Garage Conversion (Office & Utility Room)

[kai]

Working from home full time, I find it difficult to sometimes separate a work-life balance, especially as I work really long hours.

We have also needed to convert one of the bedrooms into an office. As such, I recently decided to split our office into an office/utility.

• The garage is not utilized, apart from a dryer and spare fridge
• It’s completely private. Behind the garage is protected forestry that no one can build on.
• We have a large drive that can easily hold 3 cars, so putting a car in the garage has never been a thing.
• Adding a side entrance from our garden.
• The build will be done completely out of timber-frame and will be easy enough to remove should we ever sell the house.
• Great excuse to kit the office out with some cool tech. For example the 65' Q70 TV will be going up above the desk (Heating, lighting, doors, security will all be WiFi)

Design.

The office will be 8sqm with a double partition wall. A 1200 patio door will be cut out of the single skin brickwork from the side entrance to allow access to the office space. The front opening of the garage will be a storage/utility area for kitchen cupboards, worktops, washing machine, tumble dryer etc.

Opening the garage from the front of the house will look like any other garage. You will not be aware behind the wall will be an office as its fairly long garage.

The office area will be heavily insulated and have underfloor heating.








Side Entrance (from rear garden - double patio door to be installed)

 

[kai]

Looking good! Tell me please, how have you stuck your framing together? Nails, screws or magic? Pilot holes/whales?

On a more depressing note, are the backs of those planters the garage bricks, or more timber?

Last question : Why so many sole plates? (I am learning too and about to do a half-bottomed approximation of this)

I have a builder doing the work - he is using screws. Nothing is nailed. The idea is that "should" this ever need to be taken down, it will be like a flat pack (in theory).

There is no depressing note - the is NO soil touching the brick work. Everything is timber front and back with railway sleepers, they are merely sunken at the back (out of shot). I will simply chainsaw the sleepers to create an opening to the patio door / for the builder to be able to disc the entry. Then entry will be slabbed and dressed with entry lighting etc.

The sole plates are to raise the flooring. The floor will be suspended to be the same height as outside. There will be no step up or down plus, its added protection as is only a single skinned brick.

 

[kai]

sole plates should have been pressure treated timber.

Possibly, however surely there is no need to use treated timber so long as it is going to remain dry?

The framing - there is no direct contact with the concrete. The entire is area has been wrapped around DPM, drainage holes are also going to be used to let any water run away from any area (IF) we are to have any slightly damp leaking through the brick.

 

[kai]

Will the double patio door let in enough natural light? Considering the front of the garage won't have any windows i presume? It doesn't make for a pleasant working environment if there's very little natural light!

Either way, cool little project going. Remember to keep taking lots of pics!

Make some space for a window and it will be perfect! You need some natural light.

I am hoping the patio doors will offer enough natural light. Putting a window on the back or side wall is not possible. This is next doors land and i will either be looking at their fence or into their garden. My only other option will be a sky light. However, i think the patio doors will be sufficient.

I have also selected a solid oak floor, natural oak desk etc to try and help.

 

[kai]

Have a similar patio door 4ft total about 80 cm of vertical glass, desk nearby and it's fine with an interior 4K/daylight light
...eyes can focus on the great outside when necessary.

some ventilation is helpful .. I'm intrigued by the (electric ?) underfloor heating and roof insulation needs ?

Following! Nice project, hope to see more pictures. Are you insulating the framing, and what about the roof?

Electric : The garage has its own fuse box but is connected to the main house. They run off the same ring as i am using the electric to carry the WiFi out there. Brilliant bit of kit from TP-Link. (TL-WPA4220)
Roof Insulation: The garage roof is vaulted. The builder will be plaster-boarding across the beams, so we will have a good 15 feet between the plasterboard and the top of the roof. I can add as much as i like i.e. 270mm+
Underfloor Heating: i will be using; Underfloor Heating Kit for Laminate / Wood with a WiFi Thermostat that i can program across 7 days. So i will have the heating come on at say 5am before going in the office to start work at 6/7.

From the middle of the garage looking up, as its hard to explain.


The office side will be plaster boarded at the beams. Then it will blocked off so one side will remain as is (with a new utility) and a normal ceiling office side. This is why a sky light (at this stage) might not be possible.

 

[kai]

Slow progress due to the weather. Today, we got the floating floor down ready for the underfloor heating.

Tomorrow the electrics going in:

Underfloor heating; wired / wifi
5 x double / USB sockets (2 exterior side for utility room)
2 switches
Ceiling Spotlights
2 outdoor PIR/ lights
Camera System / PIR sensors

Hopefully this week, the patio door will be in and the oak floor laid, with the plastering early next week.

There will be 100mm insulation going into the walls and 200mm in the roof.


There is also a custom desk' being fitted/moved that has been made up to exact same dimensions ready to go onto the back wall when the floor and skirting are down.

* built-in a separate room.




*garage

 

[kai]

quick question would this job require building regs to complete I assume it would as you are changing an out buidling into a heated main use room. I have a double garage and was considering bricking one door up and installing a window and door and partitioning it off leaving the other side as a garage/work area as we very rarely put the cars in the garage

From my understanding "permitted development rights. These rights ensure, as long as the work you’re carrying out is internal, and you’re not trying to enlarge the existing structure, you’re free to proceed to the building regulations stage.

 

[kai]

.. but you have to satisfy builing regs though (what he asked ?) so fire regs .... do you have to inform council, for re-evaluation, too.

moreover ... seems your desk is not facing the patio doors then ?

Possibly; i have just asked my builder who is going to check. As it could potentially come under class 6.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/schedule/2/part/6/made

 

[kai]

Is it a nuclear shelter?

Looks good, decent sized garage and should be a nice office space.

To try and keep a bit more warmth in I'd recommend buying a garage door floor strip, keeps draughts out and rubbish blowing in from underneath.

If the Coronavirus hits

There is no need' the garage is at the front of the house. This little sketch minute might explain better (not to scale etc). The office will be completely private and not viewable or have any type of coldness from the front garage door.




Front (what people see) it will have the illusion (brick wallpaper ) that its a standard garage at a quick glance. The length is a lot longer than a standard garage.

 

[kai]

Few progress shots. Build is coming along' however i am currently in the "in a bit of a mess" state:





Room will be plastered this week then finishing touches such as the heating; flooring and skirting. Then the carpenter will come to fit the custom desk etc.

The front side (garage door) is a bit of a mess at the moment but as soon as the carcasses are fitted i can start fitting the worktop and wallpapering the fake wall.

 

[kai]

what's the lighting choice then ... office ceiling diffuser panels , uplights ? unfortunately necessary to alarm it too, although blinds could help.

... the fake wall could have Andy's 1 million years bc poster .

Nothing fancy 4 spots inside and 2 up and down wall on the entrance. There is also an alarm being fitted and blinds.

 

[kai]

Progress is a lot slower than i had anticipated. The electrician' is so unreliable he is holding the job up massively. The builder and carpenter; cant do much until all the electrics are in

Its still a mess. However the garage is coming together and it almost be impossible to tell there is a room behind due to the size of the garage. I suspect should I ever come to sell the property this would not put people off.

Garage Jobs Left:
Electrics to be finished x2 sockets above and below worktops.
insulation to go into roof above new room
Wallpaper plasterboard (brick effect)
Wall brackets for lawnmower
Clean garage out





Office Jobs Left:
Electrics - several points, WiFi thermostat, outside lights
Underfloor heating, insulation and flooring
Skirting & Coving
TV mounted
Office desk fitted
Glass fitted in doors
Finish painting
Outside landscaping (entrance)

 

[kai]

Nice! Coming along nicely.

You putting any network points in?

No, i am just going with Powerline- WiFi plugs. I carry 35-40mb to this out-building. Enough to conduct normal tasks and stream HD.

 

[kai]

Going with a retrofit 18mm thick Overlay wet system or electric for the underfloor?

This stuff; https://totaltiles.co.uk/underfloor-heating-kit-for-laminate-wood-wifi-thermostat.html

 

[kai]

hea


Looks good. Only thing i'd be concerned about is running cost.

25mm kingspan underneath the heatmat?

5mm thick foam insulated boards.

Running costs works out about: 33p for 6-8 hours per day. £2.31 a week / £120.12 a year. This will be considerably cheaper than heating the entire house; as i will not be in there.

 

[kai]

Your office looks good!

Are your calculations correct? It is 140 watts per squRe metre.

If its an 8x4m room (say) it is 32 sqm
Times by 0.14killowats = 4.48 kWHours (if its on for an hour)
Times that by energy rating

I appreciate i may have size wrong!

8sqm office / 140W

so about £15 - 20 a month on 4-6 hours day?

 

[kai]

Update. Builder is starting back tomorrow as the glass ordered for the patio doors are only now available since lock down . Few small touches to be finished, such as glossing the skirting and coving, TV fitting and the desk. The garage also has to be finished as the utility room.

 

[kai]

Looking brilliant! How have you been getting on recently?

I’m doing similar, however by no means to the same extent. I’m taking small diy steps to get to a happy medium. Have plasterboarded the ceiling and insulated. Put some draught excluders around the garage door and insulated.
ive also added a bright led tube light, but there’s no natural light or heating. So I’m debating whether to replace the side door which currently has no glass for one that does. In the meantime I’ve got an electric oil plug in radiator for when it gets cold.

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, i love it. It took some time to get acclimatized. However, i now have a much healthier home life balance.

 

[kai]

Looks quality. in the middle of a similar situation apart from mine is converting the loft to an office. where did you get the work desk from? i take it that its a kitchen worktop cut to size?

thanks

I had a carpenter put it together for me as its custom . The work top is a solid oak kitchen counter from Howdens (£180 each x2)


The garden now has to be finished with new patio slabs and a garden path.

 

[kai]

What were the total dimensions of your garage before you started your project Kai? And what size are the spaces you’ve got now?

I really like what you’ve done and am probably going to be doing the same as you’ve done here with our garage, but just want to see what sort of space we’ll possibly end up with first as we’ve got a lot of ‘junk’ in our garage...

although this may be a good reason to take a lot of it to the tip...

The office itself is just over 8sqm as a room with a double partition wall. A 1200 patio door has then be created for side entrance. The garage element i am not sure of exact size, but its a double length garage. I would say the garage still has 4.5-5m of length and 4. something m wide for storage etc.

If i had one single (typical new build garage), i would have used the entire area. I was fortunate, we had a really large garage and could sacrifice the space. It's also added almost £30K to the value of our home