Hanley

Has anyone converted their internal garage into a room??

If so, how much did it cost and was it worth it??

We would like to use the majority of space as an office but we'd like to put up a wall and use the rear of the garage as an extenion to the kitchen, a sort of utility room.

The floor level would need to be raised to bring it in line with the kitchen and we have a boiler, fuse box etc in the garage, how do they get round these, do they box them in??

We're in the north-west so if anyone can recommend a reputable company or builder to give us a quote then let me know.

Also if anyone has any pics of their conversion I'd love to see them.

Due to the January arrival of the 2nd little hanley I have been given an eviction notice from the spare bedroom upstairs

The only option was to move to a 4 bed house or convert the garage, I think the latter option is the most sensible.

Cheers

Hanley

OllyK

First thing to do is find a local architect who can advise on any planning permission / re classification of use and building regs.

The actual building work should be pretty straight forward, you could move the power externally to a box, but having looked to do something similar this may not be a cheap option (close on £2K in my case to move the meter from the inside to outside of the same wall - gas meter was only £500)

You'd need to brick up the garage door and no doubt have a window there, shouldn't be too pricey if you go with a block inner wall, but again, the facing bricks are what will cost, both in purchase and to get laid (compared to block)

Having just had a large double garage built from scratch, with a workshop on the back, power and water supplied from the house over 50m away, I'd say you'd get plenty of change out of £10K.

The Snug Rhino

doing just this right now!


cost of getting drawings done is about 300-500, then local authority fees on top which is building regs as a minimum and possibley planning permision as well....i have budgeted £1k for drawings and authority costs.

i then had a few quotes from garage conversion companies...some of these are glorified double glazing firms and some are "proper" builders that do nothing but gargaes.....all were expensive. I have no budget but assumed it would cost £6-8k........cheapest quote was £14k!!!!
The job is very simple, single garage conversion. It used to be a double length but that was long ago altered to make the rear half a utility room with a stud wall half way down, i need that stud wall moving 2 ft into the garage to make the utility a little bigger and a door puting in it....not a bg deal.

So i am going to get a builder to do the building parts (brick up and window the front, raise the floor) then i will do lots of DIY bring in pros as i need them...........i hope to get the job done for £7k-8k (inc planning/drawings)

to answer a couple of your other Q's......i have a fuse box and gas meter. The options on these have ranged from boxing them in with cupboards to relocating them.....as the room will be my home office and full of cupbaords i'll just box them in (fuse box will be switched to a new style)

Is your garage long? if its standard size trying to get a room + a utility may be a squezze? once insulation is on the walls it becomes a bit narrow....ok if its long as well but you should measure up to see first.

Aside from that its a great idea....we have a 4 bed with 3 receptions but no study.....with 4 kids all bedrooms are taken so i work out of what used to be the kids play room but that means the kids are free to screw up the rest of the house.....by moving to the garage i will have a sound proof room to work from and the kids get a play room back and their **** is out of the living room because no one under 17 will be allowed in there

hectic

Did this about 6 years ago.. planning wasnt a worry, checked it out, seems as long as we were'nt putting a bay window in, and stayed at the existing line of the building ( window ledge allowed) we were fine. Got a few quotes and checked work of the guys i wanted to see, decided on one.got him and his team to remove old door, brick up and install double glazed window cut new door opening to garage from inside house as my garage was 'L' shaped so wanted to utilise the little part, had it bricked/plastered to use as a cubby-hole.. they did the brickwork, window, and first-fix on the electrics, I layed the sub-floor, and did most of the joinery work, they then did second fix on electrics, connecting to a secondary spur from the main fusebox , mine came in at around 4k all in , @2k to the builders, and I kept costings down by doing a fair bit of the more mundane stuff (flooring etc) myself

OllyK

I got the whole garage (5m x 5m) with a workshop on the back (3m x 3m) built for £16K, that's from dirt to completion including electrics, water, drainage and alarm.

hail-hail

14k seems mental mate next door to me paid about 5k all in, took about two weeks, and a cracking job, can post some picks after the weekend if you like.

David Lock

I did this but single garage was in an old brick structure not attached to house. It had a concrete floor and a window overlooking garden which helped. Power but no central heating. I was concerned re planning so I kept garage doors as they were and just put in false wall behind. Got all the walls tidied with plaster and plasterboard and had a local guy build a superb fixed worktop/desk at one end just from ply but properly done. Plenty more power points and phone/fax line etc. Oil heater on timer and mobile air con unit. Some decent furniture and a sound system and it was the best working environment I have ever had.
I was concerned when I sold that I was selling 4-bed house without a garage but I was able to say that it could easily be re-converted back into garage if required. AFAIK the new owners still uses it as an office so it didn't harm house sale but you need to think about this.
Cost probably around £2000 plus furniture. dl

The Snug Rhino

yep...£14k was a shock!

as for planning, if its a very old house you may not need it but newer places may have a clause in the deeds that you cant drop the garage without permision from the council (to keep cars of the road).....the council will then tell you if you just need a cheap and easy certificate of approval thing or proper planning (i need full planning, despite the house being 36 years old and having a drive that can park 4 cars (+ 2 more if the park on the front lawn!)

obv building regs are a must if you want to be able to sell in the future! a simple DIY job you can rip down is ok (i sold my last house like that....i said either buy it with no regs or i'll rip the kids playroom out and it will be a garage again) but once you brick up the front and convert it proper its never going back so needs regs.

hail-hail

good point,the conversion I was talking about was on a house < 1 year old, so this probably makes a big difference

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

We are getting this done soon to, unless you have a weekend car, i.e. old or not weather protected its not worth having a garage, my car (Saab) will fit in it but not if I want to open the doors !

Cars were smaller in the 1930's, currently sectioned into a utility/loo and a small room for bikes, tools and Stella so will convert into a utility and a nice bathroom, budgeting on 10 grand.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Didn't cost a penny

The builders (George Wimpey) royalled screwed up our house build - 16 page snag list anyone? (not mention the flood, the illegal kitchen hood, the exploding shower switches, leaking bogs, 2" 'settlement gap on the stairs, split banister due to aforementioned gap, wall finishing that looked more like artex, missing door stays.....) So the site manager asked what they could do to put things right. they wouldn't accept giving us a new home, so we settled for a garage conversion

Someone mentioned building regs at one point but I forgot about that.. until we put the house up for sale and the buyers solicitors were so crap they didn't pick up on it... plus we had it done JUST before the more strigent rules came in place.

Guess we got lucky on that one

Brendan Hughes

You personally maybe, but I see this and remember the threads about people terrified to leave a nice car on the drive as they get burglars at night looking for car keys... or those who've just had the car stolen in that way and sympathetic people pointing out the irony of having a garage and only ever keeping the old sofa and the lawnmower in it.


Tiggs, you feeling OK? That's the second very constructive and informative post in a week from you. I'm concerned...

The Snug Rhino

I like to balance constructive and informative with those that act to draw the retards out for fishing

Once my new office is built i shall be able to retard hunt in luxury

The Snug Rhino

This is a problem particular to jap cars where the house is normaly a semi or terrace with no space on the drive after the old fridge and washing machine has been dumped there. Thus the car is right by the road and in full view of chav pedestrians.

People with "proper" nice cars have them behind, hedges, gates and long drives not to mention a better class of pedestrian who may have prying eyes

Brendan Hughes

at both...

lordretsudo

I wouldn't dream of sacrificing my garage (easy for me to say with no kids!) - it's for the car, and nothing else! In fact, one of the main reasons we moved house was to get a house with a double garage, so that both cars can be garaged. I don't spend ages cleaning and polishing them just for them to stand out all night and get filthy when the dew burns off in the morning! We even got electric doors fitted so that you don't have to get in and out in the rain/cold to open/close them

The people we bought the house from had never used the garages for either of their cars, and sure enough the main thing inside was an ancient tatty old sofa, despite there being a large, empty shed in the back garden...

Seriously though, I think if you have a nice car then garaging it is a must. How many people have had a Scooby nicked from their (locked, alarmed) garage I wonder, as opposed to from their drive, or parked on the road outside...?

The Snug Rhino

get a life!

all my cars have sat on the drive, Scooc, BMW, TVR, etc........if i bought a car that had to be kept away from rain/the dark i would regard that as a crap car!

if someone nicks it, so be it.

sti-04!!

Thats why we pay insurance

lordretsudo

I was half-joking, but I still would rather have the car in the garage than not, especially in the winter. I guess it's down to personal preference...

One other point is that there's nothing uglier than a road full of cars parked everywhere (if you don't believe me, come and have a look at a typical street in Ingleby Barwick). This has become more and more common now that most families have more than one car, but if everyone could at least put one away it would make a big difference.

The Snug Rhino

agree, but i live in a small close where every house (theres only 8) has ample drive way space for 3/4 + cars so no issue there.

hectic

get real........

lordretsudo

Thanks for that incisive critique