Circular Driveway

by Arin
(Providence, RI, USA)

Hello we are building a house and would like a circular or a tear drop driveway.

Thinking of having a 10' or 12' driveway.

Red arrow would be the people driving into the property.

Wondering if you can help us with the dimensions, we have a lot of space in the front and at present time limited on by funds as well.

We have a 3 car garage. I was reading the dimensions and it states 50'diameter. From the center to the starting of the road would be 15' so that would be the inner circle and the outer circle would be 25' and 27' if the road size is 12'.

As you can see there is some grade.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Hi! It appears in your situation the only benefit to the circle is that you will now have one entrance at the road instead of two. You need to blend the circle into the front steps and garage like your U-shaped driveway is doing now. You don't want a wide opening at the road like you are showing on your sketch. The largest opening needed on a residential driveway at the road is 25' narrowing to a 12-15' driveway. The widest point needs to be by the front door so two cars can pass. This keeps you from having a bottle neck when people are parked in the driveway. Remember to give yourself room to move by the garage. A comfortable width for the sides of the driveway is 12. It appears from your sketch that the two existing legs of the U-shaped driveway would also fit with the circle.

I hope this information helps! Thanks for contacting me.

Nancy