Red brick where the up-and-over door used to be
Most of a conversion happens indoors. The one bit the whole street sees is the panel of new wall where the garage door was, and in Wrexham that panel is usually red brick. The council's character appraisals describe Ruabon red brick as the main walling material in places like Salisbury Park, and the Grosvenor Road appraisal says facing brick there must not be rendered, pebble-dashed or painted. New work should match the old in texture, quality and colour.
Get the brick wrong and the house wears it for the next fifty years. Ask your builder to bring a sample to the drive and hold it against the wall in daylight before anything is ordered. A reclaimed brick often blends better than a new one. Welsh permitted development rules say much the same in planning terms: exterior materials should match the house so far as practicable, and a new window should look like it belongs with the others.
Two city streets need more than care. Salisbury Park, since 1997, and Gerald Street in the Grosvenor Road conservation area, since 2007, sit under Article 4 directions that take away the right to change windows, doors and wall materials on any front facing the road, plus front boundary walls. A garage door facing the street is caught. You will need to apply, though the council charges no fee for an application needed only because of the direction. Fairy Road has a direction too, so ask the planners there before you draw anything.
The 5.5 metre drive and the front garden
Once the garage is a room, the drive does the parking. Wrexham's House Extensions guidance, last updated in March 2010, wants a driveway in front of a garage to give at least 5.5 metres clear of the highway, and it asks for replacement parking where losing a space would cause road safety problems. That test only bites if your conversion needs planning permission. Most don't. The Welsh Government's view is that keeping the work inside, with the house no bigger, normally needs no application at all.
Newer estates are where that goes wrong. Gov.wales tells owners on new housing developments to check with the planners first, because a condition on the estate's permission can take the freedom away. Search the address on the council's planning register and look for anything about garages being kept for parking.
Paving more of the front garden to make up the space is allowed, but the new surface has to let water through or drain onto a lawn or bed. In Salisbury Park and on Gerald Street, knocking out the front wall for a second car needs permission as well.
Choosing what the space becomes
Integral garage. The garage already shares walls and a roof with the house, so the job is mostly floor, infill wall and insulation. Check the base of the shared wall for airbricks before the floor is raised, and extend them rather than burying them.
Single garage. Pace out the drive before you commit. If it falls well short of 5.5 metres and the road outside is busy, a study you can still park in front of may be wiser than a bedroom with the car on the kerb.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Home office. Building regulations treat it as a habitable room, so it gets the same insulation and ventilation as a bedroom. Plan the sockets and a data cable while the walls are still open.
Bedroom. Welsh guidance wants an escape window at least 450mm wide and 450mm high, and the old door opening leaves plenty of room for one. Look at the Natural Resources Wales flood map for your address first.
Utility or playroom. Low glass in a playroom door or a window near the floor must be safety glazed, which the Welsh rules apply below 800mm in windows. A utility without an opening window needs an extract fan.
Double garage. Mostly found on larger detached houses. Two doors make two infill panels, so there is twice as much brick to match and twice as much footing to dig.
Gym or studio. Gov.wales suggests a 75mm screed with mesh over the new membrane and insulation, which takes weights well. Where the house floor sits high, a suspended timber floor with a 150mm void underneath can work better.
Detached garage. As an office or gym used with the house it stays an outbuilding. Make it a home of its own and it becomes a new dwelling, with a planning application, Welsh sprinkler rules and possible River Dee phosphate questions.
Permission and approval. Planning is often not needed, apart from the Article 4 streets and estates with conditions. Building regulations approval normally is, and Wrexham Council's own building control team can handle it.
Cost. No prices here. The depth of the infill footing and the brick you have to match move quotes more than the plasterboard, so compare what each firm has allowed for both.
A short trench in old coalfield ground
The new wall across the doorway needs a footing of its own, since a garage normally stands on a thin slab. Gov.wales says to dig beside the existing foundation to find how deep it goes, match the depth of the house next to it, and go down at least as far as any drain nearby. Concrete can't go in until the trench reaches undisturbed ground.
It's a small trench, but Wrexham is on the North Wales Coalfield. Any new foundation that could disturb old workings needs a permit from the Mining Remediation Authority, so look the address up on its map before digging. Council building control inspects the excavation, the damp course and the drains before they're covered, then issues a completion certificate. Keep it with the deeds. Check the UK radon map too, because the new floor is the cheapest place to add any protection.
Where these facts come from
- Welsh Government: planning permission for garage conversions
- Welsh Government: building regulations for garage conversions
- Welsh Government: in-filling a garage door
- Welsh Government: garage conversion flooring
- Welsh Government: building regulations for doors and windows
- Welsh Government: paving your front garden
- Welsh Government: householder permitted development technical guidance
- Building (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2013: fire suppression
- Wrexham Council: Local Planning Guidance Note 20, House Extensions
- Wrexham Council: conservation area management and Article 4 directions
- Wrexham Council: Salisbury Park character assessment
- Wrexham Council: Grosvenor Road character assessment
- Wrexham Council: river phosphate targets
- Wrexham Council: building control
- GOV.UK: home extensions in former coal mining areas
- UKHSA: UK radon map
- Natural Resources Wales: Flood Map for Planning
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Questions people in Wrexham ask
We live on Gerald Street. Can we brick up the garage door?
Yes, but with permission. The Article 4 direction there has covered doors, windows and wall materials facing the road since 2007. There's no fee for an application needed only because of it, and red brick that matches gives the officer an easy decision.
Can my dad move into our detached garage as his own flat?
Not without a planning application, because a self-contained home is a new dwelling. Welsh rules also require sprinklers in it. The council's phosphate guidance says the exemption for ordinary extensions doesn't cover annexes, so expect questions about drainage to the River Dee.
Will the council object that our garage space is gone?
Only if the conversion needs an application. Then officers look for a drive giving 5.5 metres clear of the road and ask for other parking where losing the space would make the road less safe.
Does an old mine shaft matter for such a small wall?
It can. The footing is new foundation work, and near old workings that needs a Mining Remediation Authority permit. Check the address on the Authority's map, and building control may ask how the ground was checked.