Bloke at Figtree had me price a double garage. Standard enough. Then somewhere in the middle of measuring up he mentioned the boat, and that the boat lives at his brother-in-law's place at the moment, and that the whole point of this exercise was really to get the boat home.
The garage he'd sketched wouldn't have taken the boat with the trailer on it. Would have been about six hundred short. So we ended up building a carport instead, longer than the garage would have been, cheaper by a decent margin, and the boat came home. He still parks the good car in the drive because he never actually minded parking in the drive. He just wanted somewhere for the boat.
That job is why I now ask people what they're actually trying to put under there before we talk about which structure. Half the time the answer settles it.
What's the difference between a carport and a garage?
A carport is a roof on posts, open on at least two sides, with nothing on it you can lock. A garage is an enclosed building: walls the whole way round, a door, and a slab under it.
The rest follows from that. Open means air moves through and the structure dries out, and it also means nothing under there is secured. Enclosed means you can lock it and hang things off the walls, and it means council treats the thing as a building rather than a shade structure, which changes the approval path before you've priced a single post.
Both keep the rain off a car equally well. Only one of them keeps anything else.
What that difference costs
A garage is a fair bit more of everything, and the price says so.
Around here a built carport typically lands somewhere from $3,000 to $30,000 depending on span, materials and whether you need a slab, and I've broken that down properly in the carport cost guide. A single garage starts around $25,000 to $35,000 and a double built to match the house is commonly $40,000 to $70,000, more if the block falls away and you need retaining or a lot of fill. That's a serious gap. It's roughly the difference between covering the car and adding a room to the house, because that's essentially what a garage is.
Where a carport wins
Cost, obviously. Same footprint for a third of the money most of the time.
Approval is the other big one, and people underestimate how much easier this makes life. A modest carport often falls into exempt development, meaning no application at all, provided you stay inside the height, area and boundary setbacks and don't stick it out in front of the building line. Garages almost always need approval, either a complying development certificate or a full application through Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama or Shoalhaven. The rules for both live on the NSW Planning Portal, and I've walked through how the exempt-development thresholds work in practice in the pergola and patio approval piece since carports sit under the same part of the policy.
Ventilation matters more than people think down here too. An open carport dries out. A closed garage on a humid Illawarra summer, especially one built into a bank, holds moisture, and if it's not detailed right you get mould on whatever's stored against the back wall. Every second garage I've been in around the escarpment has a damp corner.
And a carport is quicker. Days, usually, versus weeks.
Can you build a carport in front of the house in NSW?
Generally not without approval. To go up as exempt development in NSW a carport has to sit behind the front building line, so anything parked out the front of the house needs either a complying development certificate or a full application through your council.
Exempt status also depends on staying inside the height, floor area and boundary setbacks, and on the structure being genuinely open on the required number of sides. A garage never qualifies, which is a large part of why the two structures cost such different money to get approved.
The thresholds sit on the NSW Planning Portal and they do change, so check rather than take my word for it. Worth knowing too that heritage listing, bushfire mapping or a flood-affected block can knock exempt status out even when the dimensions all fit, which catches people out around the older parts of Wollongong and along the Shoalhaven. If yours is going anywhere near the front boundary, ring the council before you order anything.
Where a garage earns its money
Security, first. A carport keeps the weather off and that's all it does. If you've got tools, a decent bike, anything worth taking, a lockable garage is the honest answer and I'll tell you that rather than sell you the cheaper thing.
Storage, second, and this is the one that ambushes people. Nobody builds a garage for the car. They build it for the car and end up with the mower, the surfboards, four bikes, the Christmas tree, and eventually a fridge. Walls are hooks and shelves. Posts aren't. If your garden shed is already overflowing, a carport won't fix that problem and you'll be back in two years.
Resale, third, and I'd put it last. A garage does show up in what the house is worth, particularly a double with internal access. But you'll rarely get all of what you spent back, so build it because you want it, not as an investment.
The question that actually decides it
Forget cost for a second. What goes under it?
If the answer is one or two cars that you drive most days, a carport is almost always the better buy. You're paying for shade and rain cover, which is what you actually use.
If the answer includes anything you'd be filthy about losing, or you're already storing things in the side passage under a tarp, build the garage. You'll use the walls more than the roof.
If the answer is a boat, a caravan or a tradie's trailer, measure the thing first. Length and height, with the trailer, with the aerial up, with the roof box on. Then add half a metre. More carports and garages are built the wrong size than are built badly.
What we build either way
Both are structural work and both want doing properly. Footings sized for the span and the soil, bracing that actually resists wind uplift, coated or stainless fixings anywhere near the coast because ordinary galv streaks rust down a post within a couple of years at Woonona. If it ties into the existing roof, the flashing has to be right or you'll get water down the wall and blame the roof.
Anything over $5,000 all up needs a licensed builder and a written contract under the NSW licensing rules. Both usually clear it. Ask to see the licence number, and ask whether the quote includes the slab, because that's the line that gets left off more than any other.
There's a middle option people forget, too: a carport now, built with footings and a slab sized so it can be walled in later. Costs a bit more up front than a plain carport, a lot less than a garage today, and if the storage problem gets worse you're not starting again. Not right for every block, but worth asking about.
Either way, that's the sheds and carports side of what we do, from Helensburgh through to Nowra. Ring Dave on 0414 007 351 or send through what you're trying to fit under it and I'll come and measure the block, and the boat.
Want a hand with this at your place? Get a free quote or call 0414 007 351.
