A garage can be utilized in many ways; the obvious use is for looking after your car or motorbike. But if you peek inside a well designed garage you will see a lot of items securely stored away. Garden tools, neatly arranged alongside your chest freezer, perhaps the wooden joists are used to store your bulky items that wouldn’t fit in the attic. A decent garage is more than an extra room for your house; it can add some real value to the worth of your home also. Let’s consider the best and safest way to plan for your new garage.

Step One

The obvious first step is where do you want the garage to be? Should it be attached to your home, or would it be better suited being located several or more meters away? If the garage is connected to your house; you will probably need to theme it tastefully; otherwise it may well detract from your home’s original styling. A decent garage should compliment your home, not turn it into an eyesore. If you live in a cold and rainy part of the world you will probably prefer your garage to have access to your home. There is nothing worse than having to run from your dry and warm car via a freezing and pouring rainfall just to get inside your house.

Step Two

You will need to seek planning permission, unless you live in a more remote part of the world. There is a lot of red tape to consider when erecting a building of any size in your garden. If your garage is within a certain distance of your house; it will be considered to be an extension. You will need planning permission for this. Likewise, if the garage is over three meters high; you will also need planning permission.

Step Three

So you have decided where the garage will be built and you have discovered that you need permission from the authorities, then what next? Well, you should draw up the plans and send these off to the office that will hopefully give you the required planning permission. You need to speak in depth with your local authority to ascertain the correct procedures for this step. They will inform you of the specifications that you need to include on the application, Usually they will include several sketches/drawings of the proposed building. They will also charge you for this consideration; bear these costs in mind when budgeting for the garage.

Step Four

Planning permission generally takes about 2 months; this will depend on how fast your local authority operates. If you have waited this long and have heard nothing; don’t be scared to pay them a visit. Maybe they tried to contact you a few weeks earlier and forget to chase you up.

Approval!

After a seemingly endless waiting game, you have finally got the go ahead to build your dream garage. All of the red tape has finally been cut away; you should waste no time and contact your friendly builder to come and get the project started properly. Good luck and enjoy!