Anyone had a garage built on the side of the house?

[irw]

Hi All,
We're looking to buy a house (first-time buyers, currently renting), and we've found one that we think we like- the only major problem is that it doesn't have a garage, which is one of the very important points on our list, (a) to store all the bikes and motorbike and (b) to give me somewhere to work on my projects.

Now this house is easily within our price range, so much so that I'm pretty sure we'd be able to have a garage built, and from what I've read it would come within 'permitted development', meaning it only has to satisfy building regs, and not have planning permission.

Below are a couple of photos that I took when we looked around yesterday, does anyone have any comments as to practicalities or possible cost of having a garage built on the footprint of this yard at the side? I think it's already been built up a little, as the drain inspection cover at the bottom of the 2nd picture is a good few inches below the paving level, and a peek over the fence showed the neighbour's pathway to be about about 8" lower.

Thanks,
Ian

 

[mybike]

It's a long time since my parents had their garage built but I know you can't have a door from the house into a garage. You might want to check where that drain, in the lower picture, goes.

 

[irw]

Thanks,
I'd clocked that the drain may cause problems. Why can't you have a door from a house to a garage? Every house we've seen so far with an attached garage has a door between then, and the one we're in at the moment most definitely does!

 

[screenman]

It's a long time since my parents had their garage built but I know you can't have a door from the house into a garage. You might want to check where that drain, in the lower picture, goes.

That is a new one on me, I know of a few new houses with doors into garage.

When I built my current house we built the garage away from the house as it worked better for us.

 

[screenman]

Thanks,
I'd clocked that the drain may cause problems. Why can't you have a door from a house to a garage? Every house we've seen so far with an attached garage has a door between then, and the one we're in at the moment most definitely does!

Looks like you could get a smallish garage in before the drain, as it looks about 6yards back from the wall. Well from here it does.

 

[irw]

Seems to be that it just needs to be a suitably fire-resistant door:

"There are two areas where fire doors are necessary; the integral garage and the third storey or loft conversion. Both require one-hour fire resistance on the separating ceilings (above in the case of the garage, below on the loft conversion), and both require the use of fire doors. The door between the garage and the main house has to be a fire door and additionally there has to be a step up from the garage into the house. This is to protect the house from any burning liquid that might spill out of a vehicle."

www.homebuilding.co.uk/2008/11/27/part-b-fire-safety/

So on that front, worst case would be that I swap out that door from the kitchen, and use the existing one on the back of the garage

 

[Levo-Lon]

No prob at all.
footings will be the main problem as they will need to be at least a metre deep..
drain would need a sealed cover..
Roof? Flat or tile will need drainage..

id budget around 7 to 10k..diy will be around 3k to 6k roof and footings will be the key to cost.
if the building inspector decides you need 2 or 3 metre deep footings the cost will spiral.

only my rough guide but it looks very straight forward And lots of room for muck so grab lorry can take it away.
again its about 190 quid for a 17t load here..skips will be twice as much, check l8cal area costs for muck away etc ,good luck..
or a prefab for a couple of k but a brick garage will be better

 

[Salar]

A few things to be aware of:-
Garage slab a min of 150mm below existing ground floor.

Also if the garage is coming right to the rear corner it will block the air brick. If the air brick is a vent for a gas appliance and you have no trickle vents in the windows you'll need to put in a new vent.

It looks like the neigbouring house is at a lower level, (looks more than 8" on the pics?)so there could be a small retaining wall on the boundary.
If so the garage foundations will need to be at the same level as the dividing wall foundations or lower.

Building inspector might also ask for justification that no loads on the garage slab are transmitted to the wall.
You'll also have to inform the neighbours and ask for their agreement in accordance with the Party Wall act as you would be excavating close to their boundary.

 

[Drago]

Yes, had one built on mine. Provided it meets building regs, is made of a similar material to the house and doesn't project beyond an imaginary line that extends outwards from the front of the existing house you won't need planning permission. A decent builder will do all the paperwork to lodge with the Building Control dept, or whatever they're called locally.

There are other rules concerning proximity to neighbouring properties, blocking neighbours light etc, so best to have a professional survey done before proceeding, but at face value you're fine.

 

[Dave7]

Don't forget your bins i.e. how will you get rubbish bins from the back, out to the front ? May not be any problem but something to keep in mind.

 

[snorri]

You say the garage is important to you so I would be advising getting professional advice re permission to build and any regulations etc. before buying the house. It is easy for the amateur to misinterpret the written word in legal stuff.

 

[irw]

You say the garage is important to you so I would be advising getting professional advice re permission to build and any regulations etc. before buying the house. It is easy for the amateur to misinterpret the written word in legal stuff.

That's kind of the next step I think- does anyone know the process for this? I.e. Is it best to arrange another viewing with a builder-type person in tow? Or should I make a phone call to the local planning people?

 

[Salar]

Ring the local Building Control office, it's not a planning issue.

 

[User6179]

I think you still need planning consent as you will be building on the boundary and you need to find out if there are any services such as gas or water pipes under ground , might be a problem with the vents that are venting the floor in the main house venting into a garage , the manhole helps if your going to overbuild the sewer as you would need to put one in anyway , the sewer pipe will need to be uncovered and possibly encased with concrete .

I built mine in the back garden as the costs were about 50% less than building on the side of the house , worth considering .

 

[User19783]

A few things to be aware of:-
Garage slab a min of 150mm below existing ground floor.

Also if the garage is coming right to the rear corner it will block the air brick. If the air brick is a vent for a gas appliance and you have no trickle vents in the windows you'll need to put in a new vent.

It looks like the neigbouring house is at a lower level, (looks more than 8" on the pics?)so there could be a small retaining wall on the boundary.
If so the garage foundations will need to be at the same level as the dividing wall foundations or lower.

Building inspector might also ask for justification that no loads on the garage slab are transmitted to the wall.
You'll also have to inform the neighbours and ask for their agreement in accordance with the Party Wall act as you would be excavating close to their boundary.[/QUOTE
^^^^^^^

This is what I would say , but @Salar beat me.
good advice.