Local Knowledge
What the Garages Here Are Like
This is the most distinctive housing stock anywhere we cover, and it changes the job. Because parking was pushed
into courtyards and groups by design, plenty of garages are nowhere near the front of the house. They sit in
blocks and courts, sometimes shared between several homes, reached through a narrow entrance. In a courtyard an
outward-swinging door stops being a preference and becomes a practical problem: there is often nowhere to stand
clear while it opens, and a car parked opposite can stop it opening at all. A roller door stays inside its own
opening, which is the strongest argument for one anywhere in the county.
The later phases of the town brought integral garages inside the house footprint. Those are usually single width
and often short on headroom, because there is a room sitting above them, so the 205mm to 300mm the top box needs
has to be measured rather than assumed. It is the first thing we check on that side of town, and it is covered in
our guide to getting a garage ready for a roller door.
The housing here is young by Essex standards, so the doors coming out are usually 1980s and 1990s up-and-over
doors rather than anything older, and the brickwork around the opening is generally square and in good order,
which makes for a clean installation. Because the whole place was built to a design code, matching the door to the
surrounding brick and pantile matters more than it would on a mixed street, so
a muted finish usually sits better than a bright modern
one. There are up to 23 colours to choose from and anything other than white adds a flat £100 inc VAT.
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