Garage Conversion to Utility Room

mbailey

I have a double length garage. I would like to get the rear part converted to a utility room.

The work involves:

1) Replace existing door/window with New UPVC double glazed single door and window
2) New fireproof partition stud wall with fire door to existing garage
3) Raise floor (approx 20mm) to same level as kitchen
4) Replace door/frame into kitchen
5) Plasterboard + insulation for ceiling
6) Plasterboard+insulation+studs for outside walls
7) Plasterboard for inside walls
8) Disconnect existing boiler and remount after insulated walls done
9) Reroute gas pipe from side wall to under new floor
10) Reroute existing Hot/Cold pipes for sink and washing machine under new floor
11) Modify existing drain on garage floor and add drain for sink/washing machine
12) Plaster surfaces ready for decoration
13) 3 electrical sockets + lighting socket

I don't need planning, but will need building regs. I plan to do building notice rather than get plans drawn.

Unfortunately I don't have any builders from personal recommendations, so I have picked FMB members in my local area.

I have so far received 3 quotes: £4230, £4241, £5835 (all +VAT)

Location is North Hampshire.

Comments?

Should I get plans drawn or leave it to building notice?

I am assuming 1 weeks work. Does that sound about right?

The quotes have all come through with details of the work and a single price at the bottom. Is it unreasonable to ask for a break down of the quotes to at least show materials and labour?

I was originally thinking I could get the job done for £4000 (including VAT). Am I being unrealistic?

BobProperty

mbailey wrote:

.....Should I get plans drawn or leave it to building notice?

I am assuming 1 weeks work. Does that sound about right?

The quotes have all come through with details of the work and a single price at the bottom. Is it unreasonable to ask for a break down of the quotes to at least show materials and labour?

I was originally thinking I could get the job done for £4000 (including VAT). Am I being unrealistic?

In the order above:

Up to you, probably a written specification and building notice would do, unless the Building Control want plans for some reason.

Extremely unlikely you can get this done in a week as the various trades needed will be falling over each other if you try getting it done in that timescale. The builder will be sub-contracting out bits of the work anyway, e.g. move boiler and gas pipe, electrics

You can ask for a breakdown to help you make a comparison of the prices and spot any mistakes. Whether they will bother to give you one is another matter, are they going to risk spending time detailing the quote if they suspect they aren't going to get the job, or that you will be re-negotiating it?

Where did you get your figure of £4000 from?

mbailey

BobProperty wrote:

In the order above:
Up to you, probably a written specification and building notice would do, unless the Building Control want plans for some reason.

I guess I was thinking that if we went for the plans route then we wouldn't have any nasty surprised along the way?

BobProperty wrote:

Extremely unlikely you can get this done in a week as the various trades needed will be falling over each other if you try getting it done in that timescale. The builder will be sub-contracting out bits of the work anyway, e.g. move boiler and gas pipe, electrics

Ok, point taken about 1 week - I guess it could be longer than 1 week. I was forgetting about the Plumber and electrician.

BobProperty wrote:

You can ask for a breakdown to help you make a comparison of the prices and spot any mistakes. Whether they will bother to give you one is another matter, are they going to risk spending time detailing the quote if they suspect they aren't going to get the job, or that you will be re-negotiating it?

That's my worry! I will ask the guy with the highest price. It is a shame as he was the guy that impressed me the most when he came to look at the job, but I didn't like him that much more to pay him nearly £2000 more than the other guys.

BobProperty wrote:

Where did you get your figure of £4000 from?

I did have a quote from a carpenter to do the work. His quote was for only the internal walls, floor, ceiling and doors for £1250. (This excluded electrics, plumbing, moving boiler, new uPVC window/doors, drains.)

I don't mind coordinating the different trades myself, but I guess this could get very messy with building control.

My guestimate was as follows:

Carpenter: £1250
UPVC Door/Window: £1000
Plumber (Gas): £500
Electrician: £250
Plumbing and Drains: £300
Plasterer: £250

Total: £3550 (£4100 inc VAT)

BobProperty

mbailey wrote:

I guess I was thinking that if we went for the plans route then we wouldn't have any nasty surprised along the way?

All trades in the building industry are quite capable of coming up with "nasty surprises" even when you have a set of plans.

mbailey wrote:

Ok, point taken about 1 week - I guess it could be longer than 1 week. I was forgetting about the Plumber and electrician.

Yes, don't expect to get one of them when you want :rotfl:

mbailey wrote:

.....I don't mind coordinating the different trades myself, but I guess this could get very messy with building control.

No, it's just one more thing to co-ordinate. But, be warned, the trades will want paying if they are sat around because you haven't done something / arranged something / got something delivered etc.

mbailey wrote:

My guestimate was as follows:

Carpenter: £1250
UPVC Door/Window: £1000
Plumber (Gas): £500
Electrician: £250
Plumbing and Drains: £300
Plasterer: £250

Total: £3550 (£4100 inc VAT)

I think the "plumbing and drains" and the "plasterer" may be a bit light for what could be involved. What is the raised floor being made of? Take account of the fact that a number of these trades may need to make 2 or more visits so they will be pricing that into their quotes.

mbailey

mbailey wrote:

I have so far received 3 quotes: £4230, £4241, £5835 (all +VAT)

I received a 4th quote today: £6850.50 (+VAT)!

The variation really surprised me.

I can only assume these guys just don't want the work? I just don't know how they can justify the prices otherwise.

sarymclary

I'm not at all in the trade, but having organised a garage conversion at my last 2 properties, and having just had a utility room built at my current home, I can make a non-trade suggestion.

Do a bit of groundwork to see whether you can source materials/organise contractors yourself at cheaper prices. There's no harm in having several people quote for the first/second fix works, and just ensure the gas engineer is Corgi registered. The main problem with all of this is finding any tradesman available in the next 3 months, who wants a relatively small job. This is sometimes where a larger outfit, with all the trades in their employ win because they can invariably fit you in and have the manpower.

With our 2nd garage conversion we went with the more expensive quote just for this reason, as they employed all their own trades, so the work was carried out within their quoted timeframe of just over a week, and the price was fixed; if they caused the trades to hang around, it was their look-out not mine, and they did, because the electrician ended up having to hang around till much later in the day to do his work, and was there well into the evening as a consequence.

Make sure any quotes are as fixed price as possible. Other than the doors and windows it's unlikely you'll source any other materials as cheaply as a trade, but you could try doing that so that you're only paying for labour. Depends upon how much time you personally want to devote to this really.

On my first garage conversion I sourced my own UPVC door/windows. I have just bought 2 UPVC windows for the recently built utility, which I got for a song from a guy who had them stored in his garage, however, we were able to build the utility around their specs, whereas if you need made to measure, get plenty of quotes from local companies - it's surprising how they differ.

If you can be patient getting the work done, you can have the capenter do the stud walling/plasterboarding/raised floor, and ask him on which day into the work he can accommodate the electrician coming in to do his stuff, then try to source an electrician yourself. I was lucky, as my carpenter I've just employed actually put all the electric wires in ready for the electrician to connect - your work sounds fairly simple, so shouldn't be overly complicated.

If you are prepared to project manage this you might get it cheaper, but you will certainly have more headaches as a result.

Good luck!!

Cristy

We had our garage part converted into a bedroom recently - some work had already been done by the previous owners (i.e. double glazed french doors installed) but we had to have done most of what you described. We're also in North Hants - Basingstoke to be precise. We paid a total inc. VAT of £5.5k, so your quotes sound about right considering that you will need the double doors and the window, plus the plumbing work (we only had a radiator added to the room). The firm we used were pretty good and delivered all they promised, on time and on budget. Work took 6 weeks BUT about four weeks were spent waiting for the screed floor to dry. They also laid laminate flooring for us (we supplied this). I would be happy to recommend them, let me know if you'd like their details to get a quote from them.

mbailey

I searched the internet for garage conversions and came across the Garage Conversion Company.

I called them up and they came around to have a look.

I have just received their quote for £7500 + VAT (£8824)

I am frightened to get any more quotes, as the price just keeps going up!! I am sure I will get one over £10000 by Christmas! :-)