Home Improvement Advice for Garages
Brick Built Garage Do it Yourself Tips for Garages
When considering building a garage on your property you will need to obtain planning permission from your local authority. However, if you are simply knocking the old one down and renewing you will not need planning permission but you may need to notify your local authority just to avoid any problems later on. If you are renewing, remember, you will not be allowed to make the new one any larger than the old one without permission. It should also blend in with the rest of your home.
The site for the garage will have to be cleared of all debris. This may involve knocking down an old garage, clearing trees and / or other greenery.
Your contractor should allow, in his quote, to clear the site, so he may include for skips or for his own time taking the rubbish to the tip. Make sure he includes for this otherwise you may find yourself clearing the site instead!
The footings and base for a garage do not have to be as deep as they would have to be for an extension to your living accommodation. However, if you feel that you may, one day, wish to build over the top of the garage to create say, another bedroom or playroom, it would be wise to let your contractor know when he first visits and he can then allow for deeper footings that would be capable of taking an extension over the top.
If you only think of adding an extension after the construction of the garage, it will most probably be far cheaper to knock it down and start again rather than attempt to underpin etc. This would be because:
The footings have to be deeper to accommodate the extra weight
The walls have to be thicker, ie one brick thick, longways or blockwork and render
Garages that are attached to your house will usually have to have a pitched roof. The area inside the roof could be utilised as storage space. The timbers (joists) that will be inside the garage shell will be ideal to board out as a storage area. We have checked that this would be compatible with all types of doors and Garage South West tell us "no problem with boarding out loft space, infact it is sometimes better, as it stiffens up the roof joists, which stops a lot of the vibration, in the remote control system."
If you do not feel capable of doing this yourself ask your contractor for a price while he/she is on site, it will be far cheaper than calling someone in afterwards.
Remember that the builder will need to quote for electricity to be run to your garage. You will at the very least require one light in the garage. While you are having this done it may be worth considering having some extra points run for such things as:
Plugging the vacuum in to clean the car
Plugging in tools
Plugging in a battery charger, and so on
Remember to insist on an NICEIC certificate, please refer to our electrical section for advice.
You will need permission to do this and you will require the services of a structural engineer to tell you exactly what is required to make sure your house stays safe, you should also consider employing the services of a surveyor to make sure the work is carried out as it should be.
This may seem like a lot of expense but it would cost you considerably more to put right a 'bodged job, quite apart from putting your home at risk of subsiding, cracking etc.
The exterior of your garage will also have to blend in with the remainder of your home, so if you are pebbledashed, rendered and painted and so on, make sure the contractor has allowed to finish the garage in the appropriate way to blend.
If your house has been painted or pebbledashing for some time remember that new paint or pebbledashing etc. will look a different color as it has not weathered.