Snout house
Encyclopedia
A snout house is a house
with a protruding garage
that takes up most of the street frontage, squeezing out front yards and making it hard to find the front door. This layout is worked into many styles of houses, including single family houses, duplex
es and other multifamily structures.
and Canada
to make a dwelling affordable for a family of modest income by combining a narrow lot (sometimes as small as 35 feet (10.6 metres) in width) with a minimum 5 feet setback from each side line - which results in a 25 foot (7.5 metre) wide house. When a two car garage is added- typically of up to 20 feet (6 metres) or better in width, with no back of lot access, the garage dominates the frontage.
This design can be contrasted with older developments in which a single detached garage is placed at the back corner of the lot, typically added on after the original construction, and which is built with zero lot line clearance and is accessible since the house is not centered on the lot, but rather offset to one side. Such layouts do not meet modern building codes, however.
One means to address this is to place an attached single car garage, set back from the house frontage, on one side, perhaps with zero lot line clearance which requires more fire resistant construction and special development permitting. Where investment is made in a Planned Unit Development
("PUD"), the storage of vehicles for several residences can be grouped and placed out of the way, although this tends to not be favored by buyers owing to the inconvenience and reduced security of the arrangement.
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
with a protruding garage
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
that takes up most of the street frontage, squeezing out front yards and making it hard to find the front door. This layout is worked into many styles of houses, including single family houses, duplex
Duplex
Duplex commonly means double or twofold.It may also refer to:* Duplex , a two-unit apartment building or condominium* Duplex, a common electrical receptacle with two NEMA type 5 plugs* Duplex locomotive, a type of steam locomotive...
es and other multifamily structures.
Architectural features
Such design is typically employed in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to make a dwelling affordable for a family of modest income by combining a narrow lot (sometimes as small as 35 feet (10.6 metres) in width) with a minimum 5 feet setback from each side line - which results in a 25 foot (7.5 metre) wide house. When a two car garage is added- typically of up to 20 feet (6 metres) or better in width, with no back of lot access, the garage dominates the frontage.
This design can be contrasted with older developments in which a single detached garage is placed at the back corner of the lot, typically added on after the original construction, and which is built with zero lot line clearance and is accessible since the house is not centered on the lot, but rather offset to one side. Such layouts do not meet modern building codes, however.
One means to address this is to place an attached single car garage, set back from the house frontage, on one side, perhaps with zero lot line clearance which requires more fire resistant construction and special development permitting. Where investment is made in a Planned Unit Development
Planned Unit Development
A planned unit development , is both a type of building development as well as a regulatory process. A PUD is a designed grouping of varied and compatible land uses, such as housing, recreation, commercial centers, and industrial parks, all within one contained development or...
("PUD"), the storage of vehicles for several residences can be grouped and placed out of the way, although this tends to not be favored by buyers owing to the inconvenience and reduced security of the arrangement.
External links
- definition from The Boston Globe
- Neighborhoods Don't Like the Snout House (archived version)