Will converting our garage devalue our house or not?

[BagofHolly]

Our house started out as a bog standard 4 bed detached with integral single garage, built about 15 us ago. The people before us did a big loft conversion and added 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, so although we love the space, it feels a bit top heavy. On the ground floor we have a big kitchen-diner running the full length of the house, a lounge and a downstairs wc. We have a toddler and are expecting twins so it'd be great to have a playroom to contain all their gear. The obvious solution is the garage. The house would end up essentially double fronted, and there's a same designed house up the road where they've done this and it looks nice. The drive is wide enough for 3 cars and the garage has is currently just for storage. My H worries that converting will devalue the house. Is he right?

Not many people actually put a car in a garage, so as long as you've got plenty of parking I don't think that would be an issue. But you might want to think about where you'll keep the lawnmower etc - I think more people would be worried looking at a house with a garden and no storage/workspace for the garden stuff, than they would be about not actually having a garage.

Depending on your layout, you might be able to make the back part of the garage into an outside store?

Exactly what AMIS said. You need somewhere to keep all the stuff you don't want in the house and if you have a big house and garden that'll be a lot.

There's quite a wide space to the side of the house which would take a good sized shed for storing bikes and the mower etc. I've seen a plastic shed which would fit nicely -the space is 8' wide and about 12' long and it's just dead space at the moment so would be ideal.
So as long as we could show alternative storage arrangements that should sort things?

get an estate agent round and ask first before doing anything. We've been told that we need to keep a garage to resell as many people who buy in the area do put certain cars into garages. Is there room to build a detached garage at the front?

HOw likely are you to move house in the future if you do the convertion? Sure it would be fairly inexensive to convert it back?

The future value of your home is not the be all and end all - especially as it would cost you £000's to move It does sound as though your house is top heavy so the conversion probably won't devalue.

I would rather have big living space than space to park my car inside.

Unless you live in the highlands and need a garage so as not to have to excavate the car from snow every morning, there is little use for a garage.

Dont put a plastic shed, if anything, that WILL devalue the property. Get a proper decent shed from a shed company, in wood.

I would say the biggest issue is storage. Most houses of that size would have a loft and/or a garage and to have neither may make the house less appealing (not sure it would devalue it if you are adding another room though). Definitely look into adding storage space elsewhere.

I like the idea of having a separate storage space off the back of the garage (either as a utility room if that's feasible, or just purely storage space) and definitely speak to an estate agent first.

I would definitely do it though, even if it did knock a little bit off the value (assuming you're going to be in the house for a good few years yet).

Thanks everyone! We're getting an estate agent out this week for a chat and a valuation. My husband was initially so against it, but we went to a family party yesterday and watched our toddler and two of his toddler cousins twirling around the room like little dervishes, leaving a trail of devastation! Seeing as we're expecting twin boys, it was like a glimpse of the future! Yikes! Husband went really quiet and then said "So, we'll be converting the garage then!"

I disagree - I think it might add value, but you do need to sort out storage, as you've identified.

According to the estate agents we spoke to when we were looking into this - as long as you have enough off road parking space for two cars, you will not devalue your house. If it's done well it will add value.

Even if the converted room is not going to be used as a bedroom, think about having the room built with building regs approval as a bedroom, ie the correct fire safety sized window openers & smoke detectors, then if you decide to sell you can advertise it as having an extra bedroom.

And if the garage is long enough, have the back section made into a separate utility room/storage room - or if that's not possible, build a good strong shed.

We have just converted our double garage, we have parking for 4 cars on our drive.

It is the best thing we ever did, it is the boys playroom. Our garages were 5.5m long and we retained the back 1.6m for storage across the whole back of the garage.

Replaced the garage doors with windows that matched the other windows on the front meaning that the new brickwork was toothed in rather than having two massive windows where the doors used to be. We had 90 degree openers on the windows for fire reasons, smoke alarm is mains and battery powered and in the hall which was fine for building inspector.

The building inspector said that the most requests they are dealing with are for garage conversions as people need more space and as the structure is already there it can work out cheaper than an extension.

The planning office (we had no permitted development rights to had to have planning but didn't have to pay) are only concerned with parking for 2 cars, as you have space for 3 you are onto a winner.

We have banked a 4m wall with storage units and we have Trofast storage tubs from Ikea.

It was finished in September and was the best thing we did to this house.

We converted our garage into an open plan kitchen and family room and it has transformed our house. Garages are often too small for parking large modern cars anyway so no-one uses them for this.

If you are basically only using the space for storage it makes sense to convert it into usable living space and get a shed for storage.

As you have plenty of off road parking and have space for a shed, you should definitely go for it. You will not regret it.

i would agree about getting a good quality wooden shed, though. A plastic monstrosity on the side of the house is not going to be appealing.