Garage Conversion advice please.

Hadley

Hi I hope someone can give me some advice please.We are thinking of converting our garage into a room.Do we need planning permission?
The garage is 13 years old and has a pitched roof a garage door and a side door it has electric to it so has enough power points and two lights.All we want to do is put in a window at the front and and a wall upto the window.I would also like to plasterboard the ceiling and insolate the walls,would we need to build another wall to put the insolation in or could we put between the wall and the plasterboard.I am planning on keeping my books in there and maybe my sewing machine.
Does anybody have any idea's on how much it would roughly cost.Sorry for asking so many questions Thanks in advance.

phill99

I run a maintenance company and we have just completed a garage conversion. It did not require planning permission, but it did need Buiulding Reg approval. If you get it done without Building Regs, you will have real problems if you come to sell your house.

iamcornholio

Although planning permission is not normally required, some properties have a planning condition preventing conversion of the garage. So you need to check especially if the property was built from the 80's onwards

Depending where you are then cost should be about £6k for the work and £250-300 for the building notice fee. No need to go the expense of getting any plans drawn

capeverde

its usually permitted development, but some newer properties have a clause removing this. its all down to parking spaces. check your deeds.

27col

When I converted my attached double garage into a self contained flat I did not need planning permission but I did need BR approval. When I built a new double garage in the front garden I did not need BR approval but I did need Planning approval. I can't help with the pricing as I did both jobs myself.

Ebe_Scrooge

The only other thing you may want to consider is how it will affect the value of your house. It's probably a toss-up - an extra room will add value, whilst the lack of a garage may knock a bit off. If you have a driveway or off-road parking available then it *probably* won't make too much of a difference. Having said that, to a lot of people a garage is a "must-have", not least because car insurance is cheaper if your car is garaged overnight.

I can't advise you one way or the other, it depends on your particular circumstances, but it's something to bear in mind.

Hadley

Thanks everyone.Ebe Scrooge unfortunately persimmon seem to think that people have long narrow cars we can't even fit our car in most people who live here don't use their garage for a car.We also have a long drive which we could fit about 3 cars on.I can't understand why builders insist on building garages that are to small.
Our garage is a detached one that is why I want to use it for my books,sewing machine etc rather than a family/play room.I would much rather move than do anything but unfortunately we bought our house at the peak of the property boom and if we moved we would loose to much money.
Thanks again everyone for the answers.

dmacdonald_2

We are interested in using the front area of the garage for storage and keeping the up and over door. Then boarding off the rear to use as gym/utility room. We don't want to live in it or eat in it. It has power already and I can envisage that we could create plasterboard walls and ceiling and skim them. Lay a new floor of some type and put an electric heater in there and a new door (old ones is draughty and badly fits).

1. Do I need building regs to do this?
2. What should it roughly cost if I do none of the work myself?

Thanks

MustTryHarder

Firstly if you are a relatively new build then you may not have any permitted development rights but the good news is when you apply for planning it would be free.

With a detached garage you may need to go down "change of use" route, check with planning first.

My garage was attached, we converted it into a playroom for the children to store all their toys. Needed planning and building regs, planning because we had no permitted development.

Mine was a double garage, 18ft long and we retained the back 5ft across both garages as a store. So it had a wall built to section this off. We had a door knocked through from the hall, bricked up the fronts and added 2x 3 paned windows. I had a new consumer unit too as mine was 10 years old and had wire fuses rather than pop out ones. We also had the alarm sensor moved, 2 new radiators put in, new plug sockets and lighting. Total cost was £10,500.

We were told by our builder that 1 garage would be around the £6-7k mark depending on what we had done.

dmacdonald, you would possibly need planning and building regs. Yours would be easy and relatively cheap as you are keeping the garage door. Just make sure you insulate properly. I had that kingspan stuff put on the concrete floor and then 22mm ply on top, then some commercial grade laminate underlay and then laminate. It is toasty.

My mate did his <cough> illegally, so he just put up a stud wall behind where his garage door opened to, stuffed it with loft insulation stuff and plasterboarded over the top, didn't skim coat as it was a gym.

alex_SBS

Firstly unless your changing the footprint of the building you should be able to convert your garage under your permitted development rights (2008). However if you cant fit 2 cars on the drive way or you live in a listed building you might need planning permission.

Most of the information you need can be found on this government web site. Go to

planning portal .gov/ planning permission garage conversions


Hope that helps

Alex SBS

planning_officer

27col wrote: »

When I converted my attached double garage into a self contained flat I did not need planning permission

You have a very lenient Council (and a Council who sound like they do not fully understand planning law!). Converting a garage into a self contained flat most certainly requires planning permission!