The council counts that space as parking
Durham County Council rewrote its parking rules for new housing after the County Durham Plan was adopted, and the Parking and Accessibility supplementary planning document that came out of it in 2023 lets a garage count towards the parking a new house must have. Developers asked for that, and got it.
The council added a line in return. On a case by case basis it may remove permitted development rights to stop garages being lost to conversions later. Bought on a new estate such as Sniperley Park? Someone may have thought about your garage before you did.
Ask the council for the original decision notice and read the conditions at the end. If one says the garage stays for parking, converting it needs planning permission. The same goes for the 1960s to 80s semis and detached houses of Newton Hall. An old condition still binds.
Coach houses, terraces and the 2016 streets
Much of the old city was built before anyone owned a car. Its Victorian terraces mostly park on the road. The oldest garages in Durham started life as something else. In The College, beside the cathedral, a row of coach houses from the late 18th or early 19th century, sandstone rubble under a stone-flagged roof, is now used as garages and is listed Grade II.
If you do have a garage in the city conservation area, the outside is where the rules bite. Since 2016 an Article 4 direction has covered the front elevation and the front of the property on Hawthorn Terrace, Crossgate Peth, Albert Street, Lambton Street, Nevilledale Terrace, Claypath and Gilesgate. Bricking up a garage door and putting a window in is caught there. Elsewhere in the conservation area, ask the design and conservation team what they expect the new wall to be built of before you order bricks.
The council's Residential Amenity Standards document was updated with guidance on garage conversions among other outside works. Read that section before your designer draws the front.
Which conversion fits which Durham house
Integral garage. Where the garage sits under the house roof, check the estate conditions first, then the floor level against the house's damp course.
Home office. A quiet room off the hall beats a desk in the spare bedroom. Heated and used daily, it is a habitable room for building control.
Single garage. Where the old door comes out, building control will want to know what the new wall sits on. Some openings have a footing under them and some don't, and a lintel can sometimes do the job instead.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Bedroom. Building control will look hard at the escape route and the daylight. On a shared student house, count the occupants first. Taking a house from six sharers to seven makes it a large HMO, which needs planning permission on its own.
Utility or playroom. Keeping the door and lining only the back half leaves the front looking unchanged, which can be the simplest answer on an Article 4 street or where a parking condition applies.
Detached garage. A garage in the garden used by the household as a workshop or hobby room normally needs no planning application. Making it into a separate home is another matter, and planning permission may be needed whatever the works.
Double garage. More common on the larger detached houses. Converting one bay and keeping the other for a car may be the easiest way past a parking condition.
Gym or studio. Where a pair of semis share a garage wall, line it for sound before the rubber floor goes down, or next door will hear every dropped weight.
Planning and building control. Internal work on a house rarely needs planning permission unless an estate condition or an Article 4 direction says otherwise, and listed buildings need consent. Flats don't share the permitted development rights houses have. Building regulations approval is needed either way.
Cost and value. We don't quote Durham prices. A new footing under the old door, or a planning application to get round a condition, can move the figure a long way, so get builders to look at the garage itself.
Before the builder starts
Durham County Council runs its own building control team, though you can use a private firm instead. Either way, the completion certificate at the end is what a buyer's solicitor asks for when you sell. LABC's own advice is that the new floor's damp-proof membrane must lap the damp course in the old walls, and that a room reached only through another room needs an escape window.
New rooms in a radon-affected area may need radon protection. The council's radon page points to the UKHSA map, so check your address on it and tell building control what it shows.
Then there is the river. A garage is often the lowest room in the house, and the Wear's flood warning areas take in streets such as Wearside Drive, Frankland Lane and Providence Row. If your house is on one, think twice before anyone sleeps down there.
Where these facts come from
- Durham County Council: Parking and Accessibility SPD consultation stage 3
- Planning Data: Durham Parking and Accessibility SPD record
- Durham County Council: Residential Amenity Standards SPD update consultation
- Durham County Council: Durham City conservation area and Article 4
- Durham County Council: multiple occupancy homes
- Durham County Council: radon
- Durham County Council: building regulation approval
- British Listed Buildings: Garages north of number 15, The College
- Planning Portal: garage conversion planning permission
- Planning Portal: converting a garage into a workshop
- Planning Portal: building regulations for garage conversions
- LABC: garage conversion tips from building control
- LABC: do I need to consider radon?
- Environment Agency: River Wear at Elvet and Framwellgate flood warning area
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Questions people in Durham ask
We bought a new build on the edge of the city. Can we turn the garage into a playroom?
Check your planning conditions first. Durham's parking guidance counts garages as parking spaces, and the council may remove permitted development rights to stop them being converted. Ask for the decision notice. If a condition applies, you'll need planning permission and a plan for where the cars go instead.
Our garage door faces the street in Gilesgate. Can we swap it for a window?
Gilesgate is one of the streets in the 2016 Article 4 direction, which covers windows and doors on the front elevation. Expect to need planning permission, and speak to the council's design and conservation team about materials.
I let a house to students and want to turn the garage into a bedroom. What do I check?
Building regulations approval for a habitable room, and the headcount. Six sharers is the most a small HMO can hold. A seventh makes it a large HMO, which needs planning permission whatever the building work.
Our detached garage on Newton Hall would make a good workshop. Do we need permission?
Usually not for a workshop used by your own household, provided the outside stays the same and no condition stops it. Letting someone live in it is a different question for planning.