excavate front of property to build flat roof garage with area to sit above

[SarahsNewHome]

Hello everyone, 

 

This is my first post on here. I have recently bought my second home which is larger than my first home and has potential for a garage. Its a full doer upper so we will be doing a lot of renovating. We haven't got our hands on they keys yet but thought I would do some research first. 

I have uploaded photos of our plot and photos of surrounding property to show what they have done with their front garden.

 

The front gardens land is a bit useless  due to the slope so we wanted to make the most of it. Not sure how things work regarding excavating land to put a garage in, I would assume planning permission is not needed as it will be a single story garage.  I have attempted to add a garage to our front garden via photoshop to give you an idea of what we are wanting. We live in Yorkshire so if anyone has any ideas of cost that would be helpful, we arent afraid to graft but ive never built a wall/garage so think ill get the pros in for that part but dont mind hiring a digger. Do we need a structural engineer or anything to stop the land sliding? The home is an Airey home built as prefabs post war if this helps regarding foundations and how far back into the front we can cut into. Any information would be helpful as never done this before. 

[Temp]

I'm afraid it will need planning permission for possibly a number of reasons...

 

• Any extension or outbuilding in front of the "principle elevation" needs planning permission. 
• You might also need planning permission if the roof terrace is more than 30cm above ground level where it meets the ground at the back.
• Walls and fences on the boundary adjacent to the highway also need to be under 1m or planning permission obtained.

The planners may also object to the grounds of appearance as it looks like the only one in the road?. All the other houses have open sweeping/sloping front lawns?

 

You will also need permission for a "dropped kerb". This is more about the right to drive over the pavement than actually lowering any kerb. 

 

As far as construction goes..

 

The walls will need to be retaining walls. As these are over 1m high you should get them designed/specified by a structural engineer who can also propose a waterproofing/tanking system to keep it dry inside.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Temp

[simon45089]

This is how I did it for a double garage built into the hillside.  Concrete lego for the retaining walls, which went up in 5 hours. I needed planning permission and was advised by a structural engineer. Lego cost about 5K.

All the best, Simon.

[SarahsNewHome]

Thankyou! This is really helpful. I read online that garages don't need planning permission if under a certain height so I am glad ive come here for information. The garage/seating area will all be lower than the property and lower then the back garden as it is set on a hill. 

 

Love the garage built into the hillside with concrete lego. The main use we are wanting the garage for is for a home gym, there is room in the back garden for an outdoor office/building as we considered converting a shipping container as behind the house is just a farmers field so with land owners permission it would be easy access. However we thought by building a gym/garage on the front we could then use the container at the back for air bnb/ family ect. 

 

Thanks for your help and advice!