Botched Garage Conversion

Apodemus

Have you applied for planning permission or building warrant? If so, did they not require plans of the conversion? If not, is this not required where you live? Is this builder also doing the internal work of the conversion - insulation, plastering etc?

moneyistooshorttomention

societys_child wrote: »

The exterior wouldn't bother me (once the render is finished)

The interior, I had to do something similar once (my own house) and when curtains were hung each side of the window, it looked fine.

That's assuming curtains will be used. OP and/or a future owner may have decided on blinds.

and...yes..I'd be unhappy with it. That window looks too big for the wall and shouldnt be bang up against the right hand wall. Added that if curtains are planned anyway - how is the right-hand end (finial?) to fit in = answer being it won't.

Builder's name would be half way round the town - and not favourably so either - if they did that standard to me.

It also looks like a bodge on the outside.

The builder would "catch me in the act" taking huge blown-up photos of their inside handywork and their name - all ready to put up at the front of my house for all comers to see - if they didnt sort it out.

Robin9

OP has yet to post the outside photos but to me it looks far better to have the window fill the full space between the pillars so it looks good from the outside - as others have said a window pole and full width curtains inside and a blind man would be pleased to see them.

Even if you had the the same make of brick it would look a little out of place along the old ones - rendering is a better option.

How did your builder resolve the garage floor insulation issue ? My garage was integral to the house with a step down into it - due I think of the need to contain any spillage of oil and petrol. In 2007 this needed about 150 mm of insulated floor slab.

Insulating and plastering the walls and ceiling certainly reduced what looked to be such a large room.

Doozergirl

I'm not going to comment on the style of window as we haven't seen the comparison, but I don't don't think it's a 'bodge'. I think a drawing would have helped. I don't think mismatched bricks look great at all and I think it's important to try and make it not look like a garage conversion. Different people have different ideas and different builders do too.

I did my best friend's garage and she asked for the window to be the same size as OPs. In their case it looks balanced from outside as it sits wider on both sides than the upstairs window. Inside, they have curtains and it's not visible.

The red bricks had been discontinued (cheap, new build, poor quality). Thankfully, they only form a couple of bands on ours.

House across the road has 'similar bricks' to the house, not matched, and a smaller window to the OP. To me, it looks much more like a garage conversion as there is more mismatched brick; they've had to bring the brickwork in on both sides to balance the windows with upstairs. (There's also no toothing in with the original brickwork).

At the end of the day, neither is Westminster Abbey. I'm going to post pics. It's not anybody's best work, both are a wall and a window on a standard new build with discontinued bricks but this fits with the OP.

Garage conversions are usually permitted development - on new build estates they may need planning if the garage is counted as a parking space. No drawings required for building regs on Building Notice with inspections only.

£6700 is a very good price for a finished conversion. People really need to agree drawings!

Doozergirl

Images courtesy of streetview

https://imgur.com/gallery/fkb9C

davilown

I think the builder has done the right thing from the outside - looks good with regard to the window. however I think he may not have wanted to brick it because its a hard job 'zipping' the brick into the current wall.

FWIW, I paid £8k for my garage conversion with a similar finish to yours

Rubidium

The builder has gone for the quickest, easiest and therefore cheapest option with the larger window fully filling the gap and render below.

If he needed to order a window, he could have easily ordered a correct sized three pane one to match the others on the house but obviously chose not to, so most likely planned to do this from the outset.

With the wrong size window and not keying in the brickwork, it will always look like a garage conversion but everything should have been specified and agreed before the worked started.

societys_child

Moneyistooshorttomention - Quote:
That's assuming curtains will be used. OP and/or a future owner may have decided on blinds.Future owners? They would see the finished article as it is before buying.

and...yes..I'd be unhappy with it. That window looks too big for the wall and shouldnt be bang up against the right hand wall. Added that if curtains are planned anyway - how is the right-hand end (finial?) to fit in = answer being it won't.Maybe I dont like finials

Builder's name would be half way round the town - and not favourably so either - if they did that standard to me. Like the town would listen to you?

It also looks like a bodge on the outside. NO it doesnt, it would have with mismatched bricks.

The builder would "catch me in the act" taking huge blown-up photos of their inside handywork and their name - all ready to put up at the front of my house for all comers to see - if they didnt sort it out.

Oh, stop it, I can't take any more . . .:rotfl:

I_have_spoken

It'll look OK, perhaps a 3 pane window would have been preferable. To have tried to centre the window would have looked terrible from outside, just put curtains up

moneyistooshorttomention

Looks like the garage (conversion) window could have been the same width as the one above and it would have matched - but been narrower within the room itself.

Add that if the window had been correct and the bricks had matched - I'm guessing that many of us would have thought the house had been built that way in the first place (which, I guess, is what OP was expecting). As it is - it does look like a bodger workman has converted a former garage (mainly down to that stuff under the window).