Will converting my garage de value my house?

[Hastingsishot]

I live in a 3 bed semi. We have a garage on the side of our house. We are thinking of converting it into a large utility room. We live by the sea so it would be like a drying room, boot wash etc. Done properly with full insulation and heating etc.

The front garage door would be taken out and replaced with a large window or sliding doors. A door would be put in from the kitchen.

I don't see us moving from this house for a long time but I am still worried about the impact it has on the value and whether it would put people off buying it.

It would have lots of storage for all the small bits you might keep in a garage.

We have a garden, it's not big but we have a good sized heavy duty shed.

Any thoughts? Would it put you off?

@Hastingsishot

There is a side gate plus off road parking for 2 cars. It's a quiet cul de sac.

After reading this I'd say do it.

We wouldn't use a garage, and as long as I still had off road parking I'd prefer the utility space

We converted 3/4 of our garage into a room and left the front with the door and enough space for bikes etc. The partition wall was designed so that it could be easily removed if we sold and the new occupants wanted to covert it back into a garage. It has been so useful as an extra room. First as a playroom for the kids and now as an office for me to work from home

To answer your question OP, no I dont think it would devalue your house. It might reduce the number of people who might be interested in it when you come to sell (those people who see a garage as a must).

Just do whatever works for you.

Would not devalue your home. We did similar. Had a large drive, two sheds in garden for storage. Converted garage into extra living space.

We live by the sea and I would absolutely love a drying room to hang wetsuits and boards in, and to dry off boots and coats in the winter. I would do it. But I would consider just leaving the garage doors as they are so it's easy to get everything in and out.

I think, if you can, you should make a utility room at the back of the garage and then keep the front half as garage but use it as body board washing, hanging, storing etc. This keeps the options much more open and also it's probably better for you not to be mixing those functions as you will end up with a very hard to keep clean utility room so you will feel like you're doing your laundry in a dirty garage-type space. I think you would devalue it personally and that's not just by converting it per se but converting it to a disproportionately large utility room (2-3 times what it 'should be') for a very modest house (only 3 bedrooms). I think you can get round it by designing it better though - as long as you can access the back half through the house somehow.

PS its not comparable to converting it to a bedroom, play room, or study as they would be in proportion with the rest of the house so don't compare value with people who've done that.

Do you already have a downstairs loo? If not put one in there too. We converted our garage into a big room, mainly used as a guest room, with en-suite shower, loo and basin. It’s invaluable having a downstairs loo!

Sounds good to me.
I think you have to live in the now.
It’s what you need now that counts don’t worry about the future.

I'm currently turning my garage into bedroom and ensuite when I asked the estate agent about value they said that as long as we still had off road parking and suitable storage (eg space for a shed) that any usable extra square footage would add value.
I was more bothered about not losing money than making money so I've gone ahead with it. I also think there's a value to take into account of the time you'll use be in the home to.

Pretty much every house where I live has converted their garage. A lot of them have gone up above them as well to creat en suite/dressing rooms.

I asked an estate agent about this in our last house and he said it makes no difference. 50% of people want extra living space and 50% want a garage.

We have an integral garage and have discounted ever doing this. I always keep my car In the garage for one thing and it would be a long awkwardly shaped room. Neighbours have just converted theirs back into a garage as it wasn’t working for them.
I would be unlikely to buy a house without a garage.
However, it’s what works for you.

We did ours this year and it has made a huge difference. We use the space every day and get so much more from it than when we just used it to store crap. The house looks much more attractive too. We’ve got enough off-road parking space so that wasn’t a factor. The layout of our house is a bit odd so one day we’d want to reconfigure and extend but the conversion was a very good value way of getting additional useable space.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I think we will keep about 1/3 of the current garage as a garage for bikes etc and get a new roll up garage door (takes up less space than an up and over). And then covert the back 2/3rds.

That way we have the best of both worlds.

Has anyone had this done and have a ball park figure of how much it cost?

A garage conversion that could be used as utility / office / play room would be very appealing for us!

I would just do what you want to do. As long as you do it well the house will be saleable.

The only person I ever knew who actually parked a car in their garage was my dad, until even he gave up when he bought a car that was too wide to fit in it. Houses built in the 60s as theirs was, generally have narrow (single) garages, as cars were smaller in those days.
For every person who wants a garage on their "must-have" list when house-hunting, there'll be someone else who prefers the living space. If you're planning on remaining in the house for some time, do what suits your family life.
We converted ours (partly integral to the house, so it has a door straight in from the hallway, so feels part of things and is warm) around 10 years ago and haven't regretted it for a moment. It's been great with teenagers as a space for them, and particularly invaluable since lockdown, as another room for us to spread out/work from. We have built-in cupboards for storage, but also room for a TV, sofa and desk for work.
Anyone who wants a garage can look elsewhere, but we do have a double-width, double length driveway for 4 cars.

We’d probably be more likely to buy a house if the garage had been converted than if it hadn’t. In fact we once looked at two houses that had them in the same area only I liked one of them better but dh preferred the other. So we bought another house we both liked. But it would have given us more space for the money.

I hate them. A couple of neighbours have done this and tbh their houses look odd.

@felineflutter, I know what you mean and that was a concern of mine when we were considering it.
I think it depends on the style of the house though. To be honest, those that look odd are probably houses I wouldn't consider even without the conversion.
Ours looks OK and 'flows.'

I think how well the conversion is done - which really means how expensively - makes a huge difference to whether it looks like a part of the house or an old garage. As I said there are loads of garage conversions around me and they're of vastly different qualities. Putting a proper roof on rather than having a flat one is transformative but obviously costs more, as does putting in good windows.

Yes OP I think this is best. We converted ours fully for around 2k but my OH did all the work. The brick wall was quite a task but I guess you might just have breezeblock if you're keeping 1/3 as garage? Then there was some insulating of the floors and walls and some electrical work. before painting and decorating. We already had a door going in and I guess you need to factor that in too which will be some more 100's I'd think (plus door itself).