Garage conversion - garage below house level

ascoli

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice or similar experiences of renovating a garage similar to the below. We would like to turn the garage into liveable space by potentially joining it with the room next to it. Issue is, the garage is below the level of the rest of the house and so I guess would require some stairs from the small room into the garage.

Does this seem worth doing? We won't use the garage for a car and seems a waste to just be for storage. Floor plan and photo of height difference attached.

Thanks for any help!

Section62

ascoli said:

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice or similar experiences of renovating a garage similar to the below. We would like to turn the garage into liveable space by potentially joining it with the room next to it. Issue is, the garage is below the level of the rest of the house and so I guess would require some stairs from the small room into the garage.

Does this seem worth doing? We won't use the garage for a car and seems a waste to just be for storage. Floor plan and photo of height difference attached.

Thanks for any help!

Looks like a relatively modern house - have you checked for covenants and/or planning conditions prohibiting conversion?

What is on the other side of the garage (the side opposite the steps)?  Is that side also dug into the ground, or does the ground level drop away in that direction?

ascoli

Haven't checked that yet, thanks for the heads up though, will look into it.

Here's the other side. Steps up into the side entrance for the garden 

Kiran

Assuming you don't have any restrictive covenants and you want to convert it for your own standard of living then it wouldn't be overly complicated. Your floor level would come up anyway as you will need to insulate it and I expect you'd be looking at a level difference of around 1800mm. You could accommodate that on the back wall and create the entrance back into the hallway. What is the current height of the garage ceiling? You need a minimum of 2m headroom above the top step.

What do you want the converted space to be used for?  

ascoli

Kiran said:

Assuming you don't have any restrictive covenants and you want to convert it for your own standard of living then it wouldn't be overly complicated. Your floor level would come up anyway as you will need to insulate it and I expect you'd be looking at a level difference of around 1800mm. You could accommodate that on the back wall and create the entrance back into the hallway. What is the current height of the garage ceiling? You need a minimum of 2m headroom above the top step.

What do you want the converted space to be used for?  

Thanks, that's helpful. Good point on the floor level coming up anyway.

This is the inside of the garage, comfortably has at least 2m height difference. It has the storage level above the main space currently. This photo is taken from the garage entrance.



Not sure on the intention for the space yet, that was one of the goals of making this thread for some ideas. I wasn't really sure how restrictive the stairs would be and what could realistically be done with the space!

Kiran

So you've got plenty of space, although you will more than likely have to do away with the storage space as that will restrict your head height as the stairs come up. The 2m will be taken form above the top step, which is going to be the same as your current ground floor level. Looks like it should be fine as the soffit above seems to be the underside of the 1st floor of the house? 

You would get a decent amount of space if you did convert it, although without a specific purpose in mind I'd hold off. I mean a cinema room for example would be awesome, but it's not going to add value to your property if you see wat I mean. Office/Gym/Playroom/Hobby room all potential good uses if you have a need, but I'd suggest the need should be there before you carry out any work.

Has anyone else in the area done anything similar?

ascoli

Yeah that's right, the underside of the 1st floor is above.

I think ideally we'd like a room that we could change around relatively easily. Potentially a movie room, like you say, which could also be changed if we wanted something new. So I guess the design is the important part.

Do you not think that creating this extra living space would add value to the house regardless of what we used it for? As long as the design meant that potential buyers could use the space how they liked?

Kiran said:

So you've got plenty of space, although you will more than likely have to do away with the storage space as that will restrict your head height as the stairs come up. The 2m will be taken form above the top step, which is going to be the same as your current ground floor level. Looks like it should be fine as the soffit above seems to be the underside of the 1st floor of the house? 

You would get a decent amount of space if you did convert it, although without a specific purpose in mind I'd hold off. I mean a cinema room for example would be awesome, but it's not going to add value to your property if you see wat I mean. Office/Gym/Playroom/Hobby room all potential good uses if you have a need, but I'd suggest the need should be there before you carry out any work.

Has anyone else in the area done anything similar?

ThisIsWeird

Hi Ascoli.

You have at least a couple of options - one is to convert it under Building Control (and possible Planning - they may insist it's kept as a 'parking space') to make it a 'habitable' room, and the other is to make it what you want, whilst it still effectively remains a 'garage'. Ie, you can watch a movie or listen to music in your garage if you want.

With little work, you can make it a very comfy room, nicely insulated, with your choice of access - a ladder, spiral, fireman's pole, or even a proper staircase - and use it for whatever you want; cinema, chill, music, guest room, whatevs. But, bear in mind it won't 'conform', so it'll always be just 'a fancy garage'.

Or, get Planning, and then BC approval, and make it a legit part of your house - fully BC conformant, signed-off, etc.

What difference will it make to house value? No idea - it'll depend on how valuable the actual garage was as a garage, for example, or how valuable this space is as a useful extra room - but it's likely to be; 

DIY conversion - "oooh, I like it! I prefer this house a wee bitty more than the one next door, as they've turned the garage into a movie room, so I'm more likely to go for it = a few £k". 

Or, "Hmmm - this house has a proper extra bedroom/guest/reception room! That's worth at least £15-20k more."

Or, "Where's the garage?! Where do I do up my 'classic'? Ah - it's in this nice, carpeted room - perfect! - I'll pay £1k more for this comfy garage! Ah, I won't, 'cos there's no garage door, and the stairs will get in the way of my car. Let's look somewhere else..."

It really depends on how valuable an actual 'garage' is to that house. Compared to an extra 'room'.

I turned our attached garage into the room where I sit on my ownsome, telling folk what to do, or 'they are wrong' - ie, a computer room - with full BC conformity, but we also have a separate detached garage. So, for us, it's an extra 'study' or whateves. So 'useful'.

There is no one answer to your dilemma, but it'll come down to what you intend its use to be.

jennifernil

With so much headroom available I would remove the storage area, divide off the bit that comes forward of the house wall, use it as a small storage area accessed through an outward opening door or doors, or a roller door.    Then in the rest of it put in a floor at the level of the house floor, so no  steps needed.

You could then either have a good sized extra room, looks like there is space to have a door from the hall, or open it up to the other small room.    Put a bigger window in the side wall, even if it needs to be only at high level it could be wider, or you may be allowed to use frosted glass.

Bigphil1474

Could you not just knock a hole in the wall from the corridor, and put in a floor at that level to give you a floor above the garage? Gain the space without losing the garage. Can't really tell from the photos.

jennifernil

You can see from the position of the windows in the small room roughly where the floor level is, there would not be more than about 1.2 - 1.5m of height left in the garage.