Anyone turned a single garage into a drive through garage?
Discussion
Many houses have a single garage to teh front. I would want to build a second garage in the rear garden which can be more substantial to do this i would either need to knock the single garage down or build a drive through.
Has anyone done this before? how did you give the garage rigidity?
Has anyone done this before? how did you give the garage rigidity?
Krikkit said:
Pretty easy - get someone in to fit an RSJ and remove a garage door-sized (or slightly wider) aperture in the other wall.
Then stand back and watch in amazement as it collapses in the first decent storm...If it's a typical single skin (half-brick thick) modern garage with piers, similar to this:
... then it's structurally pretty marginal and the rear wall is required to buttress the side walls.
The Building Regulations say that: "One or two major openings not more than 2.1m in height are permitted in one wall of the building or annexe only." (my bold)
If you want to form a 'major opening' in the rear wall as well, you'll require not just an RSJ but a 'sway frame' or 'goalpost frame' (with posts as well as the beam, and rigid, bolted connections between them), which will need to be designed by a Structural Engineer.
ETA: ...and to answer the obvious question of why the new rear wall of the extended tandem garage can't do the butressing, the Regs. say that the side walls cannot be longer than 9 metres, which isn't really long enough (a typical single garage is ~5.5m. long, so if you want a tandem garage you really need to double that to ~11m.).
Edited by Equus on Wednesday 20th July 11:40
I'd assumed from the question that the garage would be attached to the house if it was blocking access to the back garden.
A mate has turned his attached garage into a drive through, but this was done at the same time as extending the upstairs of the house over the garage so involved a fair amount of steel, structural engineers etc anyway.
Attached garages tend to be a bit more robustly built and have walls less prone to falling over in a light breeze than those on detached single skin garages, but the answer would be much the same. It won't be impossible, or extortionately expensive to do, but you'll need someone suitably qualified to design it and build according to building regs etc.
A mate has turned his attached garage into a drive through, but this was done at the same time as extending the upstairs of the house over the garage so involved a fair amount of steel, structural engineers etc anyway.
Attached garages tend to be a bit more robustly built and have walls less prone to falling over in a light breeze than those on detached single skin garages, but the answer would be much the same. It won't be impossible, or extortionately expensive to do, but you'll need someone suitably qualified to design it and build according to building regs etc.
Mr Pointy said:
At risk of stating the obvious, concrete panel garages aren't masonry construction.Approved Document A to the Building Regulations only sets out 'rules' for masonry construction, therefore any garage that's not masonry and which is big enough not to be exempt B.Regs (30m2, or 15m2 if it's within a metre of the boundary) needs to be structurally justified, regardless.
My garage was like this when I moved in – looking at the plans stated above, I don’t know if it would pass inspection today. It was done in 1972, so its been like that for 50 years.
It’s the reason why I bought the house, I can drive through into the back garden onto the rear driveway and then down the garden into the workshop. I love it….
Anyone that’s into cars comes round, and they immediately have garage envy!
It’s the reason why I bought the house, I can drive through into the back garden onto the rear driveway and then down the garden into the workshop. I love it….
Anyone that’s into cars comes round, and they immediately have garage envy!
Equus said:
Mr Pointy said:
At risk of stating the obvious, concrete panel garages aren't masonry construction.Approved Document A to the Building Regulations only sets out 'rules' for masonry construction, therefore any garage that's not masonry and which is big enough not to be exempt B.Regs (30m2, or 15m2 if it's within a metre of the boundary) needs to be structurally justified, regardless.
Mr Pointy said:
What makes you think I was pointing you towards the thread?
Erm...because you said:
Look at the first post in this thread
Perhaps if you only wanted the OP to look, and no-one else, you should have said so? 
As it is, I was merely pointing out that the B.Regs has different 'rules' for masonry vs. other forms of construction: masonry is covered by Approved Document A, other forms of construction are not.
I did it ( well, my builders did ) a few years ago. There was a rear extension to the garage that had been a tool store/ coal shed, so there already an rsj in place. The door at the back is a little bit on the narrow side, so that the brick buttresses weren’t disturbed, but I’ve had a BMW E39 through with the mirrors folded, and me breathing in ! It leads to a double car sized garage at the back, which is nice and secure 😀
I had a friend up in Leeds (who was a bit of a legend in his own right for building Lancia Integrale-engined Morris Minors and a Rover V8-engined Reliant Kitten), who'd gone backwards out of his single garage into a steep slope, so that most of it was underground.
A proper man-cave, equipped with a lathe/milling machine, welding equipement and full suite of car-building toys.
Not terribly relevant to the situation for most people, though.
A proper man-cave, equipped with a lathe/milling machine, welding equipement and full suite of car-building toys.
Not terribly relevant to the situation for most people, though.
healeyneil said:
I did it ( well, my builders did ) a few years ago. There was a rear extension to the garage that had been a tool store/ coal shed, so there already an rsj in place. The door at the back is a little bit on the narrow side, so that the brick buttresses weren’t disturbed, but I’ve had a BMW E39 through with the mirrors folded, and me breathing in ! It leads to a double car sized garage at the back, which is nice and secure ??
Do you have ay pics of this setup?
Equus said:
I had a friend up in Leeds (who was a bit of a legend in his own right for building Lancia Integrale-engined Morris Minors and a Rover V8-engined Reliant Kitten), who'd gone backwards out of his single garage into a steep slope, so that most of it was underground.
A proper man-cave, equipped with a lathe/milling machine, welding equipement and full suite of car-building toys.
Not terribly relevant to the situation for most people, though.
I'm local to the Beardmores and they were certainly ''a bit of a legend'' amongst petrolheads when I was growing up. I don't personally know them, but had mutual friends who lived in the same village as them.A proper man-cave, equipped with a lathe/milling machine, welding equipement and full suite of car-building toys.
Not terribly relevant to the situation for most people, though.
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