Extending over the garage

Crizzy

Crizzy

Crizzy

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Joined
31 May 2007
Posts
2,479
Location
Bristol
Hi everyone,

I'm currently living in a semi-detached property and am considering my options for extending. One of the most viable solutions would be to extend over the top my garage giving me a couple of extra rooms (it's double length garage).

However, our non-attached neighbours have already done this, and they have also converted their old garage to living space as well (well, the previous owners did, not the people currently living there).

I'm planning to keep the garage as a garage at the front of the house, but the extension above will then be attached to the neighbours property, creating a terraced effect.

Does anyone know if this would actually re-classify both houses to be terraced should either of us wish to sell in future, as I do not want to negatively impact the cost of our properties? Also both our original neighbours would then become 'end of terrace' as well?
 
If I am viewing this in my head correctly then yes it can affect the value of both properties.

It basically comes down to the more you share the more potential problems there are. Shared driveways, shared roof, shared walls, noise.... And the more neighbours you have that you share with, the greater the risk for new buyers.
 
Why not just do what everyone seems to do and leave a tiny, phobia inducing gap :p?

Are your garages currently attached to each other? I know you say they're a non-attached neighbour, but it's the only reason I can think of that you'd even be considering not just leaving a tiny gap. If they're not attached, you'd need extend the garage part out to meet their property, right?
 
So my garage is attached to their property now, but the garage would have to come down before any works start as it wouldn't be able to support an extension on top.

Neighbours across the road have done this, and left a tiny gap, but think that would cause more trouble if there were any maintenance issues further down the line?

Also the architect we spoke to said he doesn't quite understand why people leave a gap for similar reasons, although I suppose we could request it.
 
If you do this just make sure you go belt and braces on the insulation and heating. Bedrooms over garages can be cold.

The garage door might also need reviewing for similar reasons.
 
Participant said:
If you do this just make sure you go belt and braces on the insulation and heating. Bedrooms over garages can be cold.

The garage door might also need reviewing for similar reasons.
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Thanks for the tip.

I think I'm just going to ask my neighbor what their thoughts are and go with whatever works best for both of us.
 
Our road do this, the first to do it gets the cheapest easiest build, the local planners won’t allow terracing so they have to leave a little gap which means you can’t sit the brick and block on the party wall and have to create another foundation which could mean underpinning the party wall.

Bit of a mare really
 
Typically the garage dividing wall and foundations are pretty poor in comparison to the house so you can’t just load them up.

Would be so much more efficient if neighbours got together and built them side by side but no one does
 
Yeah, it is what it is I suppose, hopefully we can get it all done in budget, at the moment we've got no idea of cost until we can get some plans drawn up and sent over to the contractors.
 
The planning dept in our area also don't allow a terrace to happen, so a small gap has to be left. It's a right pain and the other person who gets there first has a massive advantage when it comes to cost and ease of access.

I don't know about your layout but it may be worth looking at a loft conversion as an alternative.
 
We don't quite have the headroom for a loft conversion unfortunately, and even if we did we'd have to sacrifice one of our rooms for the stairs so we wouldn't be gaining any extra rooms either :(
 
is there a reason for you to keep the garage? what is the main reasons for extending up?

could a garage be rebuilt somewhere else for you to go for a single story side extension only?
 
We ideally need to keep the garage as we have 3 children and need somewhere to store their bikes (and mine). Whilst we could do this in the garden it would mean dragging muddy bikes through the house which is not ideal.

If we kept a small space for storage at the front of the house then any room behind it would have no windows, which again is not ideal.
 
No I haven't spoken to any estate agents. We don't really have any desire to move so any impact to our property is almost irrelevant.

We have the architect coming out next week so I'm going to ask my neighbors to see if they want to be available to ask any questions regarding potential plans, just so that we are all on the same page from day 1.
 
Crizzy said:
We ideally need to keep the garage as we have 3 children and need somewhere to store their bikes (and mine). Whilst we could do this in the garden it would mean dragging muddy bikes through the house which is not ideal.

If we kept a small space for storage at the front of the house then any room behind it would have no windows, which again is not ideal.
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If you are knocking the garage down then you could leave a side path to push the bikes down between the houses to storage in the garden. Sure you'd lose some floor space but you'd gain two floors of living space plus it would keep the house as a semi.
 
Puzzled said:
If you are knocking the garage down then you could leave a side path to push the bikes down between the houses to storage in the garden. Sure you'd lose some floor space but you'd gain two floors of living space plus it would keep the house as a semi.
Click to expand...


good suggestion but as someone else pointed out here the OP is unlucky here as the neighbour on the non joining side has already done their conversion.
OP loses out the space, but I agree sounds like a feasible option. I love having a garage so convenient especially for tools n bikes.
 
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