Garage conversion - am I deluded??

MFdreamer

Hi all

Im hoping for some input from clever people who know more than me about home improvement! 

I have a freestanding double garage built in around 2010. It is single brick on the outside, breeze block on the inside. Watertight and looks good condition to me. Tiled roof. It has electricity and it’s own fuse board. The flooring is concrete but not sealed so very dusty.

I have a big drive so don’t ever use the garage for anything other than dumping rubbish so I am considering having it converted into a useable playroom/TV room for my daughter. I would want the existing garage doors to remain for the exterior (so no one from the street knows it’s no longer a garage) but be boarded up and plastered from the inside. I would then want one side of the garage that backs onto my garden to have a patio door fitted into it (to help with light into the garage room).

Firstly I have really really struggled to find any builder with availability to even consider quoting for the project. Secondly, my parents think I’m deluded to think this conversion would cost between £10-15k. They think I should be expecting £35k-£40k 😮.

I definitely want to do it properly so don’t want to cut any corners. I am worried that my parents or I are clearly way off (hoping it’s them!) which bothers me given I have only been able to find one builder to give me a quote. I could get fleeced and wouldn’t know it as don’t have a comparison quote.

Can anyone help with some expertise or recent personal experience of having a similar conversion please?

Or recommendations for how I can find builders to provide a second quote? I have used MyBuilder and also contacted builders used by my friends and families but everyone seems too busy! I’ve even told them all that I don’t even mind if I have to go on their 12-18 month waiting list so I just don’t understand why I can’t find more than 1 person to quote 🤷‍♀️

Many thanks!

Martin_the_Unjust

It’s a small poorly specced job which looks like you are trying to avoid planning and building regs, no wonder your having problems getting people to consider it.

Do some drawings, put in sizes of windows, location of electrics, method of heating etc etc, Then go have an informal chat with your local planning dept and building control.

In short, demonstrate your serious about the job.

gwynlas

To be a year round useable space you will require heating and insulation for walls, floor and ceilings. You might find it usefull to think in advance what heating/plumbing you require, It is probably best to fit it out to the highest standard initially in order to achiev a good return on investment once you come to sell. It will also need to pass building control. I paid over £22,500 for basic fit out of single garage last year but this was added to by supplying rads, electrical fitting sanitary wear etc. Nuilders are busy at this time you can look for those who specialise in conversions.

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi MFdream.

Can you build a large shed or man-cave in your garden? Yes. If you find it hard to heat, could you add insulation? Yup. A window for light? Yeah. Electrics? Of course. A nice patio door in one side? Why not! Sleep in it overnight? What fun! Live there? Ah... Fit a loo? Hmm, nah. Run a CH pipe from the house in order to run a radiator? Noooo. 

All the things above that you 'cannot' do, you obviously can - as long as you don't get caught. All the stuff you are allowed to do, you can fill yer boots with.

So, keep within that list for your garage, and you should be fine. Cross that line, and - when someone grasses you up - expect a cross BCO.

Everything you've said you'd like to do sounds fine to me. The existing construction sounds good - brick outer skin on a breeze block wall. (If it's really 'breeze' block, then that's already well insulated. Are you sure it is, and not normal building blocks?)

So, provided you keep this sensible, I don't see any breach of PP or BRegs.

Line the floor with a DP membrane (tobersure tobesure - it'll already have one under the concrete slab), 2" Jablite, a floating chipboard floor, and then whatever flooring you want on top. Line the internal block walls with Dot&Dabbed insulated plasterboard - 2" thick insulation will do. Build a 4" timber frame inside the garage door, stuff it with insulation, and line the inside with p'board. Run sockets and lighting and whatevs as you require. The ceiling will likely require noggins added to the joists, but otherwise just screw insulated p'board to this too. If you don't want to lose 2" of headroom, then just screw p'board sheets up, and then fill from above with loft insulation.

Materials for all this? Haven't a scooby, but surely a very rough £2k? This is a great DIY project if you are at all 'handy'.

OOokkaaay, the expensive part will be fitting the patio doors, and this will almost certainly require a new wider lintel. What's there at the mo' - a door and window? If so, could you replace the door with a fully glazed item, and also cut straight down from the window to the ground and fit a full-height window there?

Oh, and a skim of the p'board. Or, what wall finish were you thinking off? If you wanted a 'cabin' look, then you could forget the p'board and go straight to timber cladding - again a DIY job.

Make sure your door and or window has a trickle vent.

Apart from the patio doors, you don't really need a 'builder' for this; a good handyperson, or a joiner should be able to do this in their sleep.

Section62

Jeepers_Creepers said:

So, provided you keep this sensible, I don't see any breach of PP or BRegs.

The usual thing people don't think of is whether there is a planning condition requiring the garage to be kept as a place to park cars.

robatwork

Can you give the square metreage of the total floorspace?

If you're lucky, Doozergirl will be along to give you a learned reply.

Section62

MFdreamer said:

I definitely want to do it properly so don’t want to cut any corners.

Leaving the garage doors on so nobody knows what you've done is the first, and possibly biggest, cut corner you could do.

Is there a reason you want to do that, rather than doing it properly and getting planning consent for the conversion (if required)?


Have you thought about what you'll do when you want to sell and move?

murphydog999

I had 1/2 my double garage converted into a studio for work a few months ago. £8500K to second fix, window I sourced at £250, I didn't want it linked to central heating so but a convector heater in with a timer. You cant tell from the outside that it has been done it blends in so well. It works for me and I've still got a garage.

MFdreamer

Martin_the_Unjust said:

It’s a small poorly specced job which looks like you are trying to avoid planning and building regs, no wonder your having problems getting people to consider it.

Do some drawings, put in sizes of windows, location of electrics, method of heating etc etc, Then go have an informal chat with your local planning dept and building control.

In short, demonstrate your serious about the job.

I’m absolutely not trying to avoid planning and building regs. As I said in my message I want to do it properly. The issue is that I know absolutely zero about buildings so don’t even know where to start with speccing it properly or whether they’d rip me off.

Thanks for suggesting to do some drawings. It wouldn’t have even crossed my mind to do that at this stage. It’s pretty hard for someone with no knowledge of anything like this to show they are serious. I’m an accountant and wouldn’t expect my clients to have any accounting knowledge as that’s what they pay me for. I kind of assumed it would be the same for a building project but your response suggests I’m wrong about this?! 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for chipping in with some knowledge though. Much appreciated!

MFdreamer

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Hi MFdream.

Can you build a large shed or man-cave in your garden? Yes. If you find it hard to heat, could you add insulation? Yup. A window for light? Yeah. Electrics? Of course. A nice patio door in one side? Why not! Sleep in it overnight? What fun! Live there? Ah... Fit a loo? Hmm, nah. Run a CH pipe from the house in order to run a radiator? Noooo. 

All the things above that you 'cannot' do, you obviously can - as long as you don't get caught. All the stuff you are allowed to do, you can fill yer boots with.

So, keep within that list for your garage, and you should be fine. Cross that line, and - when someone grasses you up - expect a cross BCO.

Everything you've said you'd like to do sounds fine to me. The existing construction sounds good - brick outer skin on a breeze block wall. (If it's really 'breeze' block, then that's already well insulated. Are you sure it is, and not normal building blocks?)

So, provided you keep this sensible, I don't see any breach of PP or BRegs.

Line the floor with a DP membrane (tobersure tobesure - it'll already have one under the concrete slab), 2" Jablite, a floating chipboard floor, and then whatever flooring you want on top. Line the internal block walls with Dot&Dabbed insulated plasterboard - 2" thick insulation will do. Build a 4" timber frame inside the garage door, stuff it with insulation, and line the inside with p'board. Run sockets and lighting and whatevs as you require. The ceiling will likely require noggins added to the joists, but otherwise just screw insulated p'board to this too. If you don't want to lose 2" of headroom, then just screw p'board sheets up, and then fill from above with loft insulation.

Materials for all this? Haven't a scooby, but surely a very rough £2k? This is a great DIY project if you are at all 'handy'.

OOokkaaay, the expensive part will be fitting the patio doors, and this will almost certainly require a new wider lintel. What's there at the mo' - a door and window? If so, could you replace the door with a fully glazed item, and also cut straight down from the window to the ground and fit a full-height window there?

Oh, and a skim of the p'board. Or, what wall finish were you thinking off? If you wanted a 'cabin' look, then you could forget the p'board and go straight to timber cladding - again a DIY job.

Make sure your door and or window has a trickle vent.

Apart from the patio doors, you don't really need a 'builder' for this; a good handyperson, or a joiner should be able to do this in their sleep.

Thank you for such a detailed and helpful response. I’m not at all handy so definitely couldn’t do it myself! 

MFdreamer

Section62 said:

MFdreamer said:

I definitely want to do it properly so don’t want to cut any corners.

Leaving the garage doors on so nobody knows what you've done is the first, and possibly biggest, cut corner you could do.

Is there a reason you want to do that, rather than doing it properly and getting planning consent for the conversion (if required)?


Have you thought about what you'll do when you want to sell and move?

Ah ok! Now I understand 🤦🏻‍♀️ The only reason I want to leave the garage doors on is because I like how the garage looks so I want to leave it looking the same from the outside. The garage is quite imposing as my house is on a corner plot so to remove the garage doors would aesthetically look pretty !!!!!! to me. Plus I don’t want people knowing I’ve got a TV and stuff in there for security reasons. So leaving the doors on is nothing to do with anything other than how it visibly looks. 

I absolutely will be getting building regs and planning consents. That’s super important to me. I’m an accountant - we like to follow rules and do things properly 😂