Converting part of garage for utility?

[allnewname]

We’re considering converting part of our garage (which is attached to the house) to create a utility room. Is that a good idea? Would not having a usable garage (to park in) cancel out any benefit of having a utility in terms of property value? Would love peoples views/experiences.

I don’t know anyone that actually parks their car in a garage these days. My parents converted part of their garage for a dining room, and they still kept the garage door and so had enough space to store a fridge freezer / lawnmower and tools etc. It is cold in there, but they didn’t connect the central heating so I personally hate going in there as little daylight either as they didn’t covert the front part. I think for a utility though wouldn’t matter so much things like that as you wouldn’t be in there long.

My sister did that. Has a utility, with a side door that leads outside, plus a loo, properly insulated like the main part of the house. She has a garage door that opens to a space about 1.5m deep, that just has bikes and a couple of other bits in.

I live in a 3 bed semi with a drive big enough for one car and no garage. If I had a garage, it would definitely be used as storage!

A few things to consider.

It is YOUR house, YOU are the ones living there so depending on how long you intend staying, how will it work for YOU?
PP is correct that many people do not use a garage for a car but I would say that when selling, a garage is more desirable than a POOR garage conversion (have seen a couple and they are awful).

Personally, I LIKE the idea of converting the rear of an otherwise under utilised (attached) garage into a utility room while leaving the front for storage. The other advantage is that it leaves the external of the house unchanged (some garage conversions just scream "conversion" to you).
With an internal door, a properly built dividing wall, the correct level of insulation (walls, floor & ceiling), heating and fitted units/worktops I think it can really work and will not (IMO) devalue the house while giving you a real increase in usable space.

In saying the above, I am presuming that there is a driveway for car parking?
I would never recommend loosing off-street parking.

Ours is fully converted in our house to a bedroom and a utility/bathroom.

previous occupants did it two decades ago. We updated it all when we gutted the house a couple of years ago.

We would never have parked our car in it, most of the houses in the street have converted all or part of them. A fourth bedroom and the shower room/utility is of far more use to us.

We were looking to move a couple of years back and decided to stay. Any house with an attached garage, I would have converted to bedroom or living space.

I've just converted my garage into a small shower room and I've got the washer and dryer in the garage. Once everything is cleared out I should be able to park my car in the garage still. I don't know if I will though.

Very few homes near me even have the garage bit any longer.

You have to do what works for you.

Yes. Everyone has hard standing for cars and wonder why we have floods. We need grass not hard standing.

Ours is half pantry and half DH’s brewing stuff and tools etc - I’d like to put an actual wall in to split it but a compromise was metal racks with a walk through into his zone

I wouldn't be worried about not being able to park a car in there any more, as pp said people rarely bother.

Is there (or would you put in) an internal door between the garage/utility and the rest of the house? We viewed a house once where they had an attached garage with utility in the back, but there was no direct access to the house which we felt made it much less useful.

The only people I know who park their car in the garage are my parents but they have a small car and a huge detached garage!
I know 2 people who've done this and knocked through from the kitchen into the adjoined garage to create a utility space. It works well and I think as long as there's still storage space in the garage for a lawnmower, bikes etc, it will probably add value to your property rather than reduce it these days.

Brilliant advice thank you all so much. Yes it’s attached to the house, we have a driveway, and we’ll still have room for lawnmower, bikes and other assorted crap! So all good! Thank you.