Garage, vs. House dilemma. What to do?

I converted a room back into a garage. Only hitch is vinyl composition tiles in area of car's A/C drain lifted due to water.

 

Unless you plan to flip the house for a quick profit, install an insulated garage door. You won't miss the extra bedroom but the playroom will be priceless. That space doesn't look A/C friendly unless it's got insulation in the ceiling and a lot of folks in Florida don't bother when they convert the space.

If you want info on a tiled garage floor, check out Jack Olsen's garage in the Garage Journal:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32636&highlight=tile+floor+garage

 

I agree

 

If you use the carport or just want it to stay looking good, seal the tile and grout with Johnson & Johnson "PLAZA". Two coats. I know i'm a tile guy. I've used this stuff on Tile,Flagstone, Slate, Brick, even Fireplace stone. Most janitor supply stores have it. If you park a car on and work on it. I would cover the floor with 1/"2 or 3/4" plywood. I dont think i'd weld on it. Good luck, John

 

why would a car guy even consider a house with no garage with all the weight and width issues.
thats like a guy that owns a plane moving a thousand miles away from an airport to live on an island.
if you dont ditch that house before it closes you will be a victim of your own design kicking yourself in the head over and over.
do yourself a favor and buy what you really want.
there are plenty of houses out there.
some probably already have pole buildings on them.
dont settle

 

Leave the tile where it is, it won't crack. Did ceramic tile for 3 years. Cover it with cheap carpet or rubber mats cause if your laying on it ,it'll be very hard and will get to you shortly (joint pain-trust me).Put a garage door on and have some fun. Who knows if the market ever picks up again you might find something nicer in the next 4-7 years. Good Luck.

 

Looks like a great place. I'd definitely convert it back. It's so nice it'll be like working on your car in the living room!

 

There are some issues here that need to be addressed. Check your home owners insurance. If no garage is listed, then you're in a pile of trouble if you "park" your car in the third bedroom and there's a fire. What's the tax ***essment say? If it shows 3/1, leave it alone. Who issues the septic permit? Check the actual permit to find out exactly where the leach field is and how deep it's buried. BTW, I'd make the seller pump the septic tank before you move in.

 

The first thing you should consider is how long do you plan to live in the house. By that I mean, is it a starter house in which you will quickly outgrow as your family grows, are you happy with your job or considering changing it in the near future, is the neighborhood stable, etc. These are important factors to consider before you make any decision. When the previous owners converted the carport to an extra room, it added immediate value to the house. Especially to a small house. Why spend money converting it back into a carport/garage when you will be taking value out of the house. Monies that could go to building the garage of your dreams. Will you be happy in the long run with a small one-car garage that you will probably outgrow? Because you will spend thousands of dollars to convert it to a garage. If you build a detached garage in the future, more than likely, you will end up spending thousands of dollars to convert the garage back into a room. IMO, If it is a house you plan to live in for a number of years, it would be worth saving or spending the money on a detached garage, and getting what you really want as opposed to settling for something less. Before you make a decision either way, check with your local building/zoning office. You want to do this to ensure that the work was done with permits, and have the current owners produce the signed permits. Also, check with the building department to determine what your setbacks are so you can determine if the rear yard is big enough for a detached garage.

One last important thing. Your house is an investment. Compare the value of your property to the value of properties in the neighborhood. It is not worth spending $200,000.00 for a house/detached garage if the surrounding properties are only selling for $100,000.00. If you overbuild the value of your house, and you would have to sell the house, you will be forced to stay in the house or come up with the extra dollars at closing. For investment purposes, you never want to have the most expensive house in the neighborhood.

 

Ask about making it back to a garage, if they say you can (I don't see why not since thats what it was in the first place), buy it, if not keep looking. People who convert a garage into a room are idiots.

 

Buy the house. Add the garage. Too easy.

The first house I bought was only 1,080 sq. ft, and had a single-car attached garage that was roughly the size of your room conversion. Did LOTS of work in that little space! After three years, I built a separate two-car 20'x24' garage/shop in the back yard(the biggest the City would allow on my property). This allowed three cars total under cover of a solid roof. Nice thing about having an ea*****t was that I could access the garage through the back fence. No way to drive to it from the front!

A neighbor and I built the garage after I hired out the slab work. Later, I insulated the shop, drywalled, and did the finish work. My Dad and I wired the shop in conduit, with two 220V circuits added, so I could do just about anything I needed to. Worked out well.

Patience...

 

Nice looking house! but down to business, Kick the curtains and put a Budweiser murial on the shades. hang some rod posters, rugs and runners are for the wife, oil stains and hand grease prints are for garage! test the tile with car on jack stand. if it holds keep it, If it don't get rid of it. Re-hang garage door, Get a small fridge to go under work bench to hold cold brew! you are set my friend.

 

You should have bought a "house" like "modernbeat" on the HAMB.

http://lonestar.texas.net/~mcdaniel/warehouse.jpg

 

He needs to find out if that is possible BEFORE committing to a mortgage. Did you read about the septic system? Do you know if there is a HOA? Is there enough ROOM for a building permit? They may have a 20 foot rule that precludes putting a building where you want it.

I think you should run, don't walk, to a place with an existing shop. Everyone I know who has a too small shop or no garage at all, quickly becomes a guy who likes to talk about cars, not a guy who works on his own cars.

 

save the 5k.....its an older home, you will need it.

 

I'm ***uming he either has or is going to do/check these things. Which is why I said "patience" at the end...

 

Won't the tile crack with the weight on a jack or stand?

 

Look into zoning,neighbors,insurance BEFORE converting the thing back. You may be OK with the city, lots of those were enclosed w/o permits years ago.

also go to our sister site www.garagejournal.com for info. The flooring section has lots of tiled shops, you will be fine.

 

Go to the Home Despot, find some black vinyl runner material to drive on, and the find a used set of french doors that will fit the garage opening. We have a Habitat ReStores near us that constantly has changing inventory of stuff including high end construction materials---cheap.

 

Here are a couple of thoughts.

I can't truly tell from the pics, but can you fit a carport on the driveway section? Even that is better than nothing.

And that garage conversion, does it have an exit door?

If you can get a door to the outside from the conversion, and a carport, you might be able to have your cake and eat it too. This way you can use the room for tool storage and as a project space. And a small carport will keep your car dry and a bit easier to work on.

Far from perfect, but it will give you time to figure out what will be the perfect solution.

 

I would hang a garage door in a heartbeat. That garage looks kind of small but tou would have the nicest interior garage around! You can get those real thick rubber mats meant for garage floors etc. I would go that route. Just my opinion....

kgdb

 

Get a place with exactly the garage you want, in the location that you want, at the price you want, and worry about the house later. Even of all the only thing on the property at the present time is that perfect garage.

A friend of mine bought a property, built a dream garage, moved into the garage and built his house over the next few years. I considered it at the time but opted not to because I was threatened with a simultanious divorce. A mistake, because now I know she was bluffing. Also, I'm wiser now, and if she would have dumped me for doing that, I would have been better off without her anyhow.............

 

I prefer to know before I write the check.
I never ***ume.

 

Wow! So many responses! I guess we all have to live somewhere. I'm currently in the process of pulling permits for previous work, looking for "as built" plans that show the septic system parameters, and doing some financial calculations. For me finding a house was location, location, location. I grew up about a mile from this house and have lived in and around the area since 1977. The neighborhoods around this house are slowly being bought by wealthy people, so I can see the property value going up. The house has new AC inside and out, all new kitchen and appliances, a good roof, is not in a HOA, and p***ed the inspection with no problems. Most importantly, the price was right on the money so to speak. It looks like I will probably be putting some mats down in the enclosed room for now so I can keep my tools in there and not screw up the floor. I can keep my Merc at my brother's house for another 6 months or so before he sells his place (no I don't want to buy it as it's in a somewhat bad part of town.) Hopefully that will give me enough time to gather some money, make friends with the permit people, and figure out if I can put an engineered steel building in the back. If not, I'll put up the biggest shed I can and add some kind of carport or awning deal out back to park under. I've always worked under carports so it's no big deal, I really just wanted to secure my tools. Posting this up here has been helpful as the wide range of responses has gotten the wheels turning for possible alternative ways to solve this problem - which is what I was looking for.

 

I've seen garage doors that fit into the house - you can hardly tell they are there. Maybe that is an option? Put two of them in, so you can pull a car thru the house into the back yard?

 

a couple of things:

if converting back to a garage you may need to "bring it up to code" (ie in NJ a 20 minute door - 5/8 firecode Gyp on walls - w/ 2 layers on ceiling etc.....Fla may be different)

is the floor currently on "sleepers"? - 2"X's laid on thier side OR is tile over concrete? - if on sleepers the floor maybe higher than the carport originally was - thus you would need to rip it all out for a flush entry from the drive way -

to my eye it looks small for a "working" garage - maybe good for just storing your car

a decent small garage is in the realm of 14' x 24' - if you plan on working on the car

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if it were me i would keep the room as is and save up for an addition - if you are handy you could do a lot of the "interior" work yourself after the frame is up and weather tight


if you prefer PM me and i'll go into more detail if you need to








also IMO never remove a bedroom from a house - houses are more "marketable" with more bedrooms

 

Not true, 3 bed, 1 bath houses aren't more marketable, a big kitchen, and or bathrooms (more than one) are more "marketable". The one bathroom is why that house is affordable. Try living in a house with a wife, two - four kids, and one bathroom, you would hate that house in a hurry.

 

No weld a flat plate onto the bottom of the jack stands to spread out the weight.

 

Luckily it's just me, my junk, and a couple of cats. I'm taking a long break from dating as my last couple of relationships have been train wrecks. I'm going to make it into some version of a mid 20th century bachelor pad.

 

For the single guy you can't beat it, one of my friends bought a house that had the garage converted to a bed room, he took that one wall out, and put a garage door back in with no problems, if it were me I'd put a front, and rear door in for access to the back yard.