Boot room in garage?

[Tom JE]

Hi all,

There is currently a door that goes from my kitchen into my garage. I'd like to use the last third of my garage (closest to the kitchen) as a small 'boot room' that will house my freezer, hoover, ironing board & shoes etc. There is already a socket on the wall for the freezer and an existing light so would just need to construct another wall and doorway from the boot room into the garage. I plan on keeping my fire door into the kitchen.

Reading quickly online, building control would need to be informed if this room was to be habitable. There is no mention of a non-habitable room or how this is classified (or even if what I am intending to build is habitable).

I guess what I'm asking is 'what is classified as a habitable room' and 'can I make my planned boot room non-habitable'?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[cjard]

I know of no exhaustive list, but a reasonable rule of thumb would be a room in which an average person would regularly spend more than 1 hour sitting down, or lying down, doing something that makes up a part of their daily life.. Watching TV in the living room, sleeping in the bedroom..

"Habitable rooms" are defined in Approved Document M as "... for the purpose of defining the principal storey [habitable room] … a room used, or intended to be used, for dwelling purposes, including a kitchen but not a bathroom or a utility room.

As such, your boot room isn't habitable - it would be more commonly classed by most people as a utility room. There will still be aspects of the work you intend to carry out that may be notifiable for building control purposes if you intend to install electrics, gas etc

 

[Tom JE]

Thanks for the reply - that makes sense.

I don't intend to heat the room, the electrics (and fridge) are already there, it is literally just a case of building a partition wall and doorway.