what to do with garage

susieanne

I would like to pick your minds & some ideas please .We have a garage it is not attached to the house which is a pitty ,it stands next to our house .We never use the garage for the car we just park our car on the drive infront of the gararge .It is such a shame not to use the garage for something else ideally a playroom for our children but i dont know whether this would be easy to acheive at a low cost .The garage is a solid brick gararge with electrics already installed but the problem is i know this may sound alittle silly but there are spiders everywhere ,we also get the odd frog in there .Sorry im a women and i have no idea about plastering walls or installation ect but i suppose im thinking this is what we would have to do .Has anyone ever converted a separate garage into a room and what did you do how much did it cost approx ? Where the garage door is at the front would you leave it as a garage door then if we did ever sell it could be turned back to a garage .I have ideas but i dont know where to start or if it would look right and more importantly how much all this would cost .

iamana1ias

susieanne wrote: »

I would like to pick your minds & some ideas please .We have a garage it is not attached to the house which is a pitty ,it stands next to our house .We never use the garage for the car we just park our car on the drive infront of the gararge .It is such a shame not to use the garage for something else ideally a playroom for our children but i dont know whether this would be easy to acheive at a low cost .The garage is a solid brick gararge with electrics already installed but the problem is i know this may sound alittle silly but there are spiders everywhere ,we also get the odd frog in there .Sorry im a women and i have no idea about plastering walls or installation ect but i suppose im thinking this is what we would have to do .Has anyone ever converted a separate garage into a room and what did you do how much did it cost approx ? Where the garage door is at the front would you leave it as a garage door then if we did ever sell it could be turned back to a garage .I have ideas but i dont know where to start or if it would look right and more importantly how much all this would cost .

You'd need planning permission for it and to bring it up to building regs standards (insulation etc). Wouldn't be cheap and would make the room smaller (you'd loose about 6 inches from each wall for insulation and plasterboard) which would make it potentially costly for a future buyer to turn it back into a garage.

If you're going to do it do it properly.

Cknocker

If its for a playroom I wouldn't worry too much about planning or building regs, if it still looks like a garage from the outide, there is no real issue.

Screw 2x2 battens to the wall, on top of polythene to prevent damp coming through, the battens need to be at 407 or 610 centres for plasterboard, between the battens place either 50mm celotex or jablite insulation, the celotex is better but more costly.

Install a framework onto the roof joists to support a ceiling, and insulate with fibre glass.

Lay moisture resistant T&G flooring chipboard on the floor with 1000 guage polythene under.

Run your electrics as you wish, you will probably need a larger supply in the garage than you do at present, a sparky will advise.
Board the ceiling and then the walls, use foil backed plasterboard on the ceiling.

The cost will depend on how much you do yourself, I done it at home for about £500, but done ebverything myself, if you used tradesmen for evrything budget for £2000.

27col

I agree with Cknocker. I have done the same with an attached double garage. Almost exactly the same as ck did. Except that I put 50mm insulation slabs under the floor panels.. The garage doors were replaced by windows and tile hung frames. Did it all my self and it did not cost all that much. It was done in 1992, so any price I might give would be well out of date by now.

Cknocker

Whether you can put insulation in depends on the threshold level of the entrance door, with mine it was not practical, it was close with just the chipboard.

ormus

the playroom is the best way to go IMHO.
if it was a choice i think id rather install the correct floor insulation and cut the door down a bit. assuming you cant raise the door/frame?

slummymummyof3

I didn't think you necessarily need planning permission(???? depending on the area in which you live) but if you were to do it officially you would need building regs. How far is it from the main dwelling? You could integrate it to the main dwelling so that access was obtained from the house but obviously there are cost implications.

Cknocker

I don't see the work involved in altering the door would ever be worth it for a playroom, building regs wouldn't even require it as its existing. Floor insulation is a relatively new thing anyway.

planning_officer

Cknocker wrote: »

If its for a playroom I wouldn't worry too much about planning or building regs, if it still looks like a garage from the outide, there is no real issue.

There would only be an issue of there is a restrictive condition on a previous planning permission stating that the garage shall only be used for parking - if there is, and it is converted, the Council could require it to be converted back to a garage!

Cknocker

The council are certainly going to struggle to find out otherwise though. The garage I converted had that very restrictive covenant on it, but it looks like a garage from the front, A PO would have to be very bored to start looking into it, obviously where it can become an issue is if the house is sold, whereby the purchasers solicitor should pick up on it.

As a matter of interest, in such a situation where it is against a planning condition, where does it stand with time acquired rights?

The letter of the law is all well and good, but its only any good if someone is enforcing it.

27col

I seem to remember that when I did mine I did not require planning permission, but I did require Building Regs. When I built a replacement garage, I needed PP but not BR.