Question 1

Do I need planning permission to convert my garage?

Accepted Answer

In most cases no. Converting an integral or attached garage into living space is usually permitted development, because you're changing the use of an existing structure rather than extending the building or altering its footprint. The exceptions are worth checking early: listed buildings, conservation areas, and newer estates where the original planning consent included a condition requiring the garage to be retained as parking. That last one catches people out — it's a planning condition rather than a general rule, and it's specific to your address. We check it before you commit.

Question 2

Do I need building regulations approval?

Accepted Answer

Yes, always. A garage conversion is a change of use to habitable space, and that brings in Building Regulations regardless of whether planning permission is needed — thermal performance, structural work at the new opening, ventilation, damp-proofing, fire safety and the electrical installation. We handle the full plans submission and the sign-off in-house, and you get the compliance certificate at handover. That certificate matters: an unsigned-off conversion gets flagged by a surveyor when you sell, and it can hold up the sale or knock money off the price.

Question 3

Why do so many converted garages still feel cold?

Accepted Answer

The floor, nearly always. A garage slab is laid straight onto the ground with no insulation beneath it, because it was never meant to be a room. Convert it without addressing that and you get a space that's carpeted, plastered, and still cold underfoot in January. We put rigid insulation under a new screed or a floating deck, line the walls with insulated stud and a vapour control layer behind the plasterboard, and insulate at the new opening. It's the single biggest difference between a conversion that gets used and one that becomes storage again.

Question 4

What happens where the garage door was?

Accepted Answer

The door comes out and the opening is closed up properly — built up, insulated and finished — with a new window or French doors set into it, matched to the existing house so it doesn't read as a filled-in garage from the street. Matching the brick and the window style is most of what makes a conversion look original rather than obvious, so it's worth spending the conversation on at the site visit.

Question 5

Will I still be able to park, and does it affect the house value?

Accepted Answer

You lose the garage as parking — that's the trade. Most people converting an integral garage are already parking on the drive, which is why the space was full of bikes and a freezer in the first place. On value: a properly converted, signed-off garage adds usable floor area to the house, which is what valuers measure. An unconverted garage rarely does. The certificate is the part that protects that, which is why we won't do the work without it.

Question 6

How long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Four to six weeks on site for a typical integral or attached garage, running our own team throughout. Building control inspections are booked around the programme rather than bolted on at the end.

Garage Conversionsin Swansea & South Wales

Floor

Walls

New opening

Electrics

Building regs

Every build, as standard.

Answered straight, before you ask.

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