Single Skin Garage, Partial Conversion to Home Office

Hi all,

As per the title, looking to partially convert my existing detached garage to a home office. Have had a good search if the forum but there seems to be lots of different answers to the same question so thought I would try and get a definitive one!

The garage is single skin, brick built with the original roof which I'm assuming contains asbestos.

A couple of questions first of all, can I keep the existing roof (the condensation on the inside is quite bad in the winter) or should I replace this?

If yes, what is the best material to replace with to avoid condensation?

The general consensus for walls seems to be to use a fix a breathable membrane to the walls, batten it out and insulate then plasterboard over the top. Would this be ok?

The floor is a concrete slab, I thought I could build a frame to cover this out of treated timber, insulate and chipboard over, but what about DPM? There is currently a damp proof course visible from the outside, 2 bricks up for info.

As for the ceiling what are my options?

I'll be keeping the original garage door on the front and putting a new door in the side of the garage that opens into my garden which will be part of the office. That way I can still use the front part of the garage for storage. I've added a pic of the side of the garage which hopefully makes the above easier to understand.

Thanks in advance for any input/assistance with this.

Jack

You need to look @ building regs - unless you're a naughty boy like me

Ideally you need to lose that roof and start from there. You will have nothing but problems and a uninhabitable waste of space if you don't.

Been giving this some thought and I am going to convert my brick workshop behind the garage instead. Similar construction but built later and the roof is better.

Going to go down the building regs route as if I do it properly may even add a bit of value to the house to the right buyer in future.

The workshop has a single glazed window and an old wooden door so will replace both of these with newer more efficient ones.

As I intend on doing this myself will building control be able to tell me if my plans are acceptable or not? The calculations are blowing my mind!