Have you found yourself running out of living space, but you don’t want to move to a new, larger home? Many folks find themselves in this situation. Either they’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and money into their current house to really make it their dream home and don’t want to start all over with a new house. For others, the battered real estate market and tight credit standards for home loans make it increasingly difficult to move to a larger home.
Well, you don’t have to just “live with it” if you need more living space. If you have a garage, there are so many different options available to you if you decide to convert it to living space and not just a place to park your car. But before you spend a dime or invest a single second, there are some very important things you need to keep in mind along your journey.
Best Way: Get a Qualified Contractor
I know there are some handy people out there, but I would strongly suggest you hire a licensed contractor to do your garage conversion. It’s extremely important that your conversion is done correctly to code and also meet your design and functionality needs. Most people simply don’t have the skills, tools, patience, and time to do this type of heavy duty construction project on their own.
I know everyone is looking to save cash, but you don’t want to be too cheap when it comes to hiring a contractor. Always remember you get what you pay for when it comes to super low prices, so make sure you find someone with a good reputation and negotiate a fair price. Believe me, more often that not you’ll have to redo the job if you go with a cheap contract with a terrible reputation.
Another factor you should take into consideration is the contractor’s communication skills. Most construction projects go over budget and take longer than originally planned, so working with a contractor that communicates issues that arise and offers affordable solutions in a timely manner is the best option to go with.
Keep in mind that your house is unique to other homes, even if you live in a cookie cutter house different things may pop up when the contractor starts working. So make sure you get a strong referral and really check your contractor’s reference before hiring him. He’s going to be working with some pretty expensive stuff like insulation, plumbing and eletricity so you want to make sure that he’s done it before successfully.
Conversion Options for You to Consider
One the biggest selling points of converting your garage to living space is that you can add prime square footage to your home for a fraction of the cost. Imagine if you could add 400 sqaure feet of extra living space, that could add thousands of dollars of value to your home at a fraction of the cost. As long as it is done well, you’re pretty much gauranteed to make your money back plus some if you decide to sell your house in the future.
But before you do anything, you have to take a step back and see what you’re working in terms of walls, floor, access, lighting, etc.
Fortunately, most garages are very similar. More than likely you’ll have a cement floor and a decent roof. More than likely you won’t have any windows, but you can always add them to your floor plan. Now you have to figure out if your walls are properly insulated. More than likely they won’t be, but that’s ok. We can easily add the insulation need affordably. You’ll also need to plan your heating and cooling, eletrical outlets, lighting, and plumbing if you need it.
Converting your garage into a room can serve a variety of functions. Your room can be converted into everything from a garage to workout room, a garage to office, a garage to bathroom, a family room, den, home theater, home office or you could even remodel your garage into a bedroom. You might discover enough “attic” space to do an attic conversion and finish two rooms (one above the other) or to open the ceiling and design your new room with a vaulted ceiling while converting your garage to a room.
All you really need to do is take some time to think about what you intend to use your converted garage for. Here’s a short list of the most commonly uses for a converted garage:
Private office – If you work for yourself or just a need a quiet place to concentrate on your work, a home office makes perfect sense.Just make sure the room is insulated properly and you have plenty of electrical outlets in the room.
Guest bedroom - More and more people are going with this option. They’re not really looking for anything special and just want an easy conversion to use the garage as a spare bedroom.
The most common floor plan is a compact, one-bedroom apartment. This layout works well for pretty much any sized garage, especially one with square footage constraints. Plus, it’s relatively affordable to accomplish and won’t take months and months of construction.
Exercise room – Personally, I would love to turn my garage into an exercise room. The most important thing you need in this type of conversion is good flooring, especially if you’re’ going to be lifting heavy weights. The last thing you want is to drop the weight and crack your cement floor. Or, you can convert it to a yoga studio by laying some laminate flooring, upgrade the lighting with stylish fixtures to create your own personal yoga retreat or meditation room.
Mother in law apartment – Easily one of the most popular garage conversions. What better way to add an entirely separate unit with its own bathroom, kitchenette, and sleeping/living area for a few thousand dollars. Make sure you plan the space carefully so that it uses the space efficiently and you don’t feel cramped.
You can pretty much do anything you want with it.
Quick Garage Conversion Recap
Step 1 – Figure out what type of conversion best fits your needs. You’ll also need to figure out other things like where you’re going to park your car(s), how far your utilities will be from where you need them, where you’ll need to add plumbing, etc. Consult with your contractor to make sure all of your bases are covered.
Step 2 – Research and hire a reliable general contractor to convert your garage.
Step 3 – Sit down with your contractor or garage conversion specialist to figure out the most cost effective approach to achieving the layout you want, and figure out how to make sure it meets city regulations and codes.
Step 4 – Submit your building plans to your local city planning department and get all of the necessary permits.
Then enjoy your own transformation similar to this family:
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