Garage Conversion Chit Chat

[member]

I've looked at some old threads but wondered whether anybody has done a garage conversion recently & could give me an idea on costs etc?

We have an integral double garage accessed from the hall though I'd ideally want to move the position of the door & would be looking to convert the half closest to the house to a home cinema room & keep the half furthest from the hall for storage. Obviously, there are going to be extra considerations re wiring/installing AV equipment on top of basic conversion costs.

Anybody who's done or looked into a garage conversion's views welcomed - this thread is literally my starting point!!

Joining you in hope of tips! We are waiting for PP to convert detached double garage and build a utility to link it to the house. Hard to say exactly what the garage bit is costing, but it's around £12k. We are going to use it as a family room. Our current dilemma is whether to try to make it look like a normal room, with a big window in keeping with rest of house in place of the garage door, or go dramatically different and put floor to ceiling glass in the door space. We live on a quiet private lane, only traffic is to the four houses further down the lane than us, so although it is at the front, we don't have major privacy issues. Views on whether this is mad or not though would be v welcome!

We looked at reserving some of the space for storage, but concluded we would rather buy an extra shed and have a lovely big room!

I got all excited when I saw replies; I thought this thread was doomed . Partystress, I'd love the floor to ceiling glass option - unfortunately ours is destined to be a home cinema room & there are issues of ambient light affecting the quality of picture on a screen so much so that dh is probably going to want to cover the place in black felt and carpet to absorb reflection.

We have a reasonable sized shed & the garden isn't very generous so a second/bigger shed isn't really a good option for us unfortunately.

No idea of cost but you must get planning, just for future sale of property. Plus make sure the floor is insulated. I'm sure there is something if you google it. Pop on question on MyBuilder.com - its free.

we converted our double garage 18 months ago into a playroom. We removed the garage doors and put 2 windows in and I had them made to the same size as the dining room window which is the other room on the front of the house. That way it looked less like a garage conversion.

We retained the back 1.5m of both garages as a store. We had to apply for planning and building regs and it took 3 weeks. We had 2 radiators put in, a block wall inside to create the store area, knocked through from the hall, had flooring laid, loft hatch closed up and relocated (double garage where only one of the garages has a room above it so we have storage above) strip lighting moved into store area and downlighters put into playroom.

The final room is about 5.5m long and 3.6m wide. We have put 4m of wardrobes in across the back wall, there is an internal door into the store. We also had new flooring laid in the hall and dining room. Cost IIRC was £12k

So, if you are converting just one garage and having it as a cinema are you intending to retain the garage door at the front? You can use this as a little storage area and put a wall up behind with enough room to allow the garage door to open. That way you can keep your room very dark.

There are lots of AV forums where people create home cinemas and the window coverings are always an issue when trying to cut out all the light.

You can get trunking put inside the wall to enable you to run cables easily, plus there are either plates with all the connections on so the wires are attached to that and you just plug stuff in or you can get a brush plate (like a letterbox) and run the cable out of that.

The most important thing is insulation, go overboard on it so that it isn't freezing.

Wow, that was long

That should read it took 3 weeks to complete the build not the planning part, that took 8. I have just remembered we had to move our en-suite soil pipe to enable us to knock through from the hall. A single garage version of what I did is around £8k.

Member, the storage behind the garage door option does sound like a goer for you if you are looking for darkishness... We have gorgeous views and all the builders we spoke to said although it would be great use of space, it would be criminal to have a big room that doesn't look at the view. Not sure if the glass option will be affordable, but going to check out integral blinds - think they fit in the cavity between the two panes of glass and you can remote control lift up to invisible, have down but slats open, or down and completely shut out light. Interesting, vairy interesting....

That's brilliant Fizzy - I think much as dh would like a Bat Cave, we will put a window in so that the room can function as a general reception room for any future owners.

Sorry for hijacking, but was just wondering what people thought about changing flat roof to pitch of garage?

Zippy I think the benefits would be, aesthetically it would probably look better and it does give you a bit of storage above.

Practically, is it a stand alone garage or integral to your house? If integral then you would have to work out where the roof will attach to the house.

member loving the Bat Cave idea! Google home cinema forums and you will find loads of info and pictures of what people have done.

My friend has a screen that comes down from the ceiling but this is in his lounge, it drops down in front of the fire. His wife didn't want a 70 inch tv on the wall so this was the compromise