Building a Garage? Here’s Some Things You’ll Need to Know

Adding a garage to your property will provide you with extra work and storage space. It can be a place to keep your car out of the rain or an office to run your start-up out of. Properties with garages sell for more than similar properties that don’t have them, so it can also be an investment. Here’s a few things you should probably know if you are thinking about building a garage.

Planning Permission

The construction of outbuildings including garages under a certain size is considered to be “permitted development”. You do not need planning permission provided your garage meets a few conditions:

• Your proposed garage must be a single storey of no more than 4m height (including roof)
  
• Your garage must not feature a veranda or balcony.  
  
• The square footage of your garage and other outbuildings and extensions must not take up more than half the area of land around the house.
  
• If your house is a listed building or located in a protected area (e.g. the Broads) then you must seek the relevant permissions.

Costs

There are certain minimum costs to be met when building a garage. It will need foundations, walls, roof, roofline, doors and windows. You are probably looking at £16-20K. If you want stonework that matches your house, cavity walls, good insulation and plumbing, you can add another £5-10K. If you are prepared to manage the project yourself, then you can save a bit of money by employing different contractors for each bit of the work that you want doing rather than paying a builder to organise everything for you.

Doors

If you want advice on the best doors for your garage door project, we’re happy to help. We supply and install doors manufactured by industry leaders such as Garador, Hörmann and WarmProtection. Drop by our showroom on the Sweet Briar industrial estate and we can chat about the best door to meet your needs. Alternatively, you can call us on 01603 787069 or email any questions to sales@autodoorsandgates.co.uk.

Have you completed an outbuilding project? Share the lessons that you learned with us on Facebook and Twitter.