Need help with garage renovation

[Ben_82]

Hey all, my first post so gday!

I'm planning on renovating underneath my house, into an air-conditioned rumpus room. You can get an idea of how it looks now by the attached pics. I have a few questions though, as I'm not really experienced in this field.

1. The walls are single brick, with double brick piers. Can I just leave the single brick walls as are, or does council regs require me to install a drywall over the top? If I can just keep the brick walls as is, will it provide enough insulation for air-con?

2. There is a 80mmx80mm support post in the centre of the garage (as you can see in one of the pics). Is it possible to move this back 1.5m, so that it can be hidden inside a wall I will be installing?

3. What are the steps for this process? Do up plans first?

That's all I can think of for now.

Cheers.

Ben

[Wombat2]

If the finished ceiling height is less than 2.4 metres it will only every be classed as a utility area (regardless what you use it for) and as such the finish is what every you choose to make it. A lot of high set Queensland homes were built like yours (and mine) at 2.1 m which limits the "offical" functionality. For example our place has 4 bedrooms but the one downstairs cant be counted, so the when our current renos are finished the real estate agent said we could advertise it as "downstairs utility area that could be used as a self contained flat"

Just sheet straight onto the floor joists above and it will look great. Work out you power and lights before you do though as getting in after is a pain. I'd love to only have one support but we have timber beams and supports every 3 metres but I think in your case you will be stuck with it where it is.

David L

[Ben_82]

Thanks for the advice David. The height at the moment, from the cement floor to the bottom of the crossmembers where the ceiling would nail too, is 2.42m.

What do you mean by sheet straight onto the floor joists?

Cheers

Ben

[Wombat2]

Fix whatever you are using (gyprock or ac sheeting) straight onto the upstairs floor joists ie don't use battens. With that height I would use AC sheet to get as close to 2.4 as possible