garage conversion

[high.rise]

I'd like to convert my garage temporarily and will go via Building control to get certs etc. As I see this as a temporary (couple of years max) measure, I'd like to leave the garage door on, bolt it down and reline on the inside. Allowing the garage to be functional again if/when we come to sell the house.

Question is this, I will be raising the floor to meet the rest of the house, what do I do about damproofing? My intention was to seal the door up, therefore it becomes the outer leaf of wall, insulate and line with PB. Is it sufficient to lay visqueen over current garage floor and build up from there? The garage has mono block inside.

Not sure if this is just a totally mad idea.....

 

[bathjobby]

I assume this is an integral garage ? if so, a lot of those conversions have been done where I live. I can't help specifically with your queries but have 2 suggestions for you to consider / ponder.
1) I know the insulation regs for floors changed last year and they are quite severe now i.e. lots of insolation; need to get your engineer to advise you on specifics.
2) Modern builds (25 years ish) tend not to have load bearing footings across the garage door opening, so again, you need to take advice from your engineer as to what structure that you put in place to seal the door way.

 

[masona]

Also a lot depends what the room is going to be for.

 

[high.rise]

House approx 5 years old, will be converted for office (for me) but pitched to BC as a family room (on their advice, had a brief discussion with them).

BJ - have any of the conversions you're talking about kept the door? BC seemed to have the biggest problem with this aspect of it. Although they didn't say they would reject the proposals, just had difficulty understanding how we would seal the door and waterproof sufficiently (as do I).

The garage is integrated.

 

[homertimpson]

I part converted my integral garage 5 years ago - split it 70 -30, leaving the smaller front part + door exactly as it was - the larger back area was raised to meet the floor into the utility room.

'Normal' t&g floor and p/b walls with electrics and one radiator.

Moved house recently and only then discovered that I needed a letter of comfort from local council to satisfy potential buyers/building society!! eek!!

Council inspector duly came round and did his work.

Dividing stud wall and plasterboard was OK, however, external wall had been done inappropriately. It should have had a 'false' partition put up first that was lined with damp-proof membrane to catch any water seeping through the single brick wall. This wall could then have had the 'real' interior wall erected complete with fibreglass insulation under the p/b.

I only had a single p/b wall - with the result that any water ingress would have soaked the insulation

In addition, I had no ventilation - he expected to have seen a window . [6ft from neighbours garage meant a window hadn't even been considered by me initially].

Upshot was that if I wanted it classed as a habitable room [i.e. office or bedroom], the offending wall would have to be taken down and reconstructed to the proper spec and a window installed.

With only weeks to go to concluding the house sale he gave me a get out option - remove the radiator and fit an extractor fan - and he'd class it only as storeroom.

That I done - got the paperwork - and sold the house.

Next time I'll get proper advice and real plans drawn up.

Lesson learned.

Homer