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

[Pale Rider]

It may not be a planning issue, but the local authority's planning department is there to offer help and advice.

I would want them to confirm planning permission is not required.

A visit to the town hall is better than phoning, and take your pics with you when you go.

Also have a look at other similar houses in the street.

Do any of them have added garages?

If so, that will give you a good idea of what can and can't be done.

 

[captain nemo1701]

A garage is a relatively light structure, so your footing will only need to be about 1m max depth. They need to be deeper near trees, but it looks like that isn't an issue. Depends on the geology - clays shrink & swell, sand/gravels have higher bearing capacities but settle a little.

If you get an architect to design it for you, they may ask for a small ground investigation (GI) to determine the existing building foundations as the garage will be attached to the house and also for testing the soils. Soils generally need to be tested for a) shrinkage potential and b) chemical attack on concrete. They would need this info to design the foundations, floor slab etc and attach the garage to the house. It would also be useful to see where the services are going.
This is where I can help you as I work for a GI firm ! - sorry about the shameless advertising!.

I quote lots of clients for this type of thing. It looks like you might need to consider a day of hand dug pits or window sampling to get some soil samples for testing and also to examine the house foundations. Typically this sort of GI will cost in the region of £1500-1800 for sitework, testing & reporting. You can dig the pits and get soil sample yourselves to save money but my guess is that the designer of your garage would need a professional pit log & drawing/measurements of the foundations. Soils testing for plasticity/sulphate attack will set you back about £50/sample.

I would seek the advice of the local authority planning dept and a design/build firm (we deal with lots of those!). If you need a quote for a GI or want soils testing, PM me. We cover most of the UK.

 

[berty bassett]

could you not see if neighbours down the street have done it then ask them if they had any problems ? usually when we dig footiings for a single story extension or garage the building inspector will go slightly overboard and make us do them strong enough for a 2 storey as there isnt that much cost difference around here . ie in normal ground they are happy with 1 mt deep with min 450mm concrete . extension we are on at the minute was only 600mm deep with 450mm as we were in stone . like someone said its trees that cause hassle and if you are near drains they sometimes say you must go down to at least invert level no matter how deep that may be . usually a good rule of thumb is they are happy if you go down to existing footing level on a house of that age ( guessing 50s)

 

[Over The Hill]

All the above point seem spot on. Plus-

Looks a bit tight to me on size - guessing it is 2.7m from house to edge. Take off the wall thickness and the door frame and you are down to 2.5 single skin or 2.4 double skin wall. I think you will find garages that size but they are tight for modern cars.

Restrictive covenants. Is the house ex local authority? Have others built garages? Original developer or LA may put a covenant (restriction) on what is done and need their consent. You can go to Land Reg (make sure you use the proper gov one) and get a copy of the title for a few quid.


Eight bins?

 

[screenman]

When I did this house we used piles, is that possible with a garage build?

If you went prefab could you lay a slab.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Looks like around 3m wide to me going by the slabs..

worth checking if a lean too design can be used.
1m deep footing at the fence , block and pier wall rsj's to house ,then a plastic frame with rear door and a roller front door. Or a up and over..
Max space and being a lean too, your not tieing to the house so less need for structure regs.
that would be cheaper if you can do it?