Reversing a garage conversion

mjd

mjd

mjd

Permabanned
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
1,074
Location
Llanelli, S.Wales
We are looking at undoing a garage conversion put in by the previous owners of our house. The conversion essentially adds a garage size area to the lounge as it stands. I understand why the previous owners did it, as they had 3 kids and used the space as a playroom, but we cant see any viable use of the space for ourselves other than to return it to being a garage which would be a huge plus for me....I mean us!

As far as I can tell (from a destruction/construction point of view), it isn't much more than removing the additional brickwork and window that replaced the original garage door, putting a new door in and building a new internal wall to separate the garage from the lounge.

I am hoping someone may have done something similar and can offer any input on my undoubtedly over simplified view of achieving this. I am also particularly interested to know if whether we need to notify planning/building control of our intentions.
 
Thanks for that.
Might sound like a daft question, but would that be both sides of the internal wall?
The garage is underneath one of the front bedrooms, so guessing fire proofing applies to the ceiling too.
 
You'll need Building Regs approval.

Walls and ceiling must provide 30 minutes fire resistance on the garage side, with a fire door.

The floor also has to either be 100mm lower than the door threshold, or the floor must slope towards the main opening. If they raised the floor level, you'll need to remove this.
 
Suspect they may have raised the floor, so think that should be be fairly straight forward.

Is it safe or somewhat stupid to assume that a decent builder should be aware of building refs and should handle it accordingly? This is the first time we have had to hire a builder so want to make sure I am armed before getting quotes.
 
You should contact your local council and tell them what you intend to do and ask for their advise regarding building regs. Some unscrupulous builders will tell you you dont need it even if you do so forewarned is forearmed and dont use those builders.
 
mjd said:
Suspect they may have raised the floor, so think that should be be fairly straight forward.

Is it safe or somewhat stupid to assume that a decent builder should be aware of building refs and should handle it accordingly? This is the first time we have had to hire a builder so want to make sure I am armed before getting quotes.
Click to expand...

Talk to 3 or 4 different builders and see what they all say
 
Daft question. Are you looking to use it as an area to park a car in? If not you should already meet the requirements of the regs. You can block the area off and use it as a workshop/storage/gym/everything else others might use a garage for without the rigmarole of an actual garage.

We've never parked anything in ours :o
 
Gilly said:
Daft question. Are you looking to use it as an area to park a car in? If not you should already meet the requirements of the regs. You can block the area off and use it as a workshop/storage/gym/everything else others might use a garage for without the rigmarole of an actual garage.

We've never parked anything in ours :o
Click to expand...

I am planning to recover a portion of the original garage, pinching around a metre to create an alcove at the back of lounge just deep enough for a second sofa, so it wouldn't be big enough to take a car. It will be more storage!workshop than garage.
 
This can get complicated.

My estate has a requirement around garages being used as a garage/parking space, and permitted development rights had been removed. To convert the garage into 'habitable room' requires planning permission. A couple of houses have done it including our next door neighbour, and part of the planning is that you need space to accommodate a car somewhere other than the garage you are losing.

Now the complicated bit. If you want to convert the 'habitable room' back into a garage you'd need planning permission. The garages are 5.6m long by 2.6m wide. The planning requirements for a garage are now 6m by 3m, so essentially unless you knock down the garage and rebuild it to the correct dimensions you are stuck with it!

Have a check if planning was ever required (there should be an online portal you can look at your housing estate to see what has been allowed in the last 20 years at least) and if it was it would probably be best to speak to the local planning department. If it was done under permitted development then all you are doing is just altering the internal dimensions and just need to meet building regs.
 
mjd said:
I am planning to recover a portion of the original garage, pinching around a metre to create an alcove at the back of lounge just deep enough for a second sofa, so it wouldn't be big enough to take a car. It will be more storage!workshop than garage.
Click to expand...

Then surely you just build an internal stud wall, retain it as an internal room and not a garage, thus forgetting about the regs issues?

Why revert back to a garage only to not park in it?
 
Gilly you have hit the nail on the head there. For some reason my addled brain decided to exclude such a simple plan.

Am now thinking it would be better to replace the existing window that replaced the garage door with upvc doors instead and build an internal stud wall to separate it from the lounge.

The only thing I am not sure about with this idea is whether there is any regulation that requires me to have an internal door into the space which would complicate things in that I would have an unnecessary door stuck behind a sofa.
 
:D

You can share the savings with me as my fee, I'm willing to take only 20% of the overall savings :p

As for the door question, I wouldn't expect so but once again it's worth checking with the planning dept :)
 
This is rapidly beginning to sound like a second man cave, so I'll put a beer in the fridge for you providing you don't tell my wife :)
 
kefkef said:
The planning requirements for a garage are now 6m by 3m, so essentially unless you knock down the garage and rebuild it to the correct dimensions you are stuck with it!
Click to expand...

You had better tell the housing developers this as new houses being built do not have garages this size!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom