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Rooms and frontages we design for Whitley Bay homes
Convert Garages offers full and partial conversions, and a single side garage suits several rooms. As a snug or second sitting room it gives a family somewhere to watch television away from the main living room, and our garage to living room service covers layout, heating and lighting. While children are small it can be a playroom, with storage along the back wall where the garage runs deepest. As a guest or child's bedroom it brings escape and smoke alarm requirements, so the window and route out are planned from the start. See bedrooms and extra living space or the full range of conversions.
The first visit is an assessment of the garage, its roof and slab, and the frontage it shares with the street. The layout is then planned around how the room will be used, often with the new door off the hall so both rooms work on their own. Planning and building regulations requirements are established before construction, and we agree who prepares drawings, makes applications and books inspections. Because the frontage is designed alongside the room, the street view is settled in the specification and quotation, which show what is included. Construction follows the agreed sequence, and handover comes after the final building control inspection.
You can expect a clear quote, responsibilities and order of work agreed before anything starts, and any change discussed with you first. The finished room is checked with you at handover. If you already know which room you want, a quote request is the place to begin.
Which Whitley Bay garages convert well?
The interwar and later semis around Monkseaton often have a single garage to the side, sometimes attached to the house and sometimes set slightly back. Some were built with the house. Others were added later, with lighter walls and a flat roof.
A garage built with the house tends to share its brick, roof line and foundations, so the work centres on the new front wall, insulation and the floor level. A later addition may need its roof replaced, its walls built up or lined, and its slab checked before it becomes a comfortable room. Both can convert well, but the price differs, which is why we look at the roof from the garden at the first visit. It is often the quickest way to tell which you have.
A new front that suits the row
A good infill looks as if it was always there. A poor one breaks the rhythm of the street for years.
Choosing the finish for the infill
Many houses in Whitley Bay have a brick lower storey with render or pebbledash above, or a fully rendered front. Matching old brick is not always possible, and new brick that is close but not quite right can stand out more than a contrasting finish. Sometimes the neater answer is to render or pebbledash the infill to match the house. Convert Garages looks at how neighbouring conversions have been handled, and which ones look settled, before proposing a finish.
Window height and proportions
Our designs line the new window up with the existing ones in head height, and where possible in style, glazing bars and frame colour. A window placed too low or too small looks like an afterthought. Beside a bay, a flat window on the garage front is usual, but its proportions should still relate to the bay and the front door. Keeping a strip of the old garage frame, or a slightly recessed infill, can hint at the original design without looking unfinished.
Does a conservation area cover your road?
Some older parts of Whitley Bay and Monkseaton fall within conservation areas. Changes to the front of a house in one need more care, and Article 4 directions in some conservation areas remove permitted development rights for alterations such as new windows and doors. Before materials are settled, Convert Garages confirms with North Tyneside Council whether your street is covered. Listed buildings have their own, stricter rules.
Seaside parking and the loss of a garage
Parking is tight on many streets in Whitley Bay, and roads nearer the sea front and the Metro stations can be busier still, particularly in summer. If the garage only ever held storage, losing it may change little. If you park in it every night, the design has to answer where the car goes instead: on the drive in front, or on a new hard standing with a dropped kerb. A dropped kerb needs the council's approval, and paving over a front garden has its own drainage rules, so we raise both before the quotation is finalised.
A planning condition requiring the garage to be kept for parking is more likely on later estates than on interwar streets, and it forms part of the planning check. Living within walking distance of a Metro station makes some households less reliant on a second car, which can make the decision easier.
North Tyneside Council approvals
North Tyneside Council is the local planning authority for Whitley Bay. Converting a garage into a room without enlarging the house does not usually need planning permission, but conditions, removed permitted development rights, Article 4 directions, conservation areas and listed status can all change that. Convert Garages checks each one for your address rather than assuming.
Building regulations approval is normally needed, because the garage is becoming habitable space. That approval can come from the council's building control team or from a registered building control approver.
Details to include with your Whitley Bay enquiry
- your postcode, and whether the garage is attached, integral or set back
- a photo of the front of your house and, if possible, of the neighbours' houses either side
- a photo of the garage roof from the garden
- rough inside measurements
- what you would like the room to be
The process page explains each stage in more detail. Our areas served page lists the rest of the region. Across the Tyne, the South Shields page looks at detached garages used as gyms and offices.