Anyone a chippy or builder? need some advice

[Rooter]

Guys, working from home full time now (except visiting customers but hey)

Anyway, the house is full, i really should tie a knot in it..Anyway, I want to convert a portion of my garage to an office. I have direct access to the single garage via my back garden with a normal door and the standard garage door at the other end.. What do i need to consider? i am handy enough with a saw and a tape measure/spirit level, and will call on my neighbour who is a retired handy man should i need help... but a few things.

I am presuming the easiest thing would be to pick a corner of the garage, that way only need to erect 2 walls. stud walls with insulating then plasterboard? also the same for the ceiling? i have power in there already, so no need for any changes there at all. although my bro is part P.

What about the flooring, at the minute its concrete with a really rough finish, while i dont want to win any awards for this, i want it to be comfy. would i be best to raise it slightly, insulate etc?

Last thing, do i need to get any permission to add a small window? it would only be facing back toward my house, just for some natural light..

Will just use an oil filled leccy radiator in the winter and a fan/window in the summer re heating...

Thanks guys.

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

1.Check for leaks
2.Check for dampness
3.Insulate walls with either studwork/insulation/plasterboard OR Insulated plasterboard
4.Insulate ceiling/construct ceiling with plasterboard
5 Lay polythene dpm and lay Celotex insulation with chipboard to form floor (if you sufficient height)
6.Construct studwork partitions
7.Install electricity/telecoms
8.Install window
9.Furnish
10. Enjoy, however why are you not on golf course.

The above is not in sequence, I would be inclined to install window as not likely to require planning if not overlooking neighbours.

 

[CMAC]

Scott, cant help or comment apart from saying where will you get the time to do this with 3 kids, a wife and a new job? get a man in to do it......

Anyway, call your local planning department for advice, they are usually very helpful and might even pop round to advise (depending how busy they are) as they'll have seen hundreds of these and will know the pitfalls and shortcuts.

 

[Warbur]

I've done more or less eactly this with our integral garage.

I'm not sure about your planning permission as it's not facing neighbours but I did have to get it as I put a window in the side elevation of the house.

I also made sure that I got building regs approval, on the basis of a building notice, to make sure that I had all of the paperwork in place for future resale. I did similar in our last house (no window) but didn't get building regs approval and had to pay for an insurance policy for the new owners.

I didn't have to worry about the ceiling with it being an integral garage as it was already plasterboarded but did have to sort out the floor/walls etc.

You'd be as well to install a false floor and it can be easily done as a floating floor as per Arnold's post above. I did quite a large area of our garage and installed timber joists, onto strips of DPC as the garage floor has a fall from back to front (standard thing to keep water out). I think we had about 25mm of fall to take out. We then insulated between the joists with polystyrene insulation.

I installed a studwork secondary lining to the external wall as it suited the garage arrangement but also enabled me to insulate the wall and create an air gap between the "skins". The internal walls were built via 100 x 50mm studwork with 75mm of Celotex insulation. The garage face of the internal partition had to be lined with 15mm fireline board with the joints taped and filled as building control wanted this to be a fire wall (probably due to the integral nature of the space). I also lined the faces with 1No layer 12mm plywood (to assist with mounting shelves etc) and the inner face was finished with 1No layer 12.5mm plasterboard with taped and filled joints.

I had a sparky install various sockets/lighting and heating is via an electric panel rad connected to a timer. Not the nicest form of heat but the only practical option in our situation.

After that it was just the finishes and furnishings.

Have you managed to check your broadband strength from your garage to make sure you can work from there without any connection issues?

 

[Rooter]

Thanks guys for the input! Will get my planning pencil out!

Re the network, worst case I will cable it, I have a run through the garden which takes power etc through.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Re the network, quite often garages have a fireproof insulation mesh in the walls which can play havoc with WIFI

so either check the wifi strength or get some Cat 6 cable in before you start

 

[Rooter]

Re the network, quite often garages have a fireproof insulation mesh in the walls which can play havoc with WIFI

so either check the wifi strength or get some Cat 6 cable in before you start

Mine Is simple brick, nowt fancy. I am a closet geek phil, so one step ahead on the technology going into my office! Lol just had fibre installed at home today too, bring on the downloads!

The big Q about the garage/office is do I pay some one, or do I DIY? How much would I be looking at? Only a small corner office, say 2x2m, that's all I need, a little private box!

 

[Warbur]

The big Q about the garage/office is do I pay some one, or do I DIY? How much would I be looking at? Only a small corner office, say 2x2m, that's all I need, a little private box!

DIY it if you are confident (apart from the electrics of course). It's all pretty straightforward work being a bit of studwork, insulation and plasterboard.

The studwork just needs to be done with CLS (either 75 x 50mm or 100 x 50mm depending on the insulation thickness you want to use). Just check the CLS is straight when you buy it and doesn't have too much twist along it's length.

I wouldn't worry about a plaster skim to the boards. If you buy tapered edge plasterboard you can scrim tape and fill the joints between boards. I did this and used Easyfill for the jointing material as it's easy to work with and it will sand down well if you need to.