Garage turned into a store room or bedroom?

We are raising the floor level in a 50s garage/laundry addition to make a room that the tenant wants to use for a teenager's bedroom. A builder who did some work on this house recently said that if we build it up the floor with another layer of concrete to level it, we would need to put a waterproofing membrane down and some sort of termite protection.

Instead, hubby has used bearers with ant caps, joists, yellow tongue, removed the old roller door and today is installing a wall with windows. The other end of this long narrow room is a laundry with a higher cement floor and the long wall is breeze blocks.

The "extension" may have had approval back in the 50s or 60s but I guess there would be no paperwork. My understanding is that if we build up the level of the slab, the original slab would have to be to code in order for us to make the garage into a living room, but I'm not sure of this.

We will likely put in a steel lintel and install french doors into this breeze block wall to allow access to the yard and sheet the stucco outside wall of the original house with gyprock. We wil also will sheet the breeze block wall inside and out to make it weatherproof.

This is all easily reversible back to a garage, and is costing only about $1K to do (plus hubby's labour). We had our pest man look at it with a view to doing any termite treatment before we started but he said the slab could have a channel dug around the edge any time. The rest of the house is on brick piers with no termite protection so we didn't do this but it could be done if we want to.

My question is whether we should apply to council (via a certifier) to have this room approved as a habitable room. If so, what are our chances of approval. I have taken photos of the job as it progresses and if council says "sorry, we cannot see how it is made" I'm not too concerned as we can simply take up the floor, put on a new roller door and it is a garage again.

I'm not even sure I want to pay a few thousand to have it all drawn up and certified because if we ever sell, the buyer is likely to rip it off and build a proper extension.

I'm also thinking that as long as we are not desperate to sell, any objection by a potential buyer of "that is not approved" would not bother us. That would change if we were pushed to sell, but I'm thinking if a vendor pushed that line in order to reduce the price, unless we really needed a quick sale, we would be in a good position to say "next buyer please".

I'm also thinking that if it cannot be officially acknowledged as a bedroom, then we've made a "store room" and if the tenant decides to use it as a bedroom, that is up to him?

Any advice or comments welcome...
 
Last edited:
Probably doable by private certifier with no Town Planning needed.

If there is no kitchen in it, then it would not be a secondary dwelling.

If it is attached to the house, it is a bit of a grey area anyway and Council may well leave you alone as you have not made structural changes.

If you get a complaint it will be a show cause notice and time to start weighing up your options then, otherwise I wouldn't stress.
 
Hi Wylie,

In addition to Darryls advice above depending on what Local Council you are under beware of then making the existing house non-compliant with the self-assessable criteria. i.e. making it an assessable extension.

For example, under BCC a 'House' must provide a minimum of 1 vehicular space on a site for a house without a secondary dwelling (A4 of the House Code). If by removing the garage there is no possibility for car parking the inbuilding would then become Code Notifiable.

I have encountered this issue down at GCCC before and we ended up having to provide for a separate car port next to the garage because the driveway was too steep to allow for car parking. Your certifier should be able to make sure you are right though.

Good luck with it.

Alex Steffan - Private planning consultant.
 
Back
Top