Cost of reversing double garage conversion

ignite_me

Also, I think it's worth mentioning: Based on other houses in the area, I suspect that this used to be a garage with two single garage doors and looks like the internal rooms might have a single brick pillar in between. I know that steel supports are expensive and likely to increase the costs for this quite a bit if I wanted one large garage with double doors?



Unfortunately, the house hasn't been sold for while so I cannot locate any previous floorplans or photos of it.

Section62

ignite_me said:

Also, I think it's worth mentioning: Based on other houses in the area, I suspect that this used to be a garage with two single garage doors and looks like the internal rooms might have a single brick pillar in between. I know that steel supports are expensive and likely to increase the costs for this quite a bit if I wanted one large garage with double doors?

...

Unfortunately, the house hasn't been sold for while so I cannot locate any previous floorplans or photos of it.

How about old listings for any of the similar houses, or of an unconverted house?  At a push, possibly knock on the door of one of the unconverted houses, explain the situation and ask them if you can have a look ad/or take a picture.

My gut feel is there is something not straightforward with the conversion.

Have you got a first floor plan, plus possibly a view of the front (cropped if need be so it isn't identifiable)

Silvertabby

Have you got the space/access to build a separate garage?  

ignite_me

Section62 said:

Have you got a first floor plan, plus possibly a view of the front (cropped if need be so it isn't identifiable)

Front:



Plan:



There seems to be a pillar next to the doors between the play room and the office, and my suspicion is that it aligns and holds the corner of the first floor. Adding a steel support both for the front and the room itself could be very costly...

I also found out that the this work was carried out in 1993, and it used to be two double garages but no floors plans of that time available.

ignite_me

Closest similar house in the area I could find is this:

ic

My thoughts are to the age of the house, and the fact you have living space above the garage.  I would have thought to convert to a garage you'd need to ensure the living space is safe from fire in the garage  - and building regs that applied when the house was first built will have moved on.  I expect it'd be a case of ensuring suitable fire breaks (brick walls, sealed holes, suitable interlinked smoke alarms, pink plasterboard, fire door between the house and garage, etc).  Also the insulation between the garage and house might need upgrading to modern expectations (regs recently changed to 100mm thick rather than 50mm of just a few years ago).

Section62

ignite_me said:

Section62 said:

Have you got a first floor plan, plus possibly a view of the front (cropped if need be so it isn't identifiable)

...
There seems to be a pillar next to the doors between the play room and the office, and my suspicion is that it aligns and holds the corner of the first floor.

...

I also found out that the this work was carried out in 1993, and it used to be two double garages but no floors plans of that time available.

The wall between the playroom and office certainly appears to align with the first floor external wall, and this could be a reason for having a wall on the ground floor between the garages.

However, the plan for the similar house doesn't show a wall in this position.  If that floor plan is correct then the front and gable walls on the first floor would need to be supported by a 'T' beam - which in itself is a bit odd as it is an expensive form of construction when building new, but doesn't feel right becuase the pillar of masonry between the two garage doors isn't sufficient to support the end of the main beam if it runs front-back.  If the main beam spanned the width of the garage instead then you'd expect to see some of it boxed in running across the ceiling of the office.  So maybe the plan is wrong, or the houses aren't that similar.

On the floor plan of the property you are looking at, if the main beam supporting the first-floor front wall is spanning across the width of the garage then the 'master bedroom' end of that beam would appear to sit above the double doors from the entrance hall into the lounge.  Again this doesn't feel right.

ignite_me said:

Adding a steel support both for the front and the room itself could be very costly...

It would be, but as above, the necessary supporting structure would have been in place when originally built, and it would be unusual to remove it to do a conversion of this type.  You'd normally work the conversion around the existing structure, other than creating new openings in structural walls.  This may explain, for example, why the 'storage' is the shape it is.

If you want a double garage with the whole floor area as one clear space then you'll need to get a structural engineer to investigate what is going on, and probably do so even if you can accept a pillar or wall between the two sides.  The only thing which is reasonably clear is there should be at least one internal structural wall involved somewhere within the garage area.