# Single attached garage into double



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

I currently have a single attached garage which measures 3.17m wide by 6.125m long. For a long time this has been sufficient for my 1 car (mk1 fabia vrs). However, in December I acquired another car (low mileage mk1 octavia vrs) which is to be permantly garaged leaving my fabia stuck on the drive  I was planning on building a carport next to my garage but it won't cost much more to make the existing garage into a double. I plan to just build 1 wall and have a roller garage door on either side of the new extension so that building costs are reduced and I can also pull the car into the back garden to work on it. The new garage will be 6.28m wide and 6.125m long, budget is £5k maximum. I will be doing all the work myself apart from felting the roof. I aim to finish this by June this year as I won't be starting until the weather gets a bit better. I'll upload some photos of the current garage shortly and my plans and try to document as best as possible!


----------



## olionabike (Feb 1, 2017)

Sounds good! Somthing is like to do although it would mean extending the garage into the garden and making the house look weird haha
Good luck 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dholdi (Oct 1, 2008)

Look forward to the updates.
I have just removed our attached garage and replaced it with one at the back.
Much more drive space and garage space.
Lost a little garden space but we are not to fussed about that.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

A photo of the plans (scale 1:100).

http://i.imgur.com/NuNyoaX.png?1[/IMG]


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

So since my first post, the planning has been approved and I have applied and paid for building regs, although they haven't been out yet (hopefully this Friday they will).

I haven't made much progress with the garage, but I have removed 26 hedges and their roots, cut them all up and burnt them in a chimenea. My son's trampoline was also behind the fence in the picture above so I have had to move that elsewhere. I've built a new fence and put some membrane down and stones to cover the grass so it has a new spot (as shown in the photo below). My plans for April are to get the foundations dug and filled in. Then in May I want to get a few courses of bricks laid, the base dug out and a slab laid (funds and wife permitting!!). I'll pop some more photos up once I finish digging the foundations. I'm revising my original finish date from June to August and the budget from £5k to £4k max. After pricing up everything and as I'm doing it myself its not quite as expensive as I had imagined which is great.


----------



## In a state (Mar 20, 2006)

If you have the budget, I'd advise extending the roof as well....you could put either a room above the garage or a big master suite accessed from the house. Adding value and making the most of that space.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Yeah that's a good idea and myself and my wife did discuss doing that, but we can already get 2 large doubles from the existing loft space which is partially converted, but I wouldn't want it to be much bigger than that. My OCD means I spend about 3 hours a day cleaning the house already lol


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Small update, spent the weekend in the company of my old shovel getting the last of the hedges out and the foundations dug out. Plans for the next 4 weeks are to get the foundations filled, get rid of 2 large heaps of earth (as high as my garage :-( ) and get a few courses of bricks laid!


----------



## Sean15 (Jan 13, 2016)

You done that by hand! Impressive, don't forget to keep a load of soil for backfilling.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Thanks, it doesn't look too deep on the photos but they are 110cm deep x 45cm wide and 60cm wide where the pillars are. I'm so glad they are dug now! I'll keep some soil but I'm going to fill them nearly all the way to the top with concrete.


----------



## Sean15 (Jan 13, 2016)

Paul08 said:


> Thanks, it doesn't look too deep on the photos but they are 110cm deep x 45cm wide and 60cm wide where the pillars are. I'm so glad they are dug now! I'll keep some soil but I'm going to fill them nearly all the way to the top with concrete.


That's a lot of concrete to waste, 1.1m deep foundation. Surely more cost effective to use just required amount and use trench blocks or normal blocks.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Thanks for the advice. I've just had the building inspector out who has advised the foundations are good to go.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Some updates. So a couple of weeks ago mini mix came and filled the foundations with concrete. I got them filled close to the top as it didn't work out much more and it should make the foundations very strong. I've also managed to get rid of about 3 tons of soil this weekend by giving it away which saved me £220 in skip hire! With the help of my dad, we got some engineering bricks laid on Saturday. We will be laying some more next weekend so they are 6 high and up to where the damp proof needs to be.


----------



## enc (Jan 25, 2006)

Nice work


----------



## civicboi (Jan 13, 2014)

Looking good, following. If possible keep an update on price i will be building similar soon 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


----------



## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Coming along nicely! :thumb: Bet you can't wait to see the walls start to go up now you can see the 'footprint' of it. When are you expecting to have it complete?


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Sorry for the lack of updates, the project stood still for a little while due to work. Last weekend me and my dad got the wall up to damp proof course and this weekend I will be continuing to dig out soil for the slab and bag it and stick it on gumtree  I'll update in a couple of weeks once the slab is laid with photos and what the price has been to get to that stage + buy all the bricks I need to finish the wall. Aim is still to complete atleast the shell by the end of August.


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

Some well overdue updates. I have re-uploaded all the photos so far (thanks photobucket!) and below is what's happened since.

Finished wall up to DPC and started digging out for slab










6" Hardcore laid, I didn't get any photos of it compacted, but I did this by hand using an offcut from a railway sleeper that I had in the back garden










1" of sand laid, again before levelling and compaction










DMP and re-bar laid ready for concrete










Concrete laid at 8.30 am on Friday



















I spent the rest of Friday fixing and extending the driveway and disposing of the cracked slabs and putting warning tape around the slab. Sometime next week I will remove the wooden boards and build a concrete ramp from the drive to the garage and replace broken concrete at front of drive with fresh concrete 

Price to get to this stage (excluding only the cost of the cement mixer as I needed one anyway, but it was £115 new)

Description Price
Planning Permission £172.00
Building Control £210.00
Buy A Plan £25.92
Foundation concrete £373.20
Building sand £37.20
Cement Bags £48.00
Engineering Bricks £115.20
Plasticizer £4.50
Damp Proof Course £7.50
Dolomite £28.80
Dolomite £86.40
Damp Proof Membrane £14.00
Reinforcement Mesh £64.80
Timber £24.48
Slab concrete £290.00
Building sand	
Facing Bricks	
Timber for roof	
Felting	
Garage doors	
Electrics	
Paint	
Total £1,502.00

I have left blank what I still need to buy to complete the garage.

I have saved a lot of money so far by not hiring a single skip (all soil has been given away on gumtree), getting some free hardcore delivered from gumtree from people who wanted rid and by doing all the digging with my 30 year old spade and me. The timber I bought to tamper the concrete will be re-used in the roof.


----------



## Guest (Aug 6, 2017)

6" Hardcore laid, I didn't get any photos of it compacted, but I did this by hand using an offcut from a railway sleeper


Did you share that info with Building Control?....


----------



## Paul08 (Jun 1, 2014)

aka.eric said:


> 6" Hardcore laid, I didn't get any photos of it compacted, but I did this by hand using an offcut from a railway sleeper
> 
> Did you share that info with Building Control?....


Yes i spoke to them about preparing the base for concrete and what depths to lay things at and methods to use. I've heard some horror stories re wacker plates so wanted to avoid.


----------



## c87reed (Dec 9, 2015)

Paul08 said:


> Yes i spoke to them about preparing the base for concrete and what depths to lay things at and methods to use. I've heard some horror stories re wacker plates so wanted to avoid.


What kind of horror stories have you heard re hacker plates? It's far from impossible to do it be hand, but it would need to be compacted and built up in shallow layers.


----------



## Sean15 (Jan 13, 2016)

Building control told me that when they come out to inspect before concrete getting poured, if they seen rebar sitting on pieces of brick or concrete they would make me remove them. They insisted the rebar was to be placed on the castle stands at half the depth of the concrete. Never heard any stories regarding whacker plates, there's no way a piece of timber could replicate the forces of a plate. Only time will tell.


----------

