Changing integral garage into a room

katies_mum

Did`nt know you needed an architect, thought you just got a builder round and told him what you wanted... please advise, don`t want to get it wrong..

Thanks

planning_officer

Also check with the council that you don't need planning permission - whilst a garage conversion is not development for which planning permission is required, it can require permission if a restrictive condition was attached to the original planning permission when the house was built, restricting the garage for parking cars only. You say that your car is parked on the 'path' - if you have no space to park any vehicles within your curtilage (other than the garage) and there is such a restrictive condition, it may be that planning permission would not be forthcoming.

katies_mum

Hi,
We have a double driveway, and have been parking both cars there for the last few months. Mine was always in garage till it got full of junk. Not leaving cars on the road. Lots of other houses in the road have made garages into rooms.

MartialArtMan

I have an integral garage which has become our utility room/ gym. I think that fitting a window would be unlikely to be approved by local planning permission due to the nature of the houses in the terrace (7 town houses) so I just intend to build a stud wall and kit the room out accordingly i.e plasterboard walls, put flooring down etc.

sneaky

I have just changed my garage into a study room. We never used to park our car there and it was just full of junk. Got all the room fitted with plasterboards but as the room was already painted on bricks they used timber to fit the plaster boards. I have also blocked off the garage door and inserted a door from the hall way.

If we do sell the house we can always knock out the plaster boards out again from the garage door. If you are blocking off the garage door make sure the builders use insulation before thet fit the plaster boards. Not sure about the council implications we didnt apply for any building regs.

Chippy_Minton_2

sneaky wrote: »

Not sure about the council implications we didnt apply for any building regs.

Well you should have, as you created a new doorway.

amandada

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

Well you should have, as you created a new doorway.

When we did ours, we went totally "by the book" with our architect and the planning dept.

The "issues" if you could call them that, were that we had to double the thickness of the insulation which was already there, and the doorway which was formed from the hallway into the room had to meet disabled access requirements.
We also had to instal new through vents below the floor level so there was a throuput of fresh air through the foundations.

We have no intentions of ever moving, but you never know what lies ahead, and we didn't want any problems to hit us if we ever have to sell the house.

A lot of people local to me have done garage conversions, and the ones I've spoken to have all gone down the architect route, but saying that, we have a particularly strict planning department in our local council, and it's not worth trying to swick something through without their knowledge-there's always the risk of a jealous neighbour out to cause trouble (as we found out when we built a 60cm high boundary wall!!! Thankfully we'd checked with the planning dept, and the Feu Superior that what we planned was in order before we started!)