Need advice on driveway design!!

9 years ago

Currently, we are doing driveway/landscape design. After looking at everything staked out, the door seems very far for guests. Was thinking of possible U shaped driveway to bring closer to front entry but the city might not allow u shaped driveways. I will have to check, but the builder mentioned every entrance gets an address # so a single residential lot can't have two enterances. So I might have to form the U on the driveway which is pictured instead of the road which I would like.

The house setback is 90' from the road. The house is approximately 100' in length. The front lot length is ~225'. The garage which is on the right is a 4 car side load garage and is 26' in width. Any suggestions? Should I leave it like it is?

Comments (3)

dekeoboe
9 years ago
Where you you expect guests to park? I don't understand why the town would have a problem with a U shaped driveway. What the builder is saying about two entrances meaning two addresses does not make sense, addresses are usually based on lots. Now if you have an HOA, they may have a problem with a U shaped driveway.
pprioroh
9 years ago
We have a very similar layout on our current home, somewhat winding walkway to front door about same distance from side entry garage. Our driveway is very long (over 1000' feet, really a lane more than driveway).

A few comments after living here 10 years:

1) everybody we know comes through garage. nobody walks to front door. If the front doorbell rings (different tone) we know it's a salesman or pizza or a complete stranger
2) it's never shoveled in winter - too much hassle, you can come through garage
3) Our parking issue is difficult with guests. turn arounds and cars during parties (we have few) are very difficult. Really wish we had a turn around of some sort.

I definitely would NOT do a "U" with a dead-end in front of your house. that would look terrible (IMHO). OTOH if you really don't want people coming in garage entry, then you probably need to do something different, human behavior being what it is....

I wish we had the room / planned for a circle - cars could turn around and go back out. Again we have a very long lane.

best of luck.
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musicgal
9 years ago
That is very similar to what we had in our old house, and we were always shuffling cars during parties. Long driveways that bottleneck anywhere along their run come with their issues. Mine took me two days to pressure wash completely... but, you really need to get into your driveway.

We did a half circle parking pad area because our lot did not allow for a full circle... your lot is big enough to do something like that at the fork of your sidewalk and drive decreasing to the sidewalk naturally. It would at least encourage single visitors to park in front and come to the front door because they feel they are not blocking the outlet.