How We Transformed the Look of Our Neglected Detached Garage: Before & After
So what you're seeing above is a picture of our new and improved garage. When we bought the house, the garage was submerged in about 2 foot of concrete, soil and patio slabs. When we brought the level down to the right height, which is what you see above, then it left the garage walls damp, stained and just generally in a state of neglect of ruin.
There clearly used to be a door where the long window is (pictured in the photo below). But instead of bricking it up, then whacked a lump of concrete in the void. The windows are also old, cracked and they're covered in filthy film for privacy reasons.
Again, this is something that the previous owners of our house did. Its neglected state didn't fit in with the look we were going for when it came to our new garden. While we still have a way to go, this is a much-needed improvement. Let me tell you what we did to transform our neglected 1960's garage into what you see today.
Firstly, we put up new fascia boards and guttering. We did this ourselves and we plan to finish the fascia board to the front of the garage as well. The garage didn't come with a garage door, so we have to navigate that issue too, for now. We also plan to refelt the roof ourselves at some point, so bear with us on that one.
But as you can see in the picture above, the original fascia board was a mixture of a rotting wooden one and plastic one in poor condition. It's also completely lacking guttering, so water was pouring off the roof and another patio - not ideal. It didn't take much and it wasn't expensive for us to put new fascia board up and fix some new guttering too.
There were two windows installed in the garage, but they were both old, brittle and covered in privacy film. Not only did it look terrible, because it had part-peeled off, but it was also incredibly difficult to remove. We also found that there was enough daylight in the garage without a garage door.
So when we put a new door on, we can simply open the garage door and there will be enough light in there without the need for the windows. While we spoke about bricking them up, this seemed time-consuming and expensive, for what it is - an outbuilding.
We were racking our brains trying to think of a way to start over with the side of the garage, without knocking it all down and getting a garden shed instead. Eventually, it came to us. We had covered to backside of the garage a couple of years ago with some feather board, so we considered doing that.
However, we didn't want it to look like a giant shed. We also thought it would look too heavy. So we made the switch to these wooden slats instead. While it was the more expensive option out of the two, I must admit, it does look the most modern and effective. We then added some outdoor lighting on the existing electrical circuit to the garage and added an outdoor socket.
You might be wondering how we covered the brickwork - easy. We fixed some breathable landscaping fabric to the brickwork and then put the slats over the top. This way, you won't see any of the brickwork that lies derelict underneath.
We also added a downpipe and made use of the filled in drain once again. The previous owners blocked off the drain, initially intended for guttering downpipe. We simply unblocked it, flushed it through and restored it back to fully working order.
And there you have it - the neglected garage has, so far, been transformed. Keep checking back for some blog posts showing you the completed job, with a new roof and a new garage door. We have some exciting garden developments going forward into the spring and summer.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments below whether you've had to take on an outdoor project as big as this one and how you coped with it and I will see you all again very soon with some brand new content!
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