Converting garage

You can put the internal walls up yourself but you need to get development approval to do it because you are creating a habitable room within the house.

This used to be a very common thing to do. There are a lot of houses around here that have sliding glass doors on the ground floor opening out onto the driveway that are suspiciously similar in size to a single garage door. One that I know of had a carport added to the front of the house so that the garage wasn't missed.

I don't know what is more valuable: a LUG or a 4th bedroom. When I was building an extension that would close off access to the freestanding garage at the rear of my house in Sydney, I rang the real estate agent I bought it from and asked her opinion. She said don't do it, people value having vehicle access to their backyards. I did it anyway and we sold the place for double what we paid for it 5 years earlier. Maybe if I hadn't done it we would have gotten more. I don't think so.

The other thing to keep in mind is that if the walls are not lined, lining them might introduce problems with termites. In another case I know off where a room was built under a house, the framing provided the termites with direct access to the sub floor of the house above because it bypassed all the ant capping. Just be aware of that if you go ahead - you might give termites access to your roof.

A bedroom next to the workshop! Sounds like a heaven to me. I like the idea.

[No dear, I mean I don’t want to come in last at night to disturb you and the children ]

Oz building codes may be different

They do differ on that point. You need a firewall between seperate dwellings, such as flats or attached dual occupancy, but not between a garage and the living areas of the associated dwelling.

At least that was the case a couple of years ago. The only major change I'm aware of recently was the introduction of BASIX. That might also affect this scenario because I believe you are required to bring the rest of the building up to current standards if you do any work of a certain size to an existing dwelling. This includes things like energy efficiency (insulation, thermal glazing etc), water conservation and smoke detectors amongst others.

The majority of the conversions I have seen around town were done years ago and I doubt that there was any development approval at the time. About 10 years ago the local council declared an amnesty on unapproved granny flats (many of which were built this way) and so a lot of them are now approved. They did that as the new legislation was brought in and it's a lot tougher now. If you go ahead and do it without approval, they can make you rip it out and when you come to sell, it will be noted by the council inspection and you may be required to either demolish it or get it approved before the sale can go ahead.

my grandparents have a house with this "extension" done. Its livable. Extremely hot compared to the rest of the house - but that can be fixed.

The garage door was converted to a window. Mustve ben tricky too coz its one of those archway type cresent type garages openings.

i say go for it.

Originally Posted by ausdesign

Usually a big stumbling block is the requirement to have an 'impervious membrane' under the concrete if it's to be a habitable room.

I wonder, does having a 12" - 18" thick, 32mpa, concrete garage floor count ?
(hey, I got a real good deal on the concrete )