Anyone convert attached garage into living space?

Probably not on running the duct. Look into a mini split, that would probably be an easy space to do it. You'd probably be looking at $3000-$4000 to have one installed. You can do it yourself for less than half that. If you can do a window unit, that will be the easiest and cheapest method, about $500.

A possible problem area is the quality of the garage floor. Lay a sheet of plastic down for a few days and see if moisture accumulates under it. If it does, have an epoxy sealant put on . In my house there is a plastic barrier in the slab only under the house floor, not so for the attached garage.

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you can do anything. Whether it works depends on the size of your garage and the size of the unit you are pulling air from.

have an hvac guy come take a look

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This. I would think the average garage is at least 400 sq. ft. and that is a lot to heat and cool in addition to your actual living area. Like already mentioned, split unit or window unit is the way to go-----that way, if not in use you can simply turn it off and save on electricity.

I have an 850 sq. ft. man cave on my first floor that is not in use every day, so the window A/C or heat is only used when actually down there doing something. It is so well insulated that it only takes about 1/2 hour to heat or cool.

What does this do to the resale value on the house is always my concern. You're expanding the square footage, but I think most people want a garage attached to the house.

May just make the house less appealing to future buyers?

The converted garages I've been in, you can always tell that they converted the garage to a living space.

Just something else to consider if nothing else.

You should also check your local zoning and building regulations before you do so.

In more urbanized areas like Jefferson Parish, for example, you need one legal (20 ft. deep, 10 ft. wide) parking space behind the required front yard setback (20 ft.).

The legal parking space can be a driveway alongside the house, under an attached or detached carport, or in a detached or attached garage under the same roof as the house.

The idea behind this is the average household has two cars, and one will park in the required parking space, and the other will be parked in the 20 ft. long driveway leading to it without blocking a sidewalk.

Enclosing an attached garage likely eliminates that required legal parking space and may not be allowed if you go to obtain a construction permit.

I think it's sort of an ineffective rule, because probably 3/4s of attached garages in Metairie are NOT used to park a car, but used to store bikes, boats, and tons of junk. And folks enclose attached garages all the time, often without the required legal permits.

Just sayin'...

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KInd of trashy when people do this in my opinion.

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Not kind of, straight up is.

I had this done Summer of 2022.

Had the carport closed in, and had a new carport built out in front because I absolutely did not want to park in the driveway.

With regard to HVAC, my existing space was completely maxed out with the single unit that I have, so a mini-split was installed in the new space. The mini-split works great. Just set it and forget it. No noticeable increase in electricity bill.

I mainly closed in the space as a game room for the kids and have absolutely zero regrets.

I too plan on this approach.

I have ample parking area and think the house would benefit from the added space.

I was thinking a double door within the wall that is framed at the new opening.

We have 2 two-car garages separated by a framed wall.

We looked into converting one of these into a bedroom, office and large walk in closet.

We had plans drawn up by architects and got a bid. For around 425sf, the bid we received to convert the space was $150k. We decided not to move forward with the project. We probably need to get another quote just to make sure, but even if that original bid is $50k over what another bid would be, it still makes 0 sense. We paid ~$175/sq ft when we bought in June 2022. Converting a garage for well above that cost is insane.

Our plans included:
- pouring new floors to match the elevation of the current indoor living area
- adding 2 windows where the garage door currently sits
- removing brick from an existing external wall to use around said windows to make the exterior look seemless (and replacing that brick with siding)
- removing existing driveway leading to converted space

I converted mine... 19x19 space. Bought rubber flooring interlocking tiles from Rubber Flooring Direct. Have two dumbbell racks, bench, and pull up bar in there. It is partly my workout room but also a play room for the kids since it's so wide open. We just put a big window unit in there (it had a small little closet with a window) and I added a return duct to my HVAC right outside the door to help keep it cool.