Pool room in a garage (not swimming!)

[Frazer G]

My daughter is considering a house purchase and one consideration is the possibility for a pool room in the integral garage. The garage is 17 x 26 ft. The proposal is to build a stud wall across the garage leaving plenty of room for two cars and have a decent sizer pool room for a pool table. The garage currently has the entrance for vehicles and a single door gaining access to the residential area of the house. In the proposal this door would be within the vehicle part of the garage and access to the pool room via a door in the stud wall. All the usual fire precautions are taken as read with certified electrics etc. The questions are, would the resultant room be classed as habitable space or non-habitable and would it need a second exit.  There is no possibility of a second exit into the house area (existing layout drains etc) so it would need to be to the exterior of the property. There are currently no windows or door other than the two mentioned above.

This is a simple job at the non-habitable level but becomes very complicated (and expensive) if classed as habitable - or so it seems. 

All comments and advice would be appreciated.

[ProDave]

We don't know much about the house, but I would deduce from the floor plans, the lack of windows in any of the ground floor rear wall, and doors from the first floor rear wall to outside, that the ground floor is set into a bank.

 

So if you divide the garage as proposed, there will be no prospect of creating a separate door from the pool room to outside.

 

A door via the WC or just in front of the downstairs WC might be possible.

 

I also suspect that once you have divided the pool room off from the rest of the garage, what is left won't be long enough for a car to fit it.  So if you decide you are not going to put cars in there, then it might be better to convert the room as a whole to something else?

[SteamyTea]

Parents has a 3/4 size billiards table. Apart from that, can't help.

This may help.

Poolhall Richard