Garage conversion drawings from £575
A garage makes a ready-built room, but only if the walls, floor and ventilation are brought up to a living space. We survey it, check what planning rules apply and draw the conversion.
£575 £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total), no VAT to add
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The short answer
Garage conversion drawings turn a garage into a bedroom, office or kitchen: the new layout, the infilled door, and the insulation, damp and ventilation build-ups. Internal work is often not development, but building regulations always apply. Our fee is £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total), no VAT to add. Council fees, where due, are separate.
Garage conversion drawings
from £575
- Drawings
- £425
- Measured survey
- £150
- Total you pay
- £575
- VAT
- None to add
- A measured survey of the garage, the house and the front of the property
- Existing and proposed plans and elevations, including the infilled door and new window
- A planning check: earlier conditions on parking, Article 4 directions, conservation area or listing
- The Lawful Development Certificate or planning application where one is worthwhile, submitted for you
- A building regulations set showing floor, wall and roof build-ups, ventilation and fire safety
- An independent check of every sheet, and free redraws of our drawings until approval
£425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total). A starting fee: we confirm one fixed figure after checking your address. The council’s own fee, where there is one, is paid to the council.
Get my fixed feeHow a garage conversion runs with us
Planning check
We read the decision notice for your house for any condition tying the garage to parking, and check for an Article 4 direction.
Survey
We measure the garage, the floor level against the house, the roof and the opening to the street.
Layout
We draw how the room links to the house, where the new window goes and how the old door opening is closed.
Route
If a certificate or application is needed, we submit it; if not, we go straight to the building regulations set.
Building regulations set
Build-ups, ventilation and fire details go in the set that building control approves.
Do you need planning permission to convert a garage?
Often not. Under section 55 of the Planning Act, works that affect only the interior of a building are not development, and many integral garages are converted that way. Three things change the answer: a planning condition that keeps the garage for parking, an Article 4 direction, and any change to the outside, such as a new window in place of the door, in an area where that needs permission.
If you also enlarge the garage as you convert it, the enlargement counts as an extension and is judged as one. We read your house’s planning history first, because the condition, if there is one, is written on the original decision.
- Condition on the original permission that reserves the garage for parking
- Article 4 direction removing permitted development
- Detached garage converted to a separate home, which is a change of use
- Listed building or conservation area, where the front elevation is watched closely
Building regulations always apply
Turning a garage into a room is a material change of use, because the building then contains a room for residential purposes where previously it did not, as regulation 5 puts it. So building control approves it even when planning does not.
The building is judged as a home, so the walls and floor you keep must be improved. Approved Document L names a garage conversion in its rules for retained elements: a wall with a U-value over 0.70 must be upgraded to 0.55 with cavity insulation or 0.30 with internal or external insulation, and a floor to 0.25.
Light, air and the old door
Garage floors are often lower than the house and carry no damp-proof membrane, and garage doors are single-skin. We draw the infill as a cavity wall with a window, and a floor build-up that raises the finished level and keeps moisture out.
A bedroom also needs an opening window to purge the air: Approved Document F asks for an opening area of at least a twentieth of the room’s floor area, for a window opening to 30 degrees or more.
Building regulations drawings · Lawful Development Certificate drawings
Garage conversions in numbers
s55(2)(a)
Works that affect only the interior of a building are not development for planning purposes.
Source: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55: meaning of development (legislation.gov.uk)
Reg 5(h)
A building that gains a room for residential purposes has a material change of use under building regulations.
Source: Building Regulations 2010, regulation 5: material change of use (legislation.gov.uk)
0.55
Target U-value, in W/m²K, for a retained cavity wall above the 0.70 threshold.
Source: Approved Document L volume 1: conservation of fuel and power, dwellings (GOV.UK)
0.30
Target U-value, in W/m²K, for a retained wall upgraded with internal or external insulation.
Source: Approved Document L volume 1: conservation of fuel and power, dwellings (GOV.UK)
0.25
Target U-value, in W/m²K, for a retained floor above the 0.70 threshold.
Source: Approved Document L volume 1: conservation of fuel and power, dwellings (GOV.UK)
1/20
Purge ventilation opening needed, as a share of the room’s floor area, for a window opening at 30 degrees or more.
Source: Approved Document F volume 1: ventilation, dwellings (GOV.UK)
4 m
Highest a single-storey permitted development extension may be, relevant if you extend as you convert.
2 m
Within this distance of a boundary, eaves of an extension may not exceed 3 metres.
Questions about garage conversions
Will I lose my parking?
Yes, and some councils care. Where there is a condition tying the garage to parking, a conversion needs permission. Elsewhere, the council’s parking policy for your street may still weigh on any application, and we check before you spend.
Do I need a Lawful Development Certificate?
Not required, but worth having when the conversion is internal and nothing in the planning history restricts it. A buyer’s solicitor will ask how the garage became a room.
Can I fit a bathroom or kitchen in the garage?
Yes, with drainage that connects to the house’s system and ventilation that suits the room. We draw the pipework route on the plan.
Can I convert a detached garage to a separate home?
That is a change of use to a dwelling and needs planning permission. See change of use drawings.
Turn the garage into a room, properly
Send the address and a photo of the garage. We reply with the route and a fixed fee, from £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total).