Garage conversation / conservatory lean to

lou-28_2

We have decided to convert our integral garage into an internal living space. It is situated at the back of the house and to get the car in means driving down a narrow unadopted road and through the back garden. Why the hell it was built as garage and not a room is beyond me.

Anyway, our kitchen is tiny so we are debating on two options:

1. Rip the kitchen out, knock a wall through from the existing kitchen (10'x7'10") to the garage (roughly 16'x12') and putting a new kitchen in the garage area and the existing kitchen becomes a dining area. I guess this would include a lot of replumbing and gas work?

2. Leave the existing kitchen as it is and just knock a door through from the living room to the garage (the garage comes right into the house) and use the garage as a dining room. We would also then put a small conservatory lean-to (roughly 6'x8') on the back of the existing kitchen as a utility room.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much each option might cost and if there are any nightmare implications with one over the other that I may not be aware of.

Thanks

joinaman

The cheapest option by far would be to leave the kitchen and convert the garage to a dining area
I did the same at my last house. Had an integral garage that I only used for storage so built a large shed for the storage and then knocked through to the garage.
I took out the garage door at the front and put french doors in, and bricked up the single rear door
Put new timber/boarded ceiliing in, raised timber floor, lined the whole building out with studwork and Kingspan insulation,
When plastered out and decorated with nice flooring it looks the bees knees.
Also if it is already an integral garage, no planning/building regs were required( although it is best to follow the guidlines for building regs to make sure it is well insulated and with things like air bricks under the floor, trickle vents to windows, etc.
Will still need sparks to sign off electrics but extending the heating system should be no problem
Not sure what the cost would be, I did it all myself for around £1500

cyclonebri1

Done similar myself and have to say the only real issue is building regs, I know what I did but let your conscience be your guide:A;);)

One main issue though, the garage floor is unlikely to have a dpc, it wouldn't have been reqd as a garage.
Take care when lifting this or screeding etc for new purpose.

Jaynne

Plumbing and gas are likely to be not that big of an issue in this sort of a case. If I'm understanding your description right the sink is likely to be on the same wall and so drainage is probably pretty easy to extend. The hot and cold water are just going to be long pipe runs from the existing points though you will want them under the floor/ceiling most likely.

diywhynot

lou-28 wrote: »

We have decided to convert our integral garage into an internal living space. It is situated at the back of the house and to get the car in means driving down a narrow unadopted road and through the back garden. Why the hell it was built as garage and not a room is beyond me.

Anyway, our kitchen is tiny so we are debating on two options:

1. Rip the kitchen out, knock a wall through from the existing kitchen (10'x7'10") to the garage (roughly 16'x12') and putting a new kitchen in the garage area and the existing kitchen becomes a dining area. I guess this would include a lot of replumbing and gas work?

2. Leave the existing kitchen as it is and just knock a door through from the living room to the garage (the garage comes right into the house) and use the garage as a dining room. We would also then put a small conservatory lean-to (roughly 6'x8') on the back of the existing kitchen as a utility room.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much each option might cost and if there are any nightmare implications with one over the other that I may not be aware of.

Thanks

A good place to start is here.

lou-28_2

joinaman wrote: »

The cheapest option by far would be to leave the kitchen and convert the garage to a dining area
I did the same at my last house. Had an integral garage that I only used for storage so built a large shed for the storage and then knocked through to the garage.
I took out the garage door at the front and put french doors in, and bricked up the single rear door
Put new timber/boarded ceiliing in, raised timber floor, lined the whole building out with studwork and Kingspan insulation,
When plastered out and decorated with nice flooring it looks the bees knees.
Also if it is already an integral garage, no planning/building regs were required( although it is best to follow the guidlines for building regs to make sure it is well insulated and with things like air bricks under the floor, trickle vents to windows, etc.
Will still need sparks to sign off electrics but extending the heating system should be no problem
Not sure what the cost would be, I did it all myself for around £1500

£1,500? Wow! Unfortunately we don't have enough DIY skills to do it ourselves. I think when we get quotes we'll ask for them broken down and see what we can do ourselves.

Whichever option we go with (prob dining room and lean to) we need to have the gas meter moved so there's a bill of around £1k before we even get started.

jellie

lou-28 wrote: »

We have decided to convert our integral garage into an internal living space. It is situated at the back of the house and to get the car in means driving down a narrow unadopted road and through the back garden. Why the hell it was built as garage and not a room is beyond me.

Anyway, our kitchen is tiny so we are debating on two options:

1. Rip the kitchen out, knock a wall through from the existing kitchen (10'x7'10") to the garage (roughly 16'x12') and putting a new kitchen in the garage area and the existing kitchen becomes a dining area. I guess this would include a lot of replumbing and gas work?

2. Leave the existing kitchen as it is and just knock a door through from the living room to the garage (the garage comes right into the house) and use the garage as a dining room. We would also then put a small conservatory lean-to (roughly 6'x8') on the back of the existing kitchen as a utility room.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much each option might cost and if there are any nightmare implications with one over the other that I may not be aware of.

Thanks

Hello,

I'm going through the process of converting my garage into a kitchen and the old kitchen into a dining room, so I thought I'd let you know my experience so far.

The prices I have range from just under £9k to £15k (including VAT). These include a new combi boiler, excavate for foundations where the garage door used to be (opening will be bricked up and a window put in), excavate the garage floor (might not be necessary), moving services, plumbing, electrics, insulation, plastering, putting an opening between new kitchen and dining room, steel lintel, etc. Also removing the old kitchen and tiles, replastering walls and ceiling.

The prices don't include the cost of the new kitchen/fitting, tiling or decorating.

I don't need planning permission but do have to get Building Regs approval.

I think you need to decide (cost aside) if you will be happy with your kitchen if you do the conservatory/lean to option.

HTH

lou-28_2

TBH I think we will be happy with just a dining room and lean to. The main reason we're doing the conversion is that our family has outgrown the downstairs living space as we just have a living room and kitchen at the moment. Having that extra room whether we swap the kitchen round or not will be a god send.

Thanks for the info on your conversion. It's helpful. We won't need our floor excavated as it's already low enough to insulate and bring up to the floor level in the rest of the house. We're also planning to replace the garage door with french doors and glass panels either side to avoid any/much brick work and to have as much sunlight in there as poss (one of the upsides of the garage being in our back garden). I don't know if excavation will be needed then where garage door is. I'm sure when we get someone out to quote they'll let us know what does need doing.

jellie

You might find it makes it easier to get the plans for Building Regs approval drawn up first. Then all of the builders will be using the same details to quote, and you can compare like with like.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

cyclonebri1

Luo, check out the DPC situation I mentioned earlier, it is often omitted in your situation:eek:


There is 1 other thing to determine at this stage.
It is quite likely that the garage floor is at a different height to what will be the adjoining rooms. A step down would be not only annoying but very dangerous.

That's usually to get the car in without a ramp.
The last 1 I did was fully 12" lower.

lou-28_2

Wouldn't it have to have dpc when converting anyway to meet building regs? The link that ditwhynot posted mentioned damp proof membrane.