Have been looking at various houses with a view to moving sometime
soon-ish. Some have integral garages. We are among the many who never
use garages for cars but for doing things and storage. It looks to me as
if some of the garages are positively inviting you to make a doorway
from, say the kitchen, into the garage. And a wall of some sort across
the garage somewhere around two-thirds of the way down it - leaving
enough for the garage door to open (and keep the lawnmower).

Anyone able to give me a super-quick summary of the problems we'd hit in
doing so? I can think of planning issues, fire protection, floor of
garage not being level with floor of house, security (especially if the
wall across has itself a doorway put in it). Anything else?

Obviously will be researching more thoroughly but would like to get a
few pointers as to where there might be dragons.

--
Rod

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 9:04:21 PM UTC+1, polygonum wrote:
It looks to me as
if some of the garages are positively inviting you to make a doorway
from, say the kitchen, into the garage.

Not a problem in itself; there may be a fire resistant requirement and I think a requirement that the garage floor is lower than the house to prevent fuel/fumes creeping along the floor.

And a wall of some sort across
the garage somewhere around two-thirds of the way down it - leaving
enough for the garage door to open (and keep the lawnmower).

That wouldn't change the nature of it being a garage/utility room.

What would be an issue is if you changed the garage into a habitable room, where you'd have to upgrade insulation to current levels and comply with other building regs, and possibly require Planning permission. However this is not an uncommon project in many places; fit a nice window where the garage door was; park on the drive, and keep the lawnmower in a shed.

Owain

1. Read
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/per...ageconversion/

2. Note especially "Sometimes permitted development rights have been
removed from some properties with regard to garage conversions and
therefore you should contact your local planning authority before
proceeding, particularly if you live on a new housing development or in
a conservation area". Some LAs charge for checking this; others do so
free of chrage if you email details of a house you are thinking of
buying.


--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

In article ,
polygonum writes:
Have been looking at various houses with a view to moving sometime
soon-ish. Some have integral garages. We are among the many who never
use garages for cars but for doing things and storage. It looks to me as
if some of the garages are positively inviting you to make a doorway
from, say the kitchen, into the garage. And a wall of some sort across
the garage somewhere around two-thirds of the way down it - leaving
enough for the garage door to open (and keep the lawnmower).

Anyone able to give me a super-quick summary of the problems we'd hit in
doing so? I can think of planning issues, fire protection, floor of
garage not being level with floor of house, security (especially if the
wall across has itself a doorway put in it). Anything else?

Obviously will be researching more thoroughly but would like to get a
few pointers as to where there might be dragons.

Some local authorities have a cars-per-house figure which must be
catered for, usually based on number of bedrooms. If the garage
space was used to meet their requirements, you may not be able to
change it to something else.

Fire protection shouldn't be a problem - that garage will have
better fire protection than it needs after conversion.

There may not be suitable foundations under where you want to build
a wall, in which case they will have to be laid.

The thermal insulation of the garage may not have been up to those
required for living space at the time, and almost certainly won't
be up to the standards required today.

I've been thinking of stealing a small amount of the rear of mine
to make a downstairs toilet, as I don't currently have one downstairs,
and I have a relative who can barely climb stairs anymore. An extra
complication here is getting a sewer pipe routed to it. There is a
cars-per-house figure here, but I can get 3 cars on the drive, so
that's not an issue.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 07/09/2014 21:39, wrote:
On Sunday, September 7, 2014 9:04:21 PM UTC+1, polygonum wrote:
It looks to me as if some of the garages are positively inviting
you to make a doorway from, say the kitchen, into the garage.

Not a problem in itself; there may be a fire resistant requirement
and I think a requirement that the garage floor is lower than the
house to prevent fuel/fumes creeping along the floor.

And a wall of some sort across the garage somewhere around
two-thirds of the way down it - leaving enough for the garage door
to open (and keep the lawnmower).

That wouldn't change the nature of it being a garage/utility room.

What would be an issue is if you changed the garage into a habitable
room, where you'd have to upgrade insulation to current levels and
comply with other building regs, and possibly require Planning
permission. However this is not an uncommon project in many places;
fit a nice window where the garage door was; park on the drive, and
keep the lawnmower in a shed.

Owain

Thanks, Owain.

In at least one such house, I am sure that the garage floor is (within
millimetres) the same level as the rest of the ground floor. With a
continuous, unbroken wall between the rest of the ground floor and the
garage that wouldn't be an issue. Obviously if opened up to what was
still a garage it would be a problem.

What determines whether a room is habitable?

We'd possibly want to use the two thirds of a garage as storage and,
maybe, washing machine and freezer space.

--
Rod

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Some local authorities have a cars-per-house figure which must be
catered for, usually based on number of bedrooms.

They have such a policy locally, but seem to apply it selectively ...

Someone extending a house to add a 4th bedroom was told they had to
provide 3 off-street parking spaces, yet a whole new estate is being
built where the 4 bedroom houses all have 2 off-street spaces.

On 07/09/2014 21:50, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Some local authorities have a cars-per-house figure which must be
catered for, usually based on number of bedrooms. If the garage
space was used to meet their requirements, you may not be able to
change it to something else.

Fire protection shouldn't be a problem - that garage will have
better fire protection than it needs after conversion.

There may not be suitable foundations under where you want to build
a wall, in which case they will have to be laid.

The thermal insulation of the garage may not have been up to those
required for living space at the time, and almost certainly won't
be up to the standards required today.

I've been thinking of stealing a small amount of the rear of mine
to make a downstairs toilet, as I don't currently have one downstairs,
and I have a relative who can barely climb stairs anymore. An extra
complication here is getting a sewer pipe routed to it. There is a
cars-per-house figure here, but I can get 3 cars on the drive, so
that's not an issue.

Thank you - good points.

--
Rod

On 07/09/2014 21:50, Robin wrote:
1. Read
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/per...ageconversion/

2. Note especially "Sometimes permitted development rights have been
removed from some properties with regard to garage conversions and
therefore you should contact your local planning authority before
proceeding, particularly if you live on a new housing development or in
a conservation area". Some LAs charge for checking this; others do so
free of chrage if you email details of a house you are thinking of
buying.


Have looked - definitely need to investigate - assumptions are right out
on this sort of thing!

--
Rod

Have looked - definitely need to investigate - assumptions are right
out on this sort of thing!

I forgot to add that my very limited experience of house-hunting so far
is that people who have already converted integral garages tend to lie
shamelessly about having checked permitted development rights, building
regulations etc. ISTM the policy has to be "disrust and verify".



--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

On 07/09/2014 22:11, Robin wrote:
I forgot to add that my very limited experience of house-hunting so far
is that people who have already converted integral garages tend to lie
shamelessly about having checked permitted development rights, building
regulations etc. ISTM the policy has to be "disrust and verify".

Thank you - am well aware of that. A huge number of years ago I did a
couple of things to a house which came up when I sold it - causing me
some anxiety. In the end, the buyer didn't give a damn but I have often
wondered if they later had any problems when they sold.

--
Rod

Too long. "People selling houses lie shamelessly." There. That's
better.

Now you tell me.

Is it just me or was it more straightforward before all these bloody
property programmes led to damn near every house being
extended/converted/re-purposed?
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

Robin wrote

Too long. "People selling houses lie shamelessly."
There. That's better.

Now you tell me.

No way.

Is it just me

Yep.

or was it more straightforward before all these bloody
property programmes led to damn near every house
being extended/converted/re-purposed?

Nope. My parents were doing that in the 50s, LONG
before there were any TV programs about it.

"Huge" wrote in message
...
On 2014-09-07, Robin wrote:
Have looked - definitely need to investigate - assumptions are right
out on this sort of thing!

I forgot to add that my very limited experience of house-hunting so far
is that people who have already converted integral garages tend to lie
shamelessly about having checked permitted development rights, building
regulations etc. ISTM the policy has to be "disrust and verify".

Too long. "People selling houses lie shamelessly." There. That's better.


Estate agents?

--
Adam

On 08/09/2014 20:59, ARW wrote:
"Huge" wrote in message
...
On 2014-09-07, Robin wrote:
Have looked - definitely need to investigate - assumptions are right
out on this sort of thing!

I forgot to add that my very limited experience of house-hunting so far
is that people who have already converted integral garages tend to lie
shamelessly about having checked permitted development rights, building
regulations etc. ISTM the policy has to be "disrust and verify".

Too long. "People selling houses lie shamelessly." There. That's better.


Estate agents?

And vendors.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

Estate agents?

These are resident homeowners telling porkies.

I suspect it's partly a result of my not having bought for 30 years. I
truly think there were fewer outright liers in them days (if only
because they feared the consequences, no matter how ill-defined).
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid