house, they have built an awning on the side that has a wood burner inside, this heats the awning and dries their work clothes and keeps the rv toasty. 

 

if I had to live on site this is what I would do. 

 

Ps. Ignore how they are building their house, as it’s one cock up after another. 

[nod]

8 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

It has been suggested to me that I should get onsite asap and live in a large touring caravan. Then when winter sets I should in drive the caravan into a completed garage (minus door) as the garage will act like a large awning and also take the sting out of the weather.

 

Has anyone done this? It feels unconventional but I cannot find fault with the plan. 

I’ve a friend who has done the same 

Only they have resisted there’s into an old Dutch barn

[ProDave]

We have just spend the coldest winter for many years in the Highlands in a static caravan.  The best thing we did was put a wood burning stove in it, and it hardly went out for 4 months. Keeping up with a wood supply for it was challenging and we burned coal overnight.  Our heating bill for the small amount of electric heating we used, mainly in the bedrooms, was surprisingly small.

 

We only had one pipe freeze and that was due to the mice stripping a section of pipe insulation on a little used leg of pipe. Thawed with a hairdryer and no damage done.

[lizzie]

My nephew had caravan in an old barn. Would have to have been a very large garage to accomodate it.......too tall, too wide etc. It was a large caravan though.

[newhome]

As I said further up most caravans won’t fit in a normal sized garage so unless yours is extra tall you will have an issue. This was our caravan during a pretty snowy winter. My hubby lived in the caravan for the duration of the build but I had a rental apartment and only used the caravan at weekends. We had the caravan hooked up to the mains that meant we had blown air heating so it wasn’t too awful inside the caravan in truth. We also used the gas heater as that tended to put out more heat than the electric blown heating. On the odd occasion we used a fan heater too but never left unattended. There was an electric blanket on the bed that worked pretty well and all in all it was survivable. 

 

Damp coats were hung in the shower cubicle overnight to help them dry off and we had a washer / dryer in one of the awnings (we had awnings both sides). 

 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

2 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

 

I timely dose of reality, I will show that photo to Swmbo and try to read her face.

[Bitpipe]

We used a dehumidifier to keep our caravan dry and warm in winter - found that the gas fire created too much water vapour which settled on the floor at night and made it damp and cold in the mornings.

 

However keeping warm was never a challenge, it got super hot in the summer and cooling it was much more difficult.

[epsilonGreedy]

8 hours ago, Temp said:

The doors on most caravans I've seen are on the sides rather than the ends ?

 

Fair point and I need to maintain an egress route in the event of a fire. The internal floor plan of the garage is 6.8 x 5.4, I would leave the lounge end poking out a bit to let in natural light.

[joe90]

I lived in my static van on and off over two years and used Gas and electric heaters, yes it got cold quickly if they were turned off but as it’s so small I was impressed how little fuel it used. We ended up renting a parkhome nearby for six months because my wife got a job locally and as a professional she could not turn out like me in the morning (builder ?) The parkhome Was  bigger but cost us a fortune in Gas to heat (winter months) and frankly we were glad to get in our “almostl finished house and cook in the caravan rather than waste money renting. I think prodaves idea of a wood stove would have been a good idea.

[Ferdinand]

Perhaps you could take the opportunity to redesign your garage to be taller?

 

Very useful in future for people with transits with lladders on top.

 

Go for 3-3.5m height?

 

F

[newhome]

44 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

I timely dose of reality, I will show that photo to Swmbo and try to read her face.

 

It wasn’t like that all the time of course but you can see why we moved into the house as soon as the kitchen / family room and the downstairs shower room were complete. I can’t say that I got the full caravan experience as I was only there at weekends. My hubby used to drive me back to the rental appartment an hour away on a Sunday night, we’d have a meal and he would use the shower that was luxury compared to the small shower in the caravan with only a limited amount of hot water. I could not have coped with trying to dress for the office and live in the tourer for an extended time in truth. 

[epsilonGreedy]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

Perhaps you could take the opportunity to redesign your garage to be taller?

 

Very useful in future for people with transits with lladders on top.

 

Go for 3-3.5m height?

 

 

A vital point, a bit of Googling indicates a typical caravan height of 2.65m. Apparently in a marginal case a caravan can be wheeled into a garage on metal hubs and I can squeeze more out of the height by delaying laying the final concrete floor (if indeed the build control inspector is ok with a non suspended slab). 

[Ferdinand]

13 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

A vital point, a bit of Googling indicates a typical caravan height of 2.65m. Apparently in a marginal case a caravan can be wheeled into a garage on metal hubs and I can squeeze more out of the height by delaying laying the final concrete floor (if indeed the build control inspector is ok with a non suspended slab). 

 

If planning for the garage to be caravan and camper capable, then remember that winebagos tend to be up to about 11ft, and caravans are getting taller.

 

Personally I like the idea of speccing at least one garage to be transit + ladder suitable, or even high top transit.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Ferdinand

[epsilonGreedy]

8 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Personally I like the idea of spending at least one garage to be transit + ladder suitable, or even high top transit.

 

 

So do I if it is possible to conform  with planning condition ridge heights.

[Russell griffiths]

Why put a cramped caravan inside ?

why not just make the garage to a better spec and live in that with a temporary timber extension where the garage door would be

when finished it could be used as a home office gym or whatever if you up the spec. 

[lizzie]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

Why put a cramped caravan inside ?

why not just make the garage to a better spec and live in that with a temporary timber extension where the garage door would be

when finished it could be used as a home office gym or whatever if you up the spec. 

Planning?

[newhome]

1 minute ago, lizzie said:

Planning?

 

Plus the effort of making the garage into living accommodation of a decent standard to start with. I would take the 'house on wheels' option over living in a garage every time. Our caravan was actually quite comfortable inside, it just wasn't very big for long term accommodation even though it was a twin axle modern caravan. The limitation of the shower was the biggest downside in truth but other than that we had a fridge, freezer, microwave, oven, hob, heating, shower, hot water, fixed bed with sprung mattress so it was bearable and wasn't forever anyway. Hubby lived in it for 9 months and then we moved in. 

 

[joe90]

I built my garage under permitted development and got a door height of 2.5m  (by having a overhang of 800mm on the roof to stop rain driving in when the door is open) and having a roller shutter inside of the walls. Out of interest I measured my static and it’s 2.6m (so I might get it in if I remove the wheels, run it on the hubs). P.S. it’s for sale cheap ?.