Converting garage into another room, would you miss a garage?

[LillyLeaf]

We'll hopefully be moving into a house (from a flat) in the next few months if all goes to plan. The layout of the ground floor is a bit odd so we're planning on a redesign to make it work for us. There's a garage which I don't think we would use (but have never had one so that's probably why). There is space at the side of the house for a bike shed and space in the garden for a garden/tools shed. We don't have a car but might get one but can't see us parking it in the garage either. The garage floor space would be of more use to us as another room, e.g. play room/music room. My main concern is when we come to the sell the property later, would it bother buyers that there is no garage? There is a driveway for 2 cars. What do you think?

I’ve seen a few properties recently that had done this with varying success. Depends what you plan on converting it to. I saw one where the whole garage was the utility room - total waste! And another which was accessed in a weird way that made it not feel connected to the house

If the house had enough downstairs space anyway, I’d rather have a garage. But if it’s really useful additional space, I’d sacrifice garage. I find our garage very useful for bikes and other sports equipment and it feels more secure than a shed

You often need planning permission for a garage conversation, check with your Local Authority.

I don’t think anyone hardly wants to put their car in the garage, most garages aren’t wide enough for modern cars, it’s more storage for bikes, equipment etc. I think if there was an alternative storage space for those things it would be ok.

We'd miss a garage as we keep an old car in there. I'd imagine alot of people would rather have the living space though.

My house has a converted garage - it has a room at the front that can be a good sized study, with a small utility room plus downstairs loo behind. It works really well. You do need somewhere else to store outdoor type stuff, but I think there's often an element of filling up space just because you have it. So unless you have loads of bikes, camping etc then it's not that big an issue.

We've just converted ours into a home office for DH. Didn't need the storage space as our attic is plenty big enough, & we also have a shed. We don't have a car but wouldn't have used it for that if we did.

We live in the London computer belt so we're not worried about struggling to sell it as I expect home offices will continue to be more useful than garages to anyone buying here.

We did it about 15 years ago. It started off as a second living room, but for the last couple of years it’s been well used as a gym.
A lot of people local to me have done the same, and I’ve not heard of anyone converting it back.
We certainly don’t miss the garage, like you we have off street parking for 3 cars.

Done well, it would mean I didn't have to go through the process of doing it or worry about planning. Would much prefer the downstairs living space.

14 years ago we knocked down our garage and built a single storey extension to the side and back of our property instead (with planning of course). We put in a downstairs study to the front where the garage would have been, a toilet, large kitchen diner and then a family room to the rear of the property. Shortly after we went on to have children and the additional space has been a Godsend. It also allowed us to convert our old dining room into a utility room so the impact of all of this has been a life changer. We are fortunate to have a large garden so can have two large sheds at the bottom otherwise I don’t know where we would have put garden stuff and bikes, scooters etc. I think for the time you spend in your home compared to a garage, it is sooooo worth it. Plus it has added loads of value to our house that an existing garage could never have done.

We are (hopefully!) going to be moving to a house with integral garage. We plan to put in an internal door from the house and add a partition wall to the garage. The back of the garage will become a utility room (the other side of the wall is a downstairs toilet so plumbing isn't too difficult), retaining the front portion for storage. We have kayaks/camping stuff so want to retain a good 'garage' space, but don't need big enough for the car. We can't decide whether to put in a 'back door' in the utility and block up the current door in the kitchen but will change the current 'up and over' garage door to a double door.

We've just had an offer accepted on a property with no garage. It was a HUGE compromise for us. But otherwise the house is perfect and no other properties have a garage on the street. If most properties on your street have garages I would be careful about removing it. Also depends on how long you plan to stay there, you have to live in it after all.

We are about to do this and had estate agents in over the summer to discuss either doing this or lift conversion. The garage conversion was their advice. We’re also going to use one meter of it to expand the laundry room that backs into it, new opening into the front room

We do, however, have two sheds and a garden studio

This is our third house. Always had a garage. Only ever used for storage. We have never, ever parked any of our cars in the garage

We converted the garage in our old house and are in the process of doing so in our new house.

We never, put a car in the old house garage.

I looked at lots of properties, both with and without garages and almost always thought the garage was wasted space.

Oh and it’s building regs, not planning

I did it a couple of years ago. It was a great decision for us, especially at the moment as everybody needs their own workspace/place to get away from others!

I would only look at houses with garages ( or space to build one ). But we have a lot of stuff to store and always put one of the cars in it.
Integral ones are too small to put a decent size car in but. If you’ve a small car they are ok.

We converted our garage into a bedroom, it’s the nicest room in the house ! We used to just put crap in there - now we take it to the tip...... We do have a big shed though, and we kept the back of the garage to be a small storage room. I thought we’d miss the garage but we definitely don’t.

No because I don't drive and have enough room on the front 'drive' for people to park.

I intend to have my adjoining double garage converted into a room and ensuite.

I'd rather have a giant boot and coat room / utility. Saying that I have a huge garage.. never put a car in it though. Bikes etc

Thanks everyone. You've really helped. We'll be getting an architect to look at the ground floor layout including the garage as it just doesn't work so hopefully it will be well thought out and will make sense. Because we've always lived in flats (with very little storage) we don't have much stuff that we need to store and there's an loft anyway (which I'm very excited about). There is a property on the street that has converted the garage with a similar size house. I think we'll be staying there a while so I do want to make it our own and I just don't think we would use a garage. Good to see so many of you have done this.

We converted our integral garage into a utility room and study last year. Money very well spent. We did a massive clear out of all the crap that was in the garage, chucked a lot of it, put bikes in our (very big) garden shed and then everything else got put back into our nice tidy utility room. DH uses his study every day and it’s been an absolute godsend for him and the rest of us. We couldn’t have fitted our car into the garage even if we’d wanted to. We have 3 parking spaces on the drive. We don’t miss the garage at all, the house works so much better without it.

We’ve done it, we have a study/sitting room at front, shower room and loo/utility in middle and a bedroom at the rear - it’s great

We converted half of ours so the front is still a garage- motorbike, tools, decorating stuff etc. The back half is now a laundry room. We have a decent shed in the garden for bikes etc. The garage was just a dumping ground beforehand, full of stuff we didn't need!

We moved specifically FOR a garage!

We use it for bikes mainly, including a static turbo trainer and camping stuff.
Also a bit like a utility / mudroom (but not laundry). It’s where hiking boots live as well as the “proper” rucksacks etc. that aren’t used daily.
Our two closest neighbours are the same - bikes, skis, canoes... one set have taken off the garage door and replaced with a normal one but it’s still a “garage” inside. SILs is used as a home gym but again not actually “converted”.

We had a big integral double garage that is now rooms. Make sure you insulate well, and we had to have the front wall underpinned at the garage doors. Building Control will help you with it.