My husband and I are thinking about purchasing a home on around 10 acres. It's a beautiful property and in our dream location. The downside is the house on the property is fairly dated and a bit smaller than we'd like. The acreage and location puts the property on the higher end of our budget. The kitchen needs a remodel, but we can kick that can down the road. Our main need is another bedroom (a new baby on the way). One "lower cost" possibility is to convert the garage into a master suite to give us the space we need and the other cosmetic stuff could come later. We are fairly simple people and don't need a 5 star bathroom and huge closet.

Wondering if anyone had experience with this. We'll bring a contractor out to take a look...but wanted to throw it out here as well.

TIA!

Garages typicAlly aren't insulated nor were they designed to carry your hvac load. Its a lot of work, probably more than a kitchen remodel.

just park a double wide on the land and live in that instead

Aside from HVAC design, insulation, etc.. your garage is sloped. Can you even have a permitted sloped bedroom?

62strat said:

---

Aside from HVAC design, insulation, etc.. your garage is sloped. Can you even have a permitted sloped bedroom?

---

Not necessarily, but if it is, and assuming it has a curb, this would be easily solved with a topping slab to bring it level with the rest of the home's slab. Also, 10 acre properties have a greater chance of falling outside the realm of permits...

And if you're building a master suite out a garage, exterior insulation is probably pretty low on the difficulty/cost list.

If the layout works and the plumbing isn't much of an issue, I see no reason not to consider it. A small, separate HVAC wouldn't be a big deal and might even be ideal, since you'd be able to regulate your master suite separate from the rest of your home.

Well I had a longer answer, but shortened it up. I know it can be done, but that is cost you may not think about.

20x20 is an odd layout for master suite. Your bedroom is going to be 20' long and it would be nice to have 15' wide, but that doesn't leave enough space for the rest, so it's more like 12' wide (long and narrow) to leave an 8x20 bathroom/closet, also long and narrow.

It can work, but it's not ideal since it's square.

Thanks everyone for these replies. We are scheduled to go back out with our contractor soon, so will have concrete answers, but I appreciate everyone's feedback.

The garage is 20 ft. wide and 28 ft. long. It also contains the laundry equipment, so that's another factor we will have to consider.

I'm actually working on one of these for a client now.
Most garages are uninsulated. For a roughly 400-500 sq ft addition you are going to need an additional ton of HVAC unless the unit was already oversized. Depending on the panel you may be able to add another hvac unit but if it is maxed out you may have to upgrade the existing hvac unless you want to install a bigger service panel. The slope in the garage can be filled. As far as cost it really depends on how much you want it to look original versus just a conversion.

Are you installing a bathroom or just the bedroom?

28x20 makes it much easier to get good layout. Get yourself google sketchup or bluebeam and have fun with different configurations.

Outside of having to add, upgrade, or modify HVAC, plumbing and electric, you shouldn't have any issues.

katlong said:

---

Are you installing a bathroom or just the bedroom?

---

Bedroom, closet, hallway and utilty/boot room.
I've done some with a bathroom, to keep plumbing costs down it will be best to locate the toilet on an exterior wall and use a rear discharge toilet to avoid having to cut the slab. The smallest bathroom I have designed that still meets code is 70" x 81" but it only has a shower. Depending on if the garage has a step down it may be possible to do without cutting the slab. How far is this garage from the existing sewer cleanout ?

I do not know that distance, but I'll be sure to look when we go out. Thanks again for this. Helpful!!

We are thinking of "other" use for our garage too. Couple of options to create play space for the two grandbabies we gained this past summer.

1) turn garage into playroom/den with dining table space

2) enclose patio for dining room, convert existing dining room to playroom

1a) there is a rock garden that separates the garage from the dining room so the potential bonus is a bathroom built into the garden and the dining room becomes a 4th bedroom...thinking the bathroom would have access to both new bedroom and new playroom

2a) going to have to build, buy some type of storage if we use garage for room possibly building carport also.

To me, seems like enclosing patio which is under roof line is better option but gives us only a 10x10 extension to breakfast area. That preserves garage and it's original functions. If we go with option 2 we would not create a third bathroom.

katlong said:

---

My husband and I are thinking about purchasing a home on around 10 acres. It's a beautiful property and in our dream location. The downside is the house on the property is fairly dated and a bit smaller than we'd like. The acreage and location puts the property on the higher end of our budget. The kitchen needs a remodel, but we can kick that can down the road. Our main need is another bedroom (a new baby on the way). One "lower cost" possibility is to convert the garage into a master suite to give us the space we need and the other cosmetic stuff could come later. We are fairly simple people and don't need a 5 star bathroom and huge closet.

Wondering if anyone had experience with this. We'll bring a contractor out to take a look...but wanted to throw it out here as well.

TIA!

---

The only risk is punching plumbing holes in a slab foundation which could lead to cracks & worse down the road.
Past architectural projects like this - design new plumbing outside the garage for Bath & all the other problems/concerns can be solved thereafter, options based upon budget limitations.