Garage to home office - will it kill a resale?

[BlogOnTheTyne]

We're thinking of converting the garage into a home office but are wondering if it's stupid to lose the garage?

No plans to sell the house for several years - if ever - but in case - and if and when we do, will the lack of a garage reduce the sale value and is a garage a necessity for most people?

There's a car port which we use for the car in any case and a garden shed that could be used to whatever's currently in the garage. Just not sure if losing the garage is a bad idea???

I'm quite fond of my garage. Not having to scrape it and getting in a warm-ish car on winter mornings is bliss. I'm looking out for a new house and one 'must-have' is a garage. Mind you, I'm a single mum so no one else can scrape my car, hence loving the garage. I would probably be less fussed if I wasn't on my own.

I saw it done well once, where they left the original garage door, but it opened to a very short garage. Not big enough for a car, but still room for bikes, lawnmower etc. It meant the new room had better proportions, sometimes garage conversions still look like a garage, because they're too long for their width iyswim and you didn't have that odd window where there should be a garage door on the front of the house look.

Thanks for the feedback, Meglet. The car port seems to keep the car frost free all year round. I'm also a single mum with DCs and it is useful to have a garage but if I free up the bedroom currently being used as the office, then the DCs can 'spread' themselves more in the house and it'll keep my business separate to the home/family.

Garage is currently being used to store masses and masses of stuff from my late parents home and some old gym equipment and a conversion might give me th eimpetus to clear and declutter at last.....but I'm back to the worry that if we (ie myself and DCs) ever sell, then potential buyers might baulk at the lack of a proper garage.....

Should I look into converting the car port into a garage instead or could the fact that this is there, mean that potential buyers could do that themselves if necessary oneday?

For me it would be an advantage. I don't consider a garage essential, as long as there's a dedicated off-street parking space, and for us the home office would be a very useful space.

Most people I know with garages don't actually bother putting their cars in them as it's a faff and unnecessary, they're used more for general storage.

When we were house hunting we were actually looking for a house with an integral garage, so that we could convert it. So I would have been happy to find the work already done. I've never had a garage, so don't miss one. I don't think it would affect a future sale, and imho you should make your house work for your family in the here and now.

For me, it would be an advantage. We're house-hunting and every time I see an integral garage, I think oh, I'd convert that to an extra recep if I lived here. I think it also usually makes the front of a house look nicer - don't particularly like garage doors as part of house frontage myself.

I would only do it if you have really good parking/driveway. My neighbours did it and despite having a double drive they have said it has actually put some viewers of. Personally I think it's a good idea if done well.

I think you'd find as many, if not more people who prefer an extra sitting room/dining room / office over a garage - particualrly as you have a car port. I also think that, as long as you are not selling in the next 2 or 3 years, then it makes sense to do what works best for you, and not get to worried about what a mythical buyer from the future might, or might not want. Different if you are in the habit of moving every 3 or 4 years, but in your situ, I'd go for the conversion.

We're buying a house where the garage has been converted into another room. It has a driveway and that was enough for us. Had we bought a house with a garage we would have wanted to convert it eventually.

"is a garage a necessity for most people?"

It is for us. I wouldn't buy a house without a garage. We have two cars and only enough space in front of the house to park one car so the other one has to go into the garage. Our garden isn't big enough for a shed so I need somewhere to store the lawnmower, bikes, garden tools etc as well.

This is all very useful feedback, thanks. There's a driveway with enough parking for a a few cars, off street, so that's hopefully enough for anyone. Could also expand the size of the garden shed at the back to store more 'stuff'.

I think it now all depends on how much a conversion might cost. There's already electricity and a side door as well as garage door and access from the house through a tiny utility room.

Wonder how much a conversion would cost? I presume it just needs some heating (pipes already run at ceiling height to radiator in nearby room in house), plasterboard/insulation and will have to comply with building regulations. I don't think planning permission is necessary as it would fit the current footprint of the garage and if the garage doors were replaced with brick and a window, that window would face out into drive way and then street, not towards any other property.

I converted a double garage 2 years ago.

We moved into a 4 bed newish build and we knew that we would convert a garage into a playroom. We have off road parking for 4 cars, we are in the old show home and I have 2 front gardens plus an inverted T shaped drive. So the parking didn't come at the cost of a garden. As it was the show home the garage already had a steel lintel so we had a huge space.

Both mine and DH's cars are parked in front of where the double garage was, and as it is the playroom for the children I don't look out onto the cars.

I personally find it incredible that someone would provide a room for a car

I didn't want our garage to look like a converted garage and the way I did this was to not just brick up the bottom of the garage door opening and fill the top half with a window.

Instead the dining room is to the front of the house so we matched the two new windows with that one size wise and style wise. The only thing that gives it away is the vertical bricks that extend past the window but you have to look hard. Even the building control guy commented how good it looked.

We retained a store at the back of the garage as the door to the garden was at the back, so the playroom is about 5.5m long by 3.6m wide and the store is 5.5m long by 1.6m wide. So I basically had a wall built with an internal door leading from the playroom into the store.

We had to have a door knocked through from the hall too. I'm in Yorkshire and it cost £12k. I was ballpark quoted £8k for a single garage as that is what I thought we would buy, and lucked out with a double garage. Mine included relocating a soil pipe, radiators, flooring (gulp) building a wall, creating a new loft hatch, electrics, alarm relocating of PIRs and alarm pad.

Hope this helps.

Forgot to say, I applied for planning as I put in for a kitchen extension at the same time but I think it may come down to change of use for the garage. That is £150, and I needed building regs, I think that was £300. He came out 3 times, before, during and after.