Garden Shed conversion
We have a shed/garage kind of thing in our yard and our thinking of adding electricity, insulating and redoign the roof to make a work room/studio. The shed is pretty old. Just wondering what am I geting into here? I figure we can run electricity from the house underground (has anyone done that)? Maybe use…
We have a shed/garage kind of thing in our yard and our thinking of adding electricity, insulating and redoign the roof to make a work room/studio. The shed is pretty old. Just wondering what am I geting into here? I figure we can run electricity from the house underground (has anyone done that)? Maybe use that new foam insulation so we don’t have to redo the outside (has anyone tried it?), put in an electric heater and use the space spring summer and fall??
We had a old shed on our property as well (it was on the original survey so totally grandfathered in–as another poster said, you could not build one today if there wasn’t an existing one) We got an architect and filed with the DOB and reno’ed it. Tile floors, sheetrocked walls, moulding, new roof. Its great. I wanted to tear it down and have a bigger yard but decided the extra living space would be better. Just watch out for neighbors..even though we filed, the DOB kept coming by cuz neighbors were complaining about the construction noise (all done within legal time frames) Wishing they had that an outbuilding/shed as well.
When we bought our house there was a sort of a barn in the backyard. It had electricity, but no plumbing. It was of course illegal and the seller had to remove before we closed. Our bank would not give us a mortgage otherwise. Just a consideration.
I recently did renovate our shed. It did have electric in it already, but it wasn’t to code, it is just a matter of running proper conduit (I don’t have the terms right but a licenced electrician can tell you. We have ours running along the edge of the garden which is covered by bushes. We were allowed by the buildings department, to do this, since the shed is already there. If you had wanted to put in a shed where one didn’t exist, that would not be allowed according to zoning laws anymore. Also, we put in 3 skylights, and cedar shingle; its awesome, like a little Nantucket cottage
Any zoning issues here?
Interesting project. I’ve been thinking of doing the same thing. Are you sure your shed is worth improving? I’ve seen many that are simply worn out and full of mice & termites. You may be better off starting from scratch. If you’re going to put a new roof on, I would add a skylight.