Many factors effect the answer to your question. Design the house to fit the site and that will make the determination. If you have a preconceived house design that you will be plopping on the site, it does not matter.

If you have a preconceived house design that you will be plopping on the site, it does not matter.

This is completely ridiculous advice. If the OP has the option to reverse the plan, with a garage on the west side or east side, why wouldn't it matter just because it's a "preconceived house"?

Given the information provided in the first post, I would certainly prefer the garage to be located on the east side.

Separate garage, or attached? I like a separate garage placed fairly close to the road (less snow to shovel), with a lovely garden to walk through to the house. Makes sense to me to use the garage building to provide privacy as well as shield from wind, sun. But you also need to consider how long will the property across the road be undeveloped, how long until the road is paved, where you want to plant your own buffers of trees and shrubs, etc. Lots of potential there :-)

"This is completely ridiculous advice."

No it is not. No one knows how the massing of the house will effect the garage. If the OP's plan is flipped, chances are the problems will just be looking the other direction. No one knows how the proposed house relates to the site. Chances are the house could relate to the site better. No one even knows which direction the golf balls will be coming.

Beware of facing the garage north. Snow will acccumulate against the door. And snow will not melt on 10’ or more of the driveway closest to the garage. (After a light snow, we are always a bit jealous of our neighbors across the street whose snow magicall vanishes. and residual snow from clearing after a heavier snowfall, we have to be sure to shovel and brush any water away to evaporate before it freezes, while the neighbors’ driveways are nice and dry.)

2.5 acres means you can have the garage on the west with the entrance in the rear facing south. Another option is a large garage structure with a portion creating a side wall for a south patio or deck or pool with entrance at the rear of the long west face. 30x90 garage is an example. Not a separate structure. Drive can come at an angle. No reason to use small sub lot designs with you have space. Design for the space. Minimal front elevation development.

I would not have a garage separate from the house (as mentioned above) in snow country. One of the greatest benefits of a garage is weather protection when going from the garage to the house and vice versa.

@artemis_ma good point.  I assumed the garage placement wouldn't significantly affect the rest of the house. You definitely want minimal house windows facing west.  One option is to have the garage on the west side of the face,  but the doors facing east.  I like to have the option of working in the garage without the sun shining directly into the garage in the afternoon.  Also,  if you do Epoxy floors,  they will discolor when exposed to a lot of direct UV.  

As others have said, garage placement and direction will depend on the overall floor plan.  I would consider everything overall before finalizing the garage.

@artemis_ma good point.  I assumed the garage placement wouldn't significantly affect the rest of the house. You definitely want minimal house windows facing west.  One option is to have the garage on the west side of the face,  but the doors facing east.  I like to have the option of working in the garage without the sun shining directly into the garage in the afternoon.  Also,  if you do Epoxy floors,  they will discolor when exposed to a lot of direct UV.  

As others have said, garage placement and direction will depend on the overall floor plan.  I would consider everything overall before finalizing the garage.

Mark the golf balls would be coming from the SW, but we are pretty far off the course lol... the garage was going to be attached because of snow and weather. We were thinking of doing an L-shaped garage with 2 car size on each side. One side is going to be a shop. We are still working on the house layout, but preliminary positioning we will have the main living areas on south side. Sounds like it is best to get closer to a final house plan and then adjust the garage.

I don't know if lake effect snow is a concern, nor do I know how much wind you may get there. I do know a garage with west facing doors in snow country is....not good. Add in wind and it's really not good.

We do not get lake effect snow in our area. Like this winter so far only two snow events over 4".

I'm jealous. LOL. Feel free to ignore my thoughts then. :)

We are in MN and have our garage on the west side of the house, with the driveway facing north west (15 degrees west, so mostly north). We don't get noticeable snow accumulation up against the garage but the driveway is shaded most of the day so we do get ice, especially these days with freeze-thaw happening. However, this is a pretty small concession to make IMO, as our main living space windows face south and east, we get lovely light in our house all day, and in the winter our heating bills are significantly lower than they otherwise would be due to the passive solar. In the summer, the garage takes the brunt of the hot afternoon sun so our house stays cooler.

But as others have mentioned, this depends entirely on the design of your house. You could have a side entry on the west side, but then people will see your garage as the first thing so that might not be ideal. And if you are planning a shop - well, if you put it on the west side that will get uncomfortably warm in the summer so you might need to condition it, which might negate all the benefits of a west facing garage for you.

@Mark Bischak, Architect

You stated..."If you have a preconceived house design that you will be plopping on the site, it does not matter."

Why does the positioning of the garage "not matter" when using a "preconceived house"?

Simple...because in a preconceived house, the garage location and orientation are..wait for it...preconceived...! :-)

IMO a home is designed for the site and I really dislike front drive garages IMO not important at all for visitors to find the garage . I like allet access garages in the city with a door that allows me to walk to my home from the garage and honestly I don't care about the weather . If you want help here we need at least a pic of the house and also attached or free standing garage . IMO on 2.5 acres there is no way I would do attached but I need info

Typically in middle America the garage is closer to the kitchen via mudroom. The kitchen may be to the side or behind the garage. There may be a Family Room behind the garage. There may be a Master wing or the secondary bedroom wings behind the garage. A 4 car garage with shop insinuates use of not only it, the driveway, or yard around it for things that you may not want to be near the more aesthetic and formal areas (e.g. the entertaining patio). So even though the garage placement is a large part of the site layout, so are the other functions and adjacencies. Take them all together in designing (or selecting) your house for this site.

Simple...because in a preconceived house, the garage location and orientation are..wait for it...preconceived...! :-)

No it isn't. Surely you know this isn't true.

Virtually every "preconceived" plan can be reversed. Which means it is possible to position the garage on either the left or right side of the property...which is the question the OP is asking for input on.

honestly I don't care about the weather . IMO on 2.5 acres there is no way I would do attached...

What part of the country do you live in?

He doesn't live in Ohio or other snow belt areas.

Can't we all just get along? Put the garage in the middle . . . .

That was my point.

So many of the "pros" on here live is some idealistic design world that is void of practical execution. OP states this house is in Ohio, yet Patricia's advice is that she "doesn't care about the weather" and "no way I would do attached."

Instead, she's suggesting the OP trudge through snow/ice/rain/cold when they come & go from the house...with arms filled with groceries, young kids, elderly parents, ect.

But that detached garage sure looks nice on paper!

If anyone's keeping track, we've had 4 "professionals" comment so far, and 3 have provided 'interesting' advice...

Mark- If building a "preconceived house", it "does not matter" where the garage goes.

Virgil- A stock plan does not allow for reversing the orientation of the house/garage.

Patricia- Don't consider the weather where you live when planning the garage.

Oh please, are you going to melt if a raindrop falls on you? Are you going to freeze solid if you're outside for 90 seconds? Some of us love attached garages, some of us love walking outside for at least a bit before being concealed away under roofs. This isn't right/wrong good/bad, it's personal preference. The OP prefers attached, so go with that.

Best advice I saw scrolling through is give some thought to how the sun hits your driveway in winter. Early and strong, to melt snow/ice.

Like a dog with a bone.

Loudermilk, I never said a stock plan doesn't allow reversing. Of course it can be reversed. And when it's reversed the garage location is simply reversed along with the rest of the house.

The garage location on a preconceived plan is...preconceived...regardless of orientation.

Surely you know that...!

I think someone woke up a troll …….

@Virgil Carter Fine Art

Mark said it "didn't matter" whether the garage was on the east side or west side of the house IF the OP was using a stock plan.

I asked why, and you said..." Simple...because in a preconceived house, the garage location and orientation are..wait for it...preconceived...! :-)"

But a stock plan can be reversed to allow the garage to be on either side of the house, and the OP is explicitly asking which slide it should be on.

So your explanation of Mark's response doesn't seem to make sense.

If you care about such things, it certainly would make sense to drive by the house when you come up to it so you can see it and so can your guests. Also, garages are not the most attractive part of the house, so it should not be the first thing you see.

Safety is one benefit of attached. You aren't outside in the dark when you come home. Probably not a big concern here but was for my family - even with lighting.

I deeply dislike attached garages, primarily for one reason - if your overhead door is open, or not completely sealed to wind, and you open the entry door to your home even a gentle breeze will push the air from your garage into your house. So, all the smells of gasoline, oil and dust come inside your home, not to mention carbon monoxide if you like to warm up your car in the winter. I would only build a -not quite - attached garage, utilizing a short breezeway or a second entry door to the home to form an airlock. I grew up in a home where the attached garage overhead door opened to the prevailing wind and the house was polluted several times a day by the garage air.

Also, unless there is some overriding local ordinance or some other limiting factor, on 2.5 acres, you do not have to orient your house to the road. That same house I grew up in, is angled so the main living areas face southeast. That house captures a glorious amount of low winter sun. When I look the overhead satellite map of that area most of the custom homes are angled the same direction. Only the old farm houses and the basic builder homes orient to the street.

So, all the smells of gasoline, oil and dust come inside your home, not to mention carbon monoxide if you like to warm up your car in the winter.

Every house I've ever lived in has had an attached garage. I've always parked my vehicles in the garage.

Not once, in all of those decades, have I ever had gas/oil/carbon monoxide fumes come into the house.

And why would dust only come through a entry door from a garage, but not through the other doors to the house?

Loudermilk

Perhaps your sense of smell is impaired? However, even if is not, your experience does not negate my experience. And to this very day, that is my experience of that house. I would not choose to go to the expense to build a house with an attached garage only to breathe polluted air. There are relatively simple fixes that I suggested earlier.

No gasoline or oil smells from our hybrid.

"Warming up your car in winter before driving it is actually terrible for your engine. According to Popular Mechanics, driving your car right away is the fastest way to warm up your engine, and will actually prolong the life of your engine instead of letting it sit idly before driving."

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/heres-why-you-shouldnt-warm-up-your-car-in-the-winter/

If a driveway faces east, and the predominant wind is from the west, snow blows off of the roof onto the driveway. Six of one, etc.

I hardly notice the fumes from my Model 3. After all, it's not a Bolt.

And to this very day, that is my experience of that house. I would not choose to go to the expense to build a house with an attached garage only to breathe polluted air.

You are clearly doing something wrong if you're breathing polluted air in the house.

Why do you have exposed/unsealed oil and gas stored in the garage?

Why do you let your vehicles idle while sitting in the garage?

If you don't warm up your car in the garage, and just drive away, as recommended by most manufacturers, you won't ever have issues with gas smell being stuck in the house. I haven't had any issue in four houses with attached garages. I would never buy a house without an attached garage. Around here, it's the norm.

This discussion reminds me of a quote from my 2017 Annual Quotes List:

" 16. How did I get to be 73 years old and not realize how "dangerous" an attached garage might be! Horse feathers.”

What about the lawnmower in the garage that still possesses evidence of the neighbor's dog recently making a deposit in your yard? That may walk the fine line between offensive and dangerous.

@rlintx

If you are so traumatized by the presence of these "pollutants", then why not just store the oil/gas/lawn equipment in a shed?

That would be a very simple fix to prevent being "polluted several times a day by the garage air".

Lol. Please. Did you read that the overhead garage door opens to the prevailing wind? If the overhead door, and the house door is open or opened, the air from the garage blows into the house, especially if other windows or doors are open in the house. Even if the passage door is closed, as soon as it is opened, some garage air whooshes inside. It is what it is, even when ordinary precautions are taken.

I really am trying to wrap my head around other peoples garages being an oasis of pure pristine air. The ones I have lived with, in addition to the vehicles, always have lawn care equipment, tools, garden chemicals, some dust and dirt, dry leaves, dead insects, paint cans, golf carts and even mice from time to time. And it all combines to smell like a garage, which is not a smell I want in my house, not even a little bit.

I am certain garages aren't pure pristine air - but I have a good solid door built to fire code specs between the interior of the house and my garage. I am not worried about my garage. I stress more about the potential of slipping and falling now that I am older on ice - of which we've had a LOT this winter - between a house and a supposedly better detached garage, when I want to go out.

In the summer I do tend to park my car outside the garage and enter my house, groceries and all, through the front door.

Even if the passage door is closed, as soon as it is opened, some garage air whooshes inside.

The ones I have lived with always have lawn care equipment, tools, garden chemicals, some dust and dirt, dry leaves, dead insects, paint cans, golf carts and even mice from time to time.

This still doesn't explain why you have opened/unsealed containers of gas, oil, chemicals in your garage. If these things are properly stored, there should be no odor from them.

And if you are so repulsed by these "pollutants", why don't you just put them in a storage shed? Wouldn't this eliminate 99% of your complaints?

And it all combines to smell like a garage, which is not a smell I want in my house, not even a little bit.

I can confidently say that the smell I encounter when walking into the garage is absolutely no different than the smell I encounter when walking out my front or back doors.

There is more dust and dirt, dry leaves, dead insects and mice outside my front/back doors as there is in my garage?

Oh, Dearest Loudermilk, Traumatized? Repulsed? Interesting that you equate those words to “I deeply dislike” and “I would only build”, that is quite an embellishment.

All I will say here really, is that I am very thankful that the yard outside that house’s front door, usually smells like grass or leaves, with a bit of pine, sometimes like damp earth, and nothing at all like the garage. I am also thankful that my sense of smell can distinguish between the two.

When I lived in a rural agricultural area in northern Michigan, one of the neighboring farmers decided to fertilize their fields with manure from their barn. Wanting to make as few trips as possible from the barn to the fields, they (perhaps overly) maximized their loads in the manure spreaders and traveled along the county roads; the same ones my wife and I travel upon. Well, some of the manure "jumped ship" on their way to the fields and landed on the county roads and found its way onto the tires of my wife's Suburban. After she parked the car in our attached garage, I found myself longing for the aroma of dust and dirt, dry leaves, dead insects and mice; as opposed to the dangerous whiffs digested grasses.

usually smells like grass or leaves, with a bit of pine, sometimes like damp earth, and nothing at all like the garage.

In your previous post, you complain about your polluted garage smelling of dust, dirt, leaves, insects, among other things. Yet now you're waxing poetic about the wonderful smell of "leaves" and "damp earth"?

You never answered the obvious question. Instead of dealing with the horrors of your house being"polluted several times a day by the garage air" and having an "attached garage only to breathe polluted air." ...why didn't you properly store/seal the gas/oil/chemical containers and/or store them in a shed?

I think the garage method has been beat to death, and the OP has a preference anyway so it doesn't matter about other's personal choices. Loudermilk, I thought you were Verbo at first, but he never really interacts with other commenters. Just so you know, there are some threads about whether the toilet should be in it's own closet, and others about whether you should walk through a bathroom to get to a closet. Those threads should give you some new fodder.

Yes, I love reading Mark's repeated take on the horrors of having a toilet separated from the rest of the bathroom with a door.

And cpartist's claim that clothes become soggy petri dishes if a closet is directly attached to a bathroom.

Now we can add attached garages filling houses with polluted air.

Does ARG still actively poster on this forum? He is one of the few voices of reason amongst the ridiculousness posted by many of the "pros" and old-timers.

booty bums, is that you?