Small garden, massive garage

[Raella50]

Hi all! We’ve seen a house we live in an ideal location. The snag is that the garden isn’t very big. However, there is a really big garage there and I keep thinking if we knocked that down, we could make a big garden!! Is this madness? Presumably the foundations underneath would be substantial and we couldn’t do much with the space. Has anyone done this and worked it out? Many thanks

Sorry just to clarify: the garage is behind the house and would be in an ideal garden location (not at the side of the house)

Yes, you could knock the garage down and make a bigger garden. How would that impact the value of the house? Aren’t there houses that have a garden instead of a huge garage available?

We knocked down a derelict single garage to have more garden space at our old house. It made a massive difference. We meant to get it properly landscaped but didn’t get around to it before we sold - the old garage floor made a great patio. If you’ve got young children, a large hard surface could be great for roller skating, scooters etc, so it’s worth thinking about leaving the floor base there, which would probably be much cheaper.

We tucked a shed in a different corner of the garden for storage.
Even single garages tend to be a massive waste of space.

@JoJoSM2 what do you mean about the value? Do you think it would be worth more with a garage? I can’t see why - it’s honestly very oversized and the garden suffers badly. There aren’t any others in the right location and catchment area, no.

@Medianoche that’s interesting, thank you! We’d want to break the concrete floor and landscape it. We’re big gardeners and our current garden is landscaped, we use it daily.

Like a saddo im really hoping this is about my house that’s on the market 😬 the house is a beaut but people are complaining about the garden being small when actually it would be very easy to knock down the one wall into our massive garage and make a lovely big garden. So just in case it’s mine, I’m going to say Go FOR IT!

@Kenworthington ha ha!!! Imagine! Why didn’t you knock yours down?

Is there off street parking elsewhere for the house? The only worry I'd have is the resale value if you take away the only off street parking.

But in general, I'd say go for it

@LivingoffCoffee Yes there’s a multi-car Drive at the front and an area at the side to access the large garage at the back. We could build storage if some sort at the side of the house? Keep all the back as a garden. I’m more worried about actually doing the work and if it’s really unrealistic to get rid of the foundations!

I wasn’t that bothered by it. I prefer the garage- it’s more useful to us- we have 7 motorbikes 😵 I wish the estate agents would start telling people it’s possible rather than viewers having to work it out for themselves (or, as it would appear, not!)

@Kenworthington ah fair enough! We have young children and no motorbikes so we’d prefer a decent garden! Hmmm I wonder if it would devalue the house... although our current garden is drawing in viewers so there must be plenty of other people like us who just want the space too.

I would just reflect on whether this is a long term or short term purchase for you and how important value/saleability will be for you. I don't know what's worth more, garage or garden, but for us we would discount any house without a garage and get soooo frustrated when a house we really like in a nice location has had its garage converted. That said lots of people like gardens too often course, but it's your house and you have to do what works for you, if it's a long term purchase I wouldn't think about it too much and I can't see why it couldn't be done.

@Kenworthington

That sounds like good unbiased advice!

An interim step would be to take down the walls and roof, and use the base for raised beds for veg.

Can you actually get a car into the garage down the side? Most people use their garage for storage rather than cars I think, so if you can build some storage somewhere else and still have room to park a car, then a bigger garden has to be a bonus.

I'd definitely do it in that case. As PP said, you could keep the foundation as your patio space. But you could get it properly landscaped (though I imagine it would be a bit pricey, as paying to pull up all the concrete)