So You Want To Convert Your Garage....

You need more space. Your mother in law is moving in to torture you and/or help with child care and there isn’t any space in the house. Or maybe there is space but there isn’t enough ‘space’. Or maybe you are finally ready to go out on your own and start that software company. As it really is customary to do this in the garage you are all set as you a have an underused one sitting out back. The problem is that we don’t live in California and working in the garage in winter is less than ideal. Wouldn’t it be great if you could convert it to a nice heated office? It would! But……

There is always a but, isn’t there?

We have worked on a couple of these types of projects and they are great to see. Many people are no longer willing to give valuable square footage to their car and would rather use it themselves. Many people no longer have two cars (or even one) and don't need a garage. The catch is that while Seattle is a very progressive city and as such advocates for reducing our dependence on cars, our land use codes haven’t quite caught up with the sentiment. Below are some of the issues you will need to consider and deal with before turning that garage into your game room and/or villians lair.

Where are you going to park?

As I mentioned, the city of Seattle (at least their land use code), is still pretty insistent that you have a place to park your shandrydan. So, if you are going to convert that garage to an office, you will need to prove that you have a legal space on your lot to park your car. And no, the ‘I don’t own a car’ argument won’t work (we have tried).

Was it built legally?

Many garages in town were not built legally. By that I mean that they were built without a permit. If you want to do anything to the building, you will need to find a building permit for the garage or prove that it was built prior to 1957.  If you can’t find the permit or can’t prove that the building was built prior to 1957, the city will be happy to issue you a demolition permit but nothing else. No repairs. Nothing.  The fear of precedent is so high that the city would prefer you to landfill your structure rather than issue a permit to repair it.

Is it where it is supposed to be?

There are standards for the location of garages relating to lot lines and yards. If your garage does not meet those standards it is considered ‘non-conforming’. If your garage is non-conforming you can modify it as long as you do not increase the non conformity. This can turn into a fun little spatial puzzle.

Was it built well?

Or at least ok? Many garages were built without foundations or reinforcing which makes substantial modifications challenging. If you are going to add that killer party deck on top of your garage you will need to bring the structure up to code so that fat uncle Larry doesn’t fall through the floor.

If we can get through all of those issues… Then it is on to the fun. Below are a couple of garage conversions we have worked on. They say that constraints make the project.

Blue Ridge garage

We renovated a garage with a loft storage space into a garage with an office above. This one was non-conforming according to location, size, legal status… You name it. We moved some stairs and a door, reconfigured the car access, added a walking deck and finished out the upper floor.