We have a mid sized 2 bed house with separate garage. Its likely that in a few years we will want to size up and I’m looking for way to add value for when we do. The garage was bricked up and badly converted to office space by the previous owner (so needs work doing one way or another). As the roof now leaks its going to be replaced so I’m thinking it could be worth making a few other alterations to make this space more usable.

Currently the whole garage is a single space, single skin with plaster straight onto the bricks (yuck!). I’m thinking of doing something like the below image and partitioning the space into 2. The far end of the garage would remain as storage, I’d probably add a bit of roof insulation, and possible board the walls but not much more. The front section I’m thinking of insulation and lining properly, adding french doors onto the patio, and heating. Idea would be an indoor/outdoor space to help make the garden a nicer space. We’d use it normally to home our cross trainer and turbo, and as indoor seating/alternative lounge when having bbq’s etc.

The question I have is as a potential house buyer would you see this sort of conversion as added value. What I’m trying to gauge is whether it really worth the effort to do.

S’all bout practical usable living space (+ building control & planning).

Personally I would rather have somewhere to store my bike without taking it through the nicely painted and decked area.

Maybe make a door direct into the storage space from outside?

You may find not having a usable garage will reduce the value of the property as well.

Adding value?

You’d be better off doing the minimum required and paying the extra off your mortgage

There’s a door into the storage space already which I didn’t show :D. Likewise I wouldn’t want my muddy bikes going though the clean room.

Garage is already not usable as a garage. We have a large amount of parking (5 cars worth!) which I’m also considering adding a 2 car space car port too which should help address that.

You’d be better off doing the minimum required and paying the extra off your mortgage

Fair point. I guess the trade off there would be whether or not we got sufficient usage from any changes.

If you want to add real value then the best things to do in order are

+Bedrooms
+Bathrooms
extend kitchen

HTH

I’d say there would be very little return. A working garage will appeal to a wide range of people. Worth doing if the space is useful to yourselves and will improve your life but it’s not an investment.

Personally I’d turn it back into a proper garage. I reckon that’s more desirable than an odd small room and an odd storage room which is neither here nor there.
It’s like people who throw gravel down to tart up the drive. I’d rather see a scabby old drive than a cheap bodge.

I doubt it’d be a clincher either way. There’s a lot of buyers out there that like the idea of having their own do’er upper opportunity. I’d forget the value bit and make it work for you. You say that you’ll be there for a few more years…your split function idea seems cheap and will give you some added quality of life.

If it was me i’d be looking to fix it up in way that retains it’s original use. Insulate and plaster if this doesn’t reduce the width to a point where a car could not get in and door opened. Then you could put a stud partition in to devide the space if you want. Instead of patio doors you could look at bi fold garage doors. Put power to it if it doesn’t already have.

My thought being that down the line the garage could be easily made into any of the following – working gargae, comfortable work shop, studio etc which may not add value but would appeal to more people.

They say, when buying a house, women look at kitchens and bathrooms, men look at out buildings…

men look at out buildings…

You’ve got to have somewhere to hide 😀

Maybe leaving as one space but insulating would best. Can still do all the things we’d use it for most, and it could still be a garage if someone else wanted that (we still have the old door as well). Don’t want to convert it back myself as we wouldn’t be able to get a car in there along with existing contents (and it would end up being less secure).

What I definitely don’t want to do is spend too much on it. The roof has to be done or the stuff stored inside will get ruined but if there is minimal return then too major a change would not be sensible.

and the women make the decision…

If you want to do it for you, do it (personally I think I’d like it). I doubt it would add or detract from the value of the house at all.

and the women make the decision…

Yep….

And you don’t want the most expensive house on your street – people’ll think ‘yeah, it’s nice but they want £xxxx more than the one that sold next door…

Things that add value to any house are:
Double glazing,
Carparking space,
Downstairs loo,
white bathroom suite that’s modern,
Room for a table in a kitchen (known as kitchen diner)
Outside space of any size.

Extras like any original features (fire places, doors, windows, coving, picture rail etc)

What you’re maybe planning won’t add any value to the asking price. It may even decrease the value in some buyers eyes. Some buyers might like it. All depends.

Most buyers want certain things. A dining room, even if they will never use it. They all think that they’ll throw dinner parties but never will. A en-suite for every bedroom, just more cleaning required. An office?!?!?!? A working garage, even though it will end up as storage because anything bigger than a Smart car won’t fit.

BUT, instead of trying to add value, do the work and enjoy the new space because this house you are living in is your home. Not a “property” you are investing in to make money.

Houses with decent car parking and a garage are getting harder to come by …..

Seems the norm now to put house right at front of boundary and a single drive and garage for a roller skate

It might not add huge value but will help you sell quicker and appeal to a different market than a strange room in the garden which was once a garage……

I wouldn’t even be thinking about ‘adding value’. I’d be looking at making the house best fit my current (and future) needs.

When you come to sell, then consider any changes you may need/want to make.

I’d say this would be a waste of time and money. I would actually prefer a full garage rather than two spaces that don’t deliver the full functionality of either. As above, extra bedrooms and bathrooms add value as do decent kitchens. I also read in the Telegraph at the weekend that adding a contemporary woodburing stove to your lounge increases value by 5-10k although it seems high to me.

I added value to my house by leaving a £10 note in the corner of every room.

also read in the Telegraph at the weekend that adding a contemporary woodburing stove to your lounge increases value by 5-10k although it seems high to me.

Ahahahhahahahahahah marketing piece by stove sellers perhaps ?

Lol, no seriously a genuine article. Not sure where they worked that out from. Maybe if you banged a 10k ceiling mounted super stove into a Mayfair pad it might be correct but whoever wrote it has probably never seen a bedsit in Bacup.

Hmm, good points. We’ve already taken care of the bathroom and kitchen is well under way. There is no room short of an expensive extension to add bedrooms/ensuite/downstairs loo. Kitchen is huge so you can get a 6 seater rectangular table in there along with a sideboard without making it cramped. All double glazed and the outsize space is at least double that of the comparable houses in the area (end terraced).

I raised the idea with budget administration last night and got a less than enthusiastic reception so think its very unlikely to happen. Dry lining the garage as a single space might as that would fit our usage too.

I wish we could have a wood burned, however location of stairs and door to kitchen limit lounge layout options so no where to put one :(.

I know an estate agent and can ask her for he best/cheapest way to add value. She knows the area so things like parking vs storage will be specific to your house rather then generic.

Also worth thinking how long before you plan to move. If it only costs a couple of hundred quid, gives you a great garden area for the summer and doesn’t affect the house price then why not do it anyway?

Off to buy a wood burner….

I’ve seen this before where this type of “decorated space” is used as an home office.

From the Telegraph:

Every few years, seemingly out of the ether, there emerges a piece of kit that is universally coveted by the homeowning classes. Without this chic object of desire, one’s home seems as barren as a yurt in the Gobi desert.

In the Seventies, for example, the avocado bathroom suite and the Magimix were the ne plus ultra of the day. In the early Eighties, the zeitgeist bowed before the Breville sandwich toaster (amazing, but true) to say nothing of the naughty-knickeresque ruched blind. In the Nineties one’s house could not be counted a home without a Le Creuset casserole dish, kitchen island and granite worktop. More recently the retro-American fridge-freezer and the baby espresso machine have been the siren song.

Today, however it is the wood-burning stove after which we lust. A roaring open fire with the heat escaping up the chimney is so yesterday. To be at the cutting edge, one needs a Scandinavian log-guzzler that generates more hot air than the Copenhagen climate change conference.

I know an estate agent and can ask her for he best/cheapest way to add value. She knows the area so things like parking vs storage will be specific to your house rather then generic.

That would be great, ta.

I’ve seen this before where this type of “decorated space” is used as an home office.

That what the previous owner used it for (the whole garage that is). We have way to much stuff to store to use the whole thing like that. SWMBO can work from home though and since the arrival of sprog #1 the second bedroom can no longer be used as an office.

+1 djglover

-1 Bunnyhop

mrmonkfinger – Member

+1 djglover

-1 Bunnyhop Why a minus?
We have done up one house, virtually gutting it and starting again, also we added loads of value to our first house, so I’m not making stuff up.

Why a minus?

Shouldn’t be allowed, I’m sure it’s against STW rules….

🙂