Garage conversion and building regs

sunshinetours

marcg wrote: »

The reality of the risk is relatively low. Steve covers it thus:

"damp, inadequate ventilation, insufficient insulation, DIY electrics and possibly the layout may not provide the occupants with a safe 'Means of Escape' in the case of a fire."

Taking this point by point:

damp - presumably the garage was built without wall insulation (although this is sometimes not the case with integral garages), definitely without floor or roof insulation. If the new room linings are also uninsulated then moist warm air may condense within the walls, causing mould growth/potential timber rot causing structural failure should the walls rely on the timber for support. If the walls are brick/block-built then the risk is correspondingly only likely to be of mould.

inadequate ventilation - the regs require trickle vents to windows and also the insulation may require ventilating (or risk the damp issues listed before). A room without trickle vents is equivalent to most houses older than 20 years old. The ventilation issue may also relate to any WC or utility room - very moist/smelly, in which case we're back at the rotting walls risk.

insufficient insulation - covered this already.

DIY electrics - serious safety risk but any riskier than the rest of the house? Unless it's a new house with an electrical safety certificate, that is.

No safe means of escape - does the new room impede any other room from escaping (ie do you need to go through the garage to escape from the rest of the house?) Unlikely. OR there is no safe way of escaping from the garage. Unless the new room has no windows, this is also unlikely.

The only other issue not mentioned was were any walls knocked down to get into the garage? If so this is a structural risk.

My point about all the above is; why aren't we talking about the probability of risk rather than risk elimination? As building professionals we know that a garage conversion is not really a big dangerous project. Not like a loft conversion with ceiling joist floors or an extension with new walls with no lateral stability. This was probably a dot and dab, battened floor conversion using the original doorway. If this was a Victorian house we'd have a completely different attitude.

My view (and note the caveats in my signature) is don't worry about it - look for evidence of a cover-up (fresh paint, open windows on viewings, cracks, dehumidifiers) but don't write it off.

Sounds like a eminently sensible post BUT I would also add that the conversion if not correctly classified as a habitable room should not be adding anything to the value of the house so ensure that you are happy with value of it as a "non-habitable room" - even though in reality it may well be perfectly useable for many years to come

Also as with any garage conversion ensure you have plenty of storage options elsewhere for things like bikes and garden tools, roof boxes for cars etc etc