Garage door to window conversion

[Polstar55555]

I live in a fairly modern Timber Frame house with an integral garage (one of them cut and paste jobs on an estate) and I would like to remove the garage door and replace it with a window. The window will be full width and about 60% of the height of the current garage door.

I was planning a few coarses of bricks under the window for the outer leaf and insulated timber frame for the inner leaf. I was wondering if I could leave the existing full height cavity closers in place so that the space under the window is its own little cavity or if I should cut them to the height of the window and open the cavity up?

Any other hints or tips much appreciated

 

[big-all]

heeeelllooo and welcome polstar55555
have you checked you are allowed to reduce the number off parking spaces
as in you may need planning permission to convert garage to other use

 

[oldbutnotdead]

As above re planning permission. Also if yours is a newish build are you freehold or leasehold and are there any covenants on the deeds prohibiting your (assumed) conversion of the garage into a habitable space?

Another one to watch- unlikely to be any foundations under the garage door so you may have to dig a bit and pour some footings before putting your bricks in (though if the concrete slab is a reasonable thickness you will probably get away with building on that)

Cavity closers- I'd cut them back to ventilate the new cavity, if you don't then you might end up with moisture trapped in the new cavity.

Final one (assuming change of use to habitable)- how are you planning on insulating the floor? And means of escape could be tricky (unless there's a pedestrian door direct to outside). Suspect you need building regs on the job, check on the Planning Portal

 

[Polstar55555]

Hi Folks

Thanks for the warm welcome and the info.

I have laid some gravel next to our drive so we can park both cars without being on the Road. It seems quite common in the area because the garages are tiny, there's about 200 houses and I don't think any of the garages have ever had a car inside

I had a check through the deeds a while back, the only thing it says about the garage is that I cant run a business from it and I cant rent it separately from the house.

I've put 100mm Kingspan down for the floor and I have another sheet of it set aside for the inner leaf. The Room was already converted when we bought the place but they had put a stud partition across the back of the garage door without properly insulating it and the floor was sagging, I lifted it and put the floor back down with the new insulation using most of the original materials.

I was hoping to get the Building warrant retrospectively and been taking photos along the way, am I likely to get crucified for that?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Crucified no. Financially punished yes (fee for regularisation is usually double the standard fee). If you're doing the job properly then put a building notice in and if you're lucky you'll get helpful advice from the BCO instead of them poking and prying to find fault