Detached garage into a home office - Anyone done it?

[Ilovemyshoppingtrolley]

I am thinking of this as I am only using garage as a junk room.

It does have electricity already.
I would need to put a door in the side.
I would possibly have a false wall and keep the garage door so bikes could still be stored.
I am thinking of a false ceiling to store Xmas tree, tent etc.
It would need to be boarded up and insulated
Sounds (in my head) straight forward - but is it?

Would I lose value in my property if I change the use or could it enhance the attraction if I was to ever sell my little house?

Has anyone done this? Am I forgetting anything? Do I need to get planning permission for change of use? I'm completely clueless and would appreciate any pearls of wisdom.

Thanks in advance

We did this not long before the pandemic started and it’s been amazing!

Didn’t need planning permission but we did pay about £60 to the council’s checking service to make sure it was permitted. Also had to get building regs approval.

We put in a window and replaced the garage door with bifold doors which open onto the garden and let in loads of light.

I don’t know what it will do to the value of the house (we just did it for our own benefit) but I imagine the increase of home working should make it quite valuable. It cost us just over £10k I think.

A lot will depend on the construction of the garage and how good a job you do. EG Is it single or double skinned? I assume it has a pitched roof?

If you're using it as a home office you'll want to ensure it's insulated including the floor otherwise it'll be miserable/expensive in winter.

We did it with our single garage, it cost about £5000 for a very basic conversion and we've now converted a space that was used for storing crap (old paint tins mostly) to somewhere I spend half my life. Best 5k I ever spent.

Thanks for your replies its much appreciated.

I'm not sure I could add a window as part of the garage sits in side neighbours garden unfortunately and is also attached to another neighbours garage. I hadn't though about insulating the floor too!

Is your garage connected to your house? My garage sits at the side of the front of my house , so from front door to "new" garage door is about 6 steps.

I was going to do mine too....
bi folds sound like a great idea!

You could always put a skylight in for natural light?

Local carpenter said it wouldn't cost too much to convert, insulation, new doors windows etc

Insulated flooring etc

Ours is at the bottom corner of the back garden so two sides of it (with the window and door) are in our garden. We thought about a velux but it has enough light without it. We had to have the floor raised a bit and it was single skin breeze block so we put in internal insulation and stud wall which reduced the size inside but makes it alright to heat

Watching with interest.

It may require planning permission.

IF the property (including the garage) dates from the around the 70's or later, or the garage has been built separately since then and required planning permission, there may be conditions on the relevant planning permissions restricting the use of the garage to their original purpose. If this is the case, planning permission would be required to relax that condition. As long as you still have room for off street parking, it probably would get PP. If you don't have room for parking there may be more of an issue.

House and garage built at same time about 25/30 years ago. Yes I do have a drive too so parking not an issue.

@Ilovemyshoppingtrolley

House and garage built at same time about 25/30 years ago. Yes I do have a drive too so parking not an issue.

It would be worth checking with the Council to see if there were any conditions preventing the conversion, given the age of the property. Unfortunately, most Councils only have the relevant documents online from about the year 2000, but have a check to see. Otherwise you will need to give them a ring to see what their procedure is.

We did this a few years back. We only converted half of the garage, so needed an extra door at the side. We also installed a skylight which I love! What I was adamant about though was insulation - I wanted to ensure it could be used all year round, not freeze to death in winter - so I went completely nuts on it and insisted the builder add extra/thicker than usual. I'm very glad I did that, and it's really snug and cosy after the heating's been on for an hours or so.

Yes to building regs, definitely need those.

Interesting. We want to do an almost identical garage conversion to op. We had plans drawn up by an architect and got 2 quotes. £41,000 and £45,000. We had originally budgeted £15,000 so had a big shock when quotes came in.
Decided not to go ahead but reading this, maybe we need to get more quotes.
Op, how long did the building works take?

AnnaForbes, Crumbs I hope it doesn't cost over £40,000, I was looking at it as a cheap fix but done nicely.
I am still waiting for the builder to come and give a quote.

I don't think it should come anywhere near that. Looking at the quotes we got, the one for 45000 had solar cells and a mezzanine. The quote for 41000 was a fairly basic conversion but the builder is very busy - I'm guessing he didn't really want the job.

10 -15k should be a more accurate estimate.

£40k?? That sounds like a rip off but I'm not sure what that would entail.
We had our detached garage converted into a home office/utility. We left the front 1/3 as the garage for bikes etc.
A door was added to the side and fully insulated (an absolute must!). No planning was required or architect plans, the joiner just built a partition wall. The whole thing cost £6k and that included flooring, having it painted etc. But we are in Scotland so planning may differ and, clearly, prices are much higher elsewhere.
It is the best thing I've done to get some space to work away from the house.
One thing to note is the metal garage door might block WiFi so you'll need a booster or tp link.
If you don't use the garage for a car, I'd go for it. Most households need a space to work from home now, either homework for kids or home working for adults so I would think it should add value (although it depends on your area and cost of doing it).

Haven't done it but I am in the business, so a few things to highlight.

These are legal requirements - whether you do them or not is a different matter, most people don't but they should and generally it's only when something goes wrong that they realise how important it is to have these things in place. I should say that government are already starting to tightening up on home offices as permanent places of work. They've not bothered before and during CV but they are already sneaking warnings in........

You will need a BW .
You will require to apply for Change of Use.
Your will require permission from your mortgage provider as it becomes a non-domestic space.
Once you have applied for your BW the Assessor will value and you will be liable for business rates as it will become a 'non-domestic' property.
You will then require a specific business insurance for your office.
Non-domestic spaces have lots of other statutory requirements, risk assessments, legionella testing, fire prevention, ventilation etc. security, covid RA etc.

My garage was attached so we put a doorway into it from the house. We asked for planning for an office/dining room. As yours is detached, it may come under different rules.

The garage door was removed and a wall built with window in.
Building regs had to come out 3 times and check at various stages that the floor and wall insulation, ventilation etc all met the required legal standards. The window had to be a fire escape window.

I do miss the storage though.

I would definitely do it all properly, as you could hit terrible problems if you ever sell the property if you can't provide the relevant paperwork.

@flippertygibbit surely this will only apply if sole business use? Some personal use would mean you didn’t have to do any of these things?

You don't necessarily need PP for a change of use. As I said upthread, sometimes a previous PP may have a condition requiring garage use only. That will require an application to relax the condition.

PP for a change of use would normally only be required if it was having an impact elsewhere eg lots of deliveries, clients coming to the premises, parking implications, staff, noise, fumes etc. Otherwise, just working from home, using it effectively as a study, PP not required.

@flippertygibbit

Do those rules only apply if you have member of the public, employees or other workers using the space?
I work in my spare room as self-employed writer so if I converted my garage into additional living space and then chose to put my desk and computer in there would it be any different?

Any insight greatly appreciated!

I wouldn't be using it as such as an office but as a craft room, sorry for any confusion just thought that it would look like an office.

@Ilovemyshoppingtrolley Flibberty is right only if you were to use it solely for business purposes and had visiting clients, however, the man who runs his taxi business from a front room in his house, whose child also uses that computer for homework, is not liable for business rates (I used to work in CTax and Business Rates) This also means if your children or partner use this room too, no business rates as it is part of the family home albeit not attached.

Deal is this, lots of people convert garages as extra rooms, if you are leaving the up and over door in then a false wall can be built across the back giving you much needed storage at the front and then you insulate the hell out of the back of it. LED lighting can provide a lot of light for hardly any cost electricity wise.

Planning is for change of use, have a look on the planning portal and use the map view. It should highlight every property who has gone through planning and because of lots of people now working from home you may be able to see other properties that have converted
their garages in your area, have a look at what they have done.

Building regs makes sure your builders adhere to the most basic of requirements, insulate way more than you think you need to. It is probably single skinned as a stand alone garage with no cavity walls to you need to address that.

Having said all that, lots do it without planning/BR because it is for their use and when they sell on later they can just remove the plasterboard etc and put it back to being a garage.

@flippertygibbit that only applies if they use it solely for business use most home offices are an extension of domestic space and can quite happily be classified as such under the rules for planning / Tax / H&S/ insurance etc especially if they are used for hobbies, crafts, gaming, gym space as well as a home office.
It only becomes problematic in certain circumstances usually as described on here https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/commonprojects/56/workinggfromhome

Or if you are running a business from home other permissions or costs may apply

www.gov.uk/run-business-from-home

This won't apply for somebody wanting to convert a garage into a home office for home working.