Garage to room conversion

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mattwnz

20155 posts

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#1256528 11-Mar-2015 18:06

The slab level on garages are often lower than what a dwelling is, so I am not sure you will be able to simply convert it. I think it should need a building consent

mattwnz

20155 posts

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#1256532 11-Mar-2015 18:12

DamageInc:
nzrock: Hi

Not getting a consent will come back to bite you if you go to sell your house. In a LIM report there will be no record of the conversion & no CCC.

Greg

we will be setting it up in a way that if this ever came about that we could remove the bed and rugs etc and bam you have the garage back

That is all very well, but it may void your insurance if you ever need to make a claim. You would also need to disclose it doesn't have a code of compliance, and it may raise your premiums and excess.
I have a family member who is buying a house which doesn't have one, and the entire process of getting one is a huge and is potentially a very expensive process. So I think you are far better to get it done right, rather than trying to save a little now. The rules are there for a reason, and one reason is safety.

mattwnz

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#1256533 11-Mar-2015 18:15

Niel: Potable water and/or cooking facilities is classified as change of use requiring consent. I'm also an immigrant and love the self regulation in NZ, however if/when something goes wrong then the first question will be but why did you know phone the council and asked. It is free (except when you have a meeting to discuss further details). If the person says it is fine, just take his/her name and record the date/time.

I have never come across a councilthat charges for meetings. It is quite normal to have a pre building consent meeting with a council to lay the ground work with them.

mattwnz

20155 posts

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#1256534 11-Mar-2015 18:18

Niel: For sound you do want to break up the surface of the wall/ceiling, or else the sound will be contained but sound bad.

Your mortgage (assuming you have one) requires that you have a consent.

You mean a code of compliance certificate? This is an interesting point, as if you are selling a house, potentially not having a code of compliance can devalue the house significantly. As it reduces the number of people who could buy it, as most people will buy with a mortgage.

Niel

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#1256654 11-Mar-2015 21:55

mattwnz:
Niel: For sound you do want to break up the surface of the wall/ceiling, or else the sound will be contained but sound bad.

Your mortgage (assuming you have one) requires that you have a consent.

You mean a code of compliance certificate? This is an interesting point, as if you are selling a house, potentially not having a code of compliance can devalue the house significantly. As it reduces the number of people who could buy it, as most people will buy with a mortgage.

Yes, I mean a code compliance certificate. When we bought our house, and later when we changed banks, we had to get a valuation and inspection which included looking up titles/deeds/whatever you call all the paperwork. Then when w built a house we were on a construction loan (higher interest rates) until we got code compliance, and there was a time limit on getting code compliance.

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Niel

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#1256665 11-Mar-2015 22:08

mattwnz:
Niel: Potable water and/or cooking facilities is classified as change of use requiring consent. I'm also an immigrant and love the self regulation in NZ, however if/when something goes wrong then the first question will be but why did you know phone the council and asked. It is free (except when you have a meeting to discuss further details). If the person says it is fine, just take his/her name and record the date/time.

I have never come across a councilthat charges for meetings. It is quite normal to have a pre building consent meeting with a council to lay the ground work with them.

Auckland Council. We built a new house on a property while the original house was still there, then removed the old house. We phoned the council and was told it is fine, there will be no issues as we will not get code compliance until the old house is removed, and services can be connected to only one house at a time.

Then when the builders applied for building consent, the council said we need a resource consent to temporarily have 2 houses on one property at the same time. In the end we had to pay for a meeting with the council so they could explain to us what is required, where we learned they want to know the environmental impact due to extra traffic, impact on the neighbours, etc. And this is in the middle of Pakuranga in East Auckland, not a character suburb. But that is what they wanted. We had to pay for this meeting with the council.

My wife researched what is required and applied for the resource consent. Got letters from neighbours that they agree to it. Then applied for the consent which cost a few thousand dollar. The outcome was that we had to remove the old house before we can get code compliance, must be within 3 months of completing the new house, and we had to plan a specimen tree which the council may inspect form time to time and they may charge us for the inspections (their exact words). The resource consent would have cost about $5k-$7k if we did it through a consultant, but I think it was only about $3500 as my wife did it. And you don;t know what the cost will be until the council has processed the consent, they have their own meetings to discuss the application and process the paperwork through a solicitor and I do not know what else. When the old house was removed, many neighbours told us they did not even know a house was being built...

To make a long story short, we had to pay for the initial meeting we had with a lady at the council before we applied for the resource consent.

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Niel

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#1256674 11-Mar-2015 22:16

To insulate a garage door, you can phone Expol and order polystyrene cut to the exact dimensions you want. I still have to do it, but a manager at work has done it. Actually his house windows are triple insulated and exterior walls are double stud with double insulation. His house is so well insulated, in Winter he has to cool it. So I trust him when he says to get Expol to cut polystyrene for a garage door. And they cut it exactly the dimensions you give them.

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Stu

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#1256675 11-Mar-2015 22:23

Niel: For sound you do want to break up the surface of the wall/ceiling, or else the sound will be contained but sound bad.

You mean something like egg trays? Have seen them used many times on walls and ceilings in band practice rooms etc.

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Niel

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#1256757 12-Mar-2015 07:06

Stu:
Niel: For sound you do want to break up the surface of the wall/ceiling, or else the sound will be contained but sound bad.

You mean something like egg trays? Have seen them used many times on walls and ceilings in band practice rooms etc.

Egg trays works well for the cost, you can go far with it. Or if you are in Auckland, all the wood trim in what used to be called Vector Arena and now I think is Vodafone Arena works well. Best is sound absorbing tiles, but gets expensive. The principal is a flat surface reflects sound evenly creating resonance. Any objects will break it up for you, scattering the reflections. Soft materials will also absorb some (in addition to scattering).

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