£60K for 2 garage conversions!

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Just been quoted £60K for converting our two attached garages to reception rooms (one to include toilet/shower).

I am gobsmacked and wonder if this is now the 'normal' price? I bought my first house for the same amount 15 yrs ago.

A couple of years back, a structural engineer informally suggested about £5K per garage, locally - ie £10K altogether. Since then, another company has suggested £28K for both. I was shocked by that quote actually.

I'm all at sea here, wondering if the 'low' estimate of £10K is one of those figures that would just rocket up whilst building goes on - or if the £60K company are taking the mick?

They were going on about needing to upgrade the electricity switch board for current regulations but a few months back, an electrician said that'd cost a few hundred quid, not the £2K+ I've been told today byt the £60K guy.

Surely just digging out a drainage/sewer pipe for a new loo and shower, building properly insulated internal walls and adding a couple of front windows and bricks to replace the garage doors, can't really be going to cost the price of an entire house a few yrs ago?

I think you need a second opinion! It does sound slightly ridiculous. Perhaps your quote comes from a relation of the Wedding Planner on another thread???

Sounds totally crazy. When our structural engineer was giving us rough ideas on costs they were all pretty accurate. Possibly a bit under. It sounds to me like a 20/25k amount of work. Not that I'm a builder of course.

Thanks. I thought it was OTT too but wanted to check that things hadn't changed so radically in the last few years.

Each garage is about 12msq so that would be around £24K I guess, although that's a lot more than I'd hoped it'd be - beyond my budget by far. But 60K is way out!

Has anyone project managed their own similar conversion and used different people for different parts of the build - eg bricklayers/carpenters/electricians/plumbers?

Woul that be feasible for a garage conversion and bring down the costs a lot?

I converted my detached garage (which already had light and power supply) to a gym 2 years ago and paid £8k (in South East). That included proper insulation, flooring, new double doors and re-siting of lights/power points, plastering and final finish to appropriate building reg standards. There is no heating so that would be an extra cost.

I think your initial expectation of £10k per garage sounds sensible so I'd definitely get some more quotes in your position.

p.s. we used a Garage Conversion company who brought in all required trades - the only thing we needed to pay for in addition was for the final painting of the doors (timber), which they primed but didn't finish as this wasn't in their area of expertise.

That's so much cheaper than my quote, althoguh I'm still waiting to him to get back to me with a more definite figure but if it's anywhere near what he said, he can forget it!

Can I ask which firm you use, Mycat, as I also had an email quote from a garage conversion company that suggested £28K and that put me off specialist companies altogether.

Get 5 quotes. 60 is overpriced.

......to build the from scratch perhaps!! Not for a conversion, definitely get at least 3 quotes.

Sorry OP, just come back to this. I used Harpenden Garage Conversions - only of use to you if you're in the same area though!

Interested in this as also would like to convert a garage - £60k sounds extraordinary. I found this site which has some useful information -
www.simplygarageconversions.co.uk

with a guide that quotes between £6k - £12k for a single garage..

www.simplygarageconversions.co.uk/index_32_1849189765.pdf

We paid £3k to have our garage turned into a workshop - so electrics, insulation, plasterboarding, sticking a loft in and putting in a loft hatch, as well as building a front wall with door and replacing the single glazed window with a double glazed one. It's not up to internal living standards, but it's fine as a home office type thing.

Ours is costing 6k for integral garage conversion plus new porch. No toilet etc.