Garage Conversion - Keeping the existing garage door - can it be done?

For a formal garage conversion into a habitable room that needs to be compliant through the Councils building regulations approval process the answer is usually NO. The reason why you are unlikely to be able to retain the existing garage door for your garage conversion are three fold.

1 - The existing garage floor needs to be heightened with new insulation and final covering that will abut the existing garage door making for a poor seal.

2 - Rain water can penetrate under the existing garage door making a unsuitable weather seal for a habitable room.

3 - The garage door is not thermally efficient or compliant for a habitable room wall or glazing structure.

However, for a non-official garage conversion for say a gym room, workshop or any other use that does not require fixed heating provision it is usually acceptable to retain the existing garage door. Some of these ‘cheaper’ garage conversions have sometimes applied an insulated timber stud frame covered in plasterboard behind the retained garage door as a sort of half way house to provide the look and feel of an internally plastered room but again this should be treated as a non formal garage conversion.

In these instances it us usually acceptable to retain the existing garage door for a non-formal garage conversion (subject to Council interpretation). These types of garage conversions can usually be easily reverted back to a useful garage again.