Get the tape measure out: 5.7 by 2.7 metres
Before you decide what the garage becomes, find out whether the council would ever have called it a parking space. Aberdeen's Transport and Accessibility guidance (2023) sets the smallest acceptable new single garage at 6 by 3 metres outside and no less than 5.7 by 2.7 metres inside, with a door opening at least 2.25 metres wide and 1.98 metres high. If yours is smaller, it was never doing much for parking, and you can say so if the planners ask.
The driveway in front matters more. For an existing house the council wants a driveway at least 5 metres long and 3 metres wide. If you have one, the car has somewhere to go once the garage is a room. If you don't and want to make one, the dropped kerb (a footway crossing, in the council's words) has to be built by the council at your expense, and it's normally one per property.
Some addresses won't get a new driveway at all. The guidance says consent won't normally be given for parking in the front gardens of tenement flats, and a driveway taken off a busy controlled parking bay is unlikely to be allowed.
Granite fronts, boundary walls and Class 2B
Swapping the garage door for a wall and window is a change to the front, and that's what planning looks at. Outside a conservation area, Class 2B of the Scottish permitted development order covers alterations to the outside of a house that aren't an enlargement, as long as nothing sticks out more than a metre. Inside one of Aberdeen's eleven conservation areas, Class 2B doesn't apply, so you need planning permission.
The council's Windows and Doors guidance (2023) is wary of new openings on the main elevation of a traditional building, and says doors facing the street should be kept rather than blocked. On a modern house it allows a broader choice of window design. Expect a granite villa in Ferryhill or Great Western Road to be judged far more tightly than a 1990s house.
Out the back, the West End streets of Albyn Place and Rubislaw are served by rear lanes with coach houses and later garages, according to the council's 2013 conservation area appraisals. The same document says granite boundary walls are a strong feature it will try to keep, so knocking down a front wall to make up for the lost garage is a hard sell there.
How each type fits Aberdeen. The linked guides cover the whole UK, so read them with the Scottish points here.
Integral garage. Here the work sits under the main roof and the front elevation is the planning issue. Class 2B usually covers the new wall and window outside a conservation area. On a newer estate, read the original planning permission and your title deeds first, because either can restrict changes.
Single garage. Measure inside. Under 5.7 by 2.7 metres and it fails the council's own size for a new garage, which weakens any argument that you are losing a real space.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Planning and warrant. Two separate checks. Planning turns on the front elevation and on conservation area status. A building warrant is needed regardless, because the Scottish regulations treat turning part of a house into more living space as a conversion.
Detached garage. The council's warrant notes say some domestic garages under about 30 square metres are exempt from a warrant. Make one a room and that exemption goes. An office or gym used by the household is one thing. Somewhere a relative lives on their own is closer to a new dwelling, so talk to the planners before you design it.
Double garage. Converting half and keeping a bay for the car is the easier route where the driveway is short of 5 metres.
Bedroom. Escape and ventilation standards must be met in full for a conversion in Scotland. Natural light only has to be met as far as reasonably practicable, but a dim bedroom is still a dim bedroom.
Home office. A sensible use for a garage too narrow for a modern car. It still counts as more living space, so it still needs the warrant.
Utility or playroom. Keep the garage door if you're in a conservation area and want to avoid a planning application over the front.
Gym or studio. A lane garage behind a West End terrace, or a detached one at the foot of the garden, keeps the noise away from neighbours.
Cost. No Aberdeen figures from us. A sound slab and a driveway left in front make for a cheaper job than a granite frontage and a new floor.
The slab, the warrant and the granite underneath
Every conversion in the city goes to Aberdeen City Council's building standards team, because in Scotland the council is the only body that can check a warrant. Under Schedule 6 of the Building (Scotland) Regulations, a conversion meets some standards in full and others as far as reasonably practicable, never worse than before. Structure and radon sit in the second group. Escape, ventilation and noise sit in the first.
Radon deserves a look in this part of Scotland. British Geological Survey research puts some of the highest radon potential in Scotland in the granites west of Aberdeen, and gives the Aberdeen and Kemnay granite complexes an average above the 1% level that marks a radon affected area. The sandstone along the coast is very low. Check your address on the UKradon map before the floor is designed, while a membrane is still easy to add.
If SEPA's flood maps show any risk at or near the house and you need planning permission, the council may ask for a flood risk assessment.
Where these facts come from
- Aberdeen Planning Guidance 2023: Transport and Accessibility (garage and driveway sizes)
- Aberdeen Planning Guidance 2023: Repair and Replacement of Windows and Doors
- Aberdeen Planning Guidance 2023: Householder Design Guide
- Aberdeen City Council: Conservation Area Character Appraisals and Management Plan (2013)
- Aberdeen City Council: conservation areas
- Aberdeen City Council: Countesswells Development Framework and Phase 1 Masterplan
- Aberdeen City Council: Building Warrant Application Guidance Notes (2021)
- Aberdeen Planning Guidance 2023: Flooding, Drainage and Water Quality
- Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992, Schedule 1 (Class 2B)
- Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, Schedule 2 conversions
- Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, Schedule 6 standards for conversions
- British Geological Survey: Geological controls on radon potential in Scotland
- Health Protection Agency: Indicative Atlas of Radon in Scotland (2011)
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Questions people in Aberdeen ask
We have a garage on the back lane behind our West End terrace. Can it become an office?
Possibly. The lane garages are part of what the council describes in the Albyn Place and Rubislaw appraisal, and that area is a conservation area, so any change to the outside needs planning permission. The conversion itself needs a building warrant.
If we convert the garage, can we pave the front garden for the car instead?
Only if it can meet the council's driveway rules: at least 5 metres long and 3 metres wide for an existing house, drained within the plot, with a crossing built by the council. In a conservation area a driveway always needs planning permission, and the council tries to keep the granite front walls.
Our house in Countesswells was designed around parking on the plot. Does that matter?
It might. The Countesswells framework asked for resident parking to be built into the property or placed beside or behind the houses. Read the planning permission for your phase and your title deeds, or ask the council before paying for drawings.
Do we need radon protection in an Aberdeen garage conversion?
It depends on the address. Parts of the north-east sit on granite with raised radon potential, and the warrant standards ask conversions to deal with radon as far as reasonably practicable. A UKradon address search will tell your designer what to allow for.