Converting integral garage/moving front door

Charliezoo

Hi All,

We're thinking of ways to make our semi detached house bigger. It already has an extension at the back giving a longer living room and one extra reception room. This means that we have a lovely big living space but only a tiny entrance lobby and a really small kitchen which is at the front of the house so can't be extended. When we bought the house last year we intended to move the kitchen to the back of the house into the extension. Unfortunately all of the waste and water is located at the front and redirecting this to the back would be difficult and costly.

Another option would be to convert our attached garage into a big hallway, removing the garage door and putting in a new front door. This would mean we could brick up the existing front door which is located at the side and knock the small kitchen at the front and existing hallway/lobby together to make a big kitchen which the house would really benefit from and no need to redirect water/waste pipes.

I'm concerned that this may cause problems from a planning point of view because it would mean that the 2 semi's would no longer be symetrical, ie our front door would face outwards and next door's would remain facing inwards (both front doors currently face each other). Is this likely to cause a problem?

I would be grateful for more information on the cost of garage conversions and the permission/regs needed if anyone knows much about it.

Many Thanks

WestonDave

I'm not aware that maintaining the symetry of what sounds like a fairly modern house would be that important to planners. If you were talking an old house in a conservation area then you might have a bigger problem.

That said I wonder whether you'd be better off leaving the door where it is, converting the existing kitchen into part of the hallway (maybe leaving the far end as a coat cupboard etc) and then using the bricked up garage as a new kitchen. Seems a bit of a waste to me to add such a small bit on to the kitchen and then have a massive hallway which is sort of dead space.

Charliezoo

Thanks for your help. We've considered turning the garage into a kitchen, one of our neighbours has done this but it cost about 20k, mainly due to the gas/water/waste needing to be redirected with the concrete floor needing to be taken up for the pipework.

We would like to have the front half of the garage as a hall with a large storage cupboard along the side and then knock through the back of the garage into the reception room which would double it in size.

It is a modern house (built in 1996) so there shouldn't be any conservation issues.

bobthedambuilder

You will almost certainly need planning permission for a conversion like this. I suggest you take some draft sketches along to your local Planning Dept and see what the reaction is. You will also need BReg approval - the planners will direct you to the Building Control Dept.

As to indicative prices, there's so much variability on this type of conversion that a typical square meter price is difficult. The well-quoted figure if you were extending would be in the order of £1000 - 1500 per square metre. What you save in non-new build might well be offset by the work needed on the garage space to make it habitable.