Half the garages in Britain hold a lawnmower, three bikes and a freezer nobody opens. Carving out a corner for a bar is a fair use of that space, but a garage is not a shed: it may share a wall with the house, it was built to keep cars dry rather than people warm, and the rules can change once you treat it as a room.
Start with what kind of garage you have
The answer to most questions depends on this.
- Detached garage: closest to a garden outbuilding. Planning and Building Regulations questions look a lot like those for a shed conversion.
- Attached or integral garage: shares a wall, and sometimes a ceiling, with the house. Fire separation between the garage and the home is part of how the house was designed, so anything that weakens it needs care.
- Garage in a block or on a shared drive: check the deeds and any lease first. See covenants and leasehold.
If you are keeping the car in there too, think hard. Fuel, exhaust fumes and a drinks fridge are not good neighbours.
Building Regulations: the questions to ask
Putting a bar counter and some stools into a garage you still use as a garage is not the same as converting it into a habitable room. Where the line falls depends on what you change. Talk to your council's building control team, or an approved inspector, before you start if you plan to:
- block or replace the garage door with a wall, window or glazed door;
- add insulation, plasterboard and a new floor to make it a usable room;
- cut a new opening between the garage and the house;
- add new circuits, a sink or a heater.
The Planning Portal's guidance on outbuildings and Building Regulations is the place to start, and our Building Regulations guide explains how a project moves from "garden structure" to "work that needs approval". Approved Document B covers fire safety, Approved Document F covers ventilation and Approved Document P covers electrics in dwellings.
Damp and the floor
Garage floors are usually bare concrete laid straight on the ground, often with a slight fall to the door so water drains out. That is fine for a car and cold underfoot for people.
- Check for damp first. Tape a square of plastic sheet to the floor for a few days. Moisture underneath suggests the slab is drawing up damp.
- Do not trap damp under a new floor. Ask a builder or building control what membrane or barrier suits your slab before laying anything on top.
- Raised floors can level out the fall, but they change the door threshold and headroom.
- Rubber or interlocking tiles are a simpler choice if the garage still doubles as a workshop.
Our flooring guide compares surfaces, and the damp and ventilation guide explains why moisture builds up in closed buildings.
Ventilation and condensation
Garages are often leaky, which is no bad thing. Once you add insulation and seal the door, you swap draughts for condensation. Keep some background ventilation, run the fridge where it can breathe, and avoid unflued gas heaters inside an enclosed space. For heating options, see garden bar heating, and read insulating a garden bar before you line the walls.
Power, water and fittings
Many garages already have a socket or two, but that does not mean the circuit suits a fridge, lights, a TV and a heater running at once. Get a registered electrician to look at the existing supply. Our power guide covers what they will check.
A sink is lovely and needs a drain. If there is no easy route, plan around a bottle bin and washing glasses in the house; see sink and water.
Keeping the garage door
Plenty of garage bars keep the up-and-over or roller door and open it on warm evenings, which turns the bar into a covered terrace. The downsides are security, draughts and noise spilling straight onto the street. A lockable inner door, or a stud wall with a proper door, gives you a bar that works in winter. Compare options in doors, windows and shutters.
If the garage is too cramped, or you still need it for the car, a separate building may be easier. A shipping container bar or a ready-made pub shed avoids touching the house at all.
Measure the garage, note which walls touch the house, and ring building control with your list of changes before you buy a single sheet of plasterboard.
Quick answers
Do I need Building Regulations approval to put a bar in my garage?
It depends on the work. A counter and stools in a garage still used as a garage is different from converting it into a room with a new wall, insulation and electrics. Ask building control; see our Building Regulations guide.
Can I take out the door between my garage and house?
Not without checking first. In attached garages that door and wall often form part of the fire separation from the house.
Do I need planning permission for a garage bar?
Internal changes often do not, but changing the outside, such as replacing the garage door with a wall and window, may. Some estates also removed permitted development rights. See planning permission.
Is a garage bar warm enough in winter?
Only once it is insulated and draught-proofed. See insulating a garden bar and heating.
Sources
Primary guidance checked 10 November 2026.