Integral Garage v Extra Room

grant1wish · 5 January 2005 at 3:58PM

Hi,

We recently moved into a 3 bed detached house which is 3 yrs old. Many people that visit suggest turning the small garage into a large dining room, and then making the dining/living room a very large living room?

Problem is not sure how much it would cost, and whether it would be a good investment. We are not looking to move in the next 5 years or so, but how important is a garage when selling a house.

Hope you guys can help with some useful advice!

G1W

John_M_Business · 5 January 2005 at 4:42PM

If you still have a drive and enough space to park one (and preferably two) cars, and you're in an area where parking isn't too problematic (or expensive) then I would consider it.

Otherwise, probably not.

grant1wish · 5 January 2005 at 5:10PM

Thanks for the advice.

We do have a driveway for two cars next to each other, and all the houses around us are similar, so there are no cars parked on the road (excluding visitors). The garage is too small for our C-max but you could get a fiesta or similar in.

Rafter · 5 January 2005 at 5:15PM

Adding an extra 'reception' room is unlikely to have a big impact on house value in my opinion.

Adding bedrooms or bathrooms maybe.

If it is relatively new house, presumably the garden is quite small too? So not much room for a shed to store the stuff that is in the garage?

Cost is going to be £5k+ I guess minimum by the time you have put in floor, window, insulation, plastering etc.

Entertaining at home is becoming less and less of a priority for people, so the additional value of a dining room is diminishing. This is why a lot of housebuilders don't put one in as standard but put in larger dining/lounge areas instead.

Unless you are going to get £1k plus benefit a year from the aditional room personally I wouldn't rely on improvement in house value to pay for it.

Just my view though!

R.

YorkshireBoy · 5 January 2005 at 6:04PM

We did exactly what you're thinking about 4 years ago - best thing we ever did.

We have a 3 bed detached with a side garage (18' x 10') with pitched roof. I built a wall to partition off, leaving a 5' garage with access via the original up and over door. We then knocked through from the dining room into what is now our eldest sons bedroom, and fitted a door/frame.

Without going into all the detail (PM me if you want more specific info) the whole project cost just over 2,000 pounds...

650 - building and plastering (used a professional)
550 - bedroom furniture (MFI)
200 - bed
420 - shed in garden (to take all garage essentials)
41 - central heating mods
120 - carpet
100 - miscellaneous (paint, door/frame, etc)
117 - building notice (local council)

The project was designed so that over a long weekend we could restore it back to its original form, should any prospective future buyers prefer a garage.

Incidently, we cannot call it bedroom 4 - we have to call it a study or 3rd reception room as its on the ground floor (ref Council/estate agents).

As to increase in property value? We didn't do it for that reason. Daughter has own room, 2 sons aged (then) 15 & 9 were sharing a large 2nd bedroom. Our main reason was to give our eldest his own room for GCSE study in his last year at high school (and as it turned out 2 years at A-level college.

What we now have are 3 options if/when selling...

1/ It's a 4 bed house
2/ It's a 3 bed house and will suit someone working from home due to the very large office/study (and you can park your company car on the drive)
3/ You want a garage? Sure, give me 2 weekends and 200 pounds and I'll convert it back.

As I say, the best thing we ever did here.

Hope this helps

YB

alanobrien · 5 January 2005 at 10:47PM

Yes its worth doing but call it a study or a kids playroom

These do sell houses and add value, certainly more so than a garage.

John_M_Business · 6 January 2005 at 11:52AM

Or even, an 'annexe'... making it a versatile area that also has a sofabed in it for guests. It could either be somewhere you can lock the kids away in to play, or a retreat for the tired-out adult.

It seems to me, given that the garage is too small anyway (if it can't fit a C-max then you have to question the original developer/architect's thinking on this one), you could do better with it... and have enough parking of your own outside to still have 'off-street'.

In any case, car parking bays are a bit of a thing of the past for when cars rusted after a few years.

Pegleg2001 · 7 January 2005 at 1:56AM

We did this too in 1999. Converted useless integral garage (only 7.5 feet wide) in 1950's 3-bed detached into reception room and cloak/shower room. Then added a 'proper' garage annexed to the house - not quite a double but big enough for a large estate car with doors wide open without hitting walls. Total project cost circa £12k. We are certain that this will be got back at sale time.

It's used with a sofabed for overnight visitors so is very useful. Also acts as the study.

Would recommend if you can replace garage in a similar fashion as folk still like one.

grant1wish · 7 January 2005 at 10:50AM

Thanks for all the advice,

Unfortunately we have no room to build a new garage. We are now thinking about splitting the garage up, leaving the front of the garage as is, so we can keep the dryer/extra freezer in there and then making the remainder into a play room.

Only problem we can see with this is that there will not be a window in the new playroom!

cath-w · 12 January 2005 at 4:55PM

Just curious really, but do you need a planning permission for the conversion? Or is it just a case the the building inspectorate needs to check things?

Thanks,
C.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Integral Garage v Extra Room

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free