The garage is the part of a lot of North East homes that has quietly stopped being useful. Half of them never see a car and end up as a damp store for things nobody uses. Whether yours is falling to bits and needs rebuilding, has a roof that has finally given up, or you fancy turning it into a proper room, there is usually good value to be had in sorting it out.
Rebuilding a tired garage
A lot of older garages, especially the prefab concrete panel ones, reach a point where patching them up is pointless. The panels crack, the roof leaks, the whole thing is cold and damp. Rebuilding in brick or block gives you a solid, dry, secure building that actually adds value to the house rather than dragging it down. It also opens the door to doing more with the space later, because a properly built garage can be converted down the line whereas a crumbling prefab cannot.
Reroofing
A very common job on its own is the roof. Old garage roofs, particularly flat felt ones and the old asbestos cement sheets, wear out and start letting water in. A new roof, whether that is a modern flat roof system or a pitched roof, keeps the building dry and can transform how it looks from the street. If your garage is basically sound but the roof has gone, this is often all it needs.
Converting a garage into a room
This is where the real value is for a lot of people. Turning an integral or attached garage into a room, whether that is a home office, a playroom, a utility, a gym or an extra bedroom, gives you proper usable space for a fraction of what a full extension costs, because the walls and roof are largely already there. The work usually involves filling in the garage door with a proper insulated wall and window, insulating the walls, floor and roof to meet building regs, sorting damp proofing, and adding heating, electrics and a decent floor. Done right it feels like it was always part of the house, not a converted garage.
The things to get right
A garage conversion has to be done to building regs standard to be worth anything, and that is where cheap jobs come unstuck. The insulation and damp proofing especially, because a garage was never built to be warm and dry the way a room needs to be. Skimp on that and you get a cold, damp room that nobody wants to use. There is also parking to think about, as some councils want to see you still have off street parking, and occasionally planning comes into it, though many conversions fall under permitted development. We will check all of that for you before you commit.
Whichever way you go, rebuild, reroof or full conversion, the key is a proper look at what you have got and an honest steer on what makes sense for your place and your budget. Sometimes a conversion is the obvious win. Sometimes the sensible spend is a solid rebuild and a new roof. We will tell you straight.
We rebuild, reroof and convert garages across Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Teesside and the wider North East. If you have got a garage that is either falling down or going to waste, get us out for a look and we will talk you through the options.
Keystone Construction Group. More from the space you already have. Call 07587885335 or visit keystone.abacusai.app.
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Have a chat with us about your build. No pushy sales, just honest advice from a team that knows the North East.
