Garage Conversions

What a garage conversion involves

A basic storage conversion is straightforward: insulate the walls and ceiling, lay a floor, board the walls. But a habitable room conversion that will be used as a bedroom, office, utility room or additional bathroom requires more work to meet Building Regulations standards, and it's worth doing it properly from the start.

Most integral garages have a concrete slab floor with no DPC and poor insulation. The floor needs insulating, a DPC or DPM laid, and a new screed or board over the top to bring it up to an acceptable standard. The walls need insulating to meet thermal performance requirements. The ceiling needs bringing up to fire performance standards where the room above is habitable.

The garage door opening is often replaced with a new window and blockwork, or a wider door depending on the intended use. That's a structural opening and lintel work, similar to internal alterations.

Adding plumbing and heating

Many garage conversions include a utility room or en suite bathroom. This is one of the most common additions: the garage often sits adjacent to the ground floor, making it relatively straightforward to run a waste pipe to the existing drainage and supply pipes from the house. We handle the plumbing as part of the conversion, so there's one team and one programme rather than a builder finishing and then a plumber starting weeks later.

Heating the new room can be a radiator extended from the existing system, or underfloor heating if the floor build-up allows. For bathroom installation within a conversion, a towel rail on its own heated circuit is another option. We'd survey what's available from the existing system and give you a practical view on each option.

For new pipework running from the house into the converted space, we plan the route before the floor goes down, not after.

Building regulations and sign-off

A garage conversion to a habitable room requires Building Regulations approval. This isn't optional and it's not the same as planning permission (most garage conversions are permitted development, but it's worth checking). Building Regs covers structural, thermal, fire and drainage requirements.

We manage the Building Regulations process as part of the job: either via a Local Authority inspector or through a private approved inspector. You'll have a completion certificate at the end, which is a requirement for any future sale and which your insurer will want to see if the room is covered on your home policy.

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