What a garage conversion costs in Ireland
Converting a single garage in Ireland costs €15,000 to €25,000 at a standard finish, €20,000 to €30,000 mid-range and €30,000 to €45,000 at a high spec, VAT included, for the whole job. A shower room adds €4,000 to €8,000 at a basic finish or €10,000 to €18,000 mid-range, a small kitchen €5,000 to €10,000 and a steel beam into the house €2,000 to €4,000. A mid-range bedroom with its own shower room comes to €30,000 to €48,000.
Our price guide for the whole job and each extra, the price in every county, and seven conversions priced from start to finish.
Free and no obligation. Your plan goes to one builder, not a list.
- €15,000–€25,000standard finish, VAT in
- €20,000–€30,000mid-range
- €30,000–€45,000high spec
- 12–15%contingency to hold back
Our price guide
VAT at 13.5% included, for building work in 2026.
| Item | Cost, VAT included | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Whole conversion, standard finish | €15,000–€25,000 | Plain finishes, a radiator off the house heating, one window in the old door opening. |
| Whole conversion, mid-range | €20,000–€30,000 | Better windows and floors, more lighting, a neater join to the house. |
| Whole conversion, high spec | €30,000–€45,000 | Premium glazing, underfloor heating, built-in storage and top-end finishes. |
| Shower room or en-suite inside it | €4,000–€40,000 | The fittings, how much is tiled, and how far it is to the soil pipe. |
| A small kitchen, for a granny flat | €5,000–€10,000 | A few base and wall units, a worktop, a sink and a hob, fitted. |
| Steel beam to open it into the house | €2,000–€4,000 | How wide the opening is. The beam alone, sized by an engineer. |
| Contingency to keep aside | 12–15% | Damp in the old walls, a floor that has to come up, a roof that needs more than insulating. |
All figures include VAT at 13.5% and are for a single garage. Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow run up to a fifth higher; Connacht and Ulster about a tenth lower.
What's included
- Insulating the floor, walls and roof to today's building regulations, with a damp-proof membrane under the new floor
- Building up the garage door opening with an insulated wall and a window or a door, finished outside to match
- Wiring, lighting, sockets, a radiator or two, plasterboard, skim and paint
- 13.5% VAT on all of the building work
- Left out of the conversion range: a shower room, a kitchen, a steel beam and furniture
What pushes it up or down
- The county: Dublin and its commuter counties cost most, Connacht and Ulster least
- The floor: a slab that has to be dug out and relaid costs more than insulating on top
- The roof: a sound pitched roof only needs insulating; a felt flat roof often needs replacing
- Plumbing: a shower room close to the soil pipe costs far less than one that needs new drains
- A front or detached garage: a section 5 or a planning application adds fees and weeks
Seven garage conversions, priced
- A bedroom in an attached garage, standard finish, national prices: conversion €15,000 to €25,000. All in €15,000 to €25,000, with €2,000 to €4,000 kept aside.
- The same bedroom at a mid-range finish: conversion €20,000 to €30,000. All in €20,000 to €30,000, with €2,500 to €4,500 kept aside.
- A mid-range bedroom with its own shower room: conversion €20,000 to €30,000, shower room €10,000 to €18,000. All in €30,000 to €48,000, with €3,500 to €7,000 kept aside.
- A home office in Galway, standard finish: conversion €14,000 to €22,500. All in €14,000 to €23,000, with €1,500 to €3,500 kept aside.
- A gym in Cork, standard finish: conversion €15,000 to €24,000. All in €15,000 to €24,000, with €2,000 to €3,500 kept aside.
- A family room in Kildare, mid-range, opened into the kitchen with a steel beam: conversion €24,000 to €34,000, steel €2,000 to €4,000. All in €26,000 to €38,000, with €3,000 to €5,500 kept aside.
- A granny flat in Dublin, mid-range: bedroom, shower room and a small kitchen: conversion €24,000 to €34,000, shower room €10,000 to €18,000, kitchen €5,000 to €10,000. All in €39,000 to €62,000, with €4,500 to €9,500 kept aside.
The planner on this page works out the same sum for your garage, county and finish.
Plan your garage conversion
Four quick taps, and your plan fills in as you answer: the cost in your county, the planning position for your kind of garage and how many weeks it takes. Contact details come last, and only if you want a builder to price it.
An attached garage made into a bedroom, mid-range finish: €20,000 to €30,000, including VAT.
How the estimate is worked out
A garage conversion is priced as one job, because the walls, roof and floor slab are already standing: insulating the floor, walls and roof, building up the door opening with a window, wiring, heating, plastering and the finish. The range for your finish is adjusted to your county the same way building rates move between regions of Ireland, VAT at 13.5% included. A shower room, a small kitchen or a steel beam into the house go on top. Totals are rounded to the nearest €1,000. Use it to plan with. It isn't a quote: a builder prices your garage after seeing it.
What it costs in each county
Building costs track house prices. Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow are the dearest places to convert a garage, then the rest of Leinster, then Munster, with Connacht and Ulster the least expensive. The table prices one conversion of an attached garage into a bedroom in every county.
| County | Standard | Mid-range | Mid-range with a shower room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlow | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Cavan | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Clare | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Cork | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Donegal | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Dublin | €18,000 to €29,000 | €24,000 to €34,000 | €34,000 to €52,000 |
| Galway | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Kerry | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Kildare | €18,000 to €29,000 | €24,000 to €34,000 | €34,000 to €52,000 |
| Kilkenny | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Laois | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Leitrim | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Limerick | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Longford | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Louth | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Mayo | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Meath | €18,000 to €29,000 | €24,000 to €34,000 | €34,000 to €52,000 |
| Monaghan | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Offaly | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Roscommon | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Sligo | €14,000 to €23,000 | €19,000 to €28,000 | €29,000 to €46,000 |
| Tipperary | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Waterford | €15,000 to €24,000 | €20,000 to €29,000 | €30,000 to €47,000 |
| Westmeath | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Wexford | €16,000 to €25,000 | €22,000 to €30,000 | €32,000 to €48,000 |
| Wicklow | €18,000 to €29,000 | €24,000 to €34,000 | €34,000 to €52,000 |
Every figure is the whole conversion with VAT, rounded to the nearest €1,000. Keep 12% to 15% on top for what turns up.
Where the money goes
The floor
A garage floor is a bare slab, usually a step below the house, with no insulation and often no damp-proof membrane. The usual fix is a membrane, rigid insulation and a screed or a timber floor on top, which brings it up to the hall level. Where the slab is cracked or too high to build on, it comes up first.
The walls
Garage walls are often a single leaf of block. They are lined on the inside with insulated plasterboard or a stud wall packed with insulation, which takes 10 to 15 cm off each wall: worth knowing when you measure for a double bed.
The roof
A pitched roof over the garage is insulated at the ceiling or along the slope. A flat felt roof is often at the end of its life, and replacing it with a warm insulated roof is one of the bigger swings in the price.
The door opening
The garage door comes out and the opening is built up with an insulated wall on a new footing, with a window or a door. Outside, it is rendered or bricked to match the house. Garage door to window.
Services
New sockets and lights on their own circuit, a radiator or two run off the house heating, and mains-wired smoke alarms. A shower room needs a waste route to the soil pipe and an extractor fan.
Where the money goes further
- Keep the room inside the garage. Making it bigger turns a conversion into an extension, with a planning question and new foundations.
- Put a shower room on the house side. Close to the existing soil pipe, nobody digs up the floor for new drains.
- Check the roof before you price. If a flat roof needs replacing, you want it in the first price, not as an extra.
- Settle the planning position first. On a front or detached garage, a €80 section 5 declaration is cheap next to drawings for a room you can't use.
- Ask for the price in lines. Floor, walls, roof, door opening, electrics, heating and finish each on their own line make quotes easy to compare.
Questions before you convert
How much does it cost to convert a garage in Ireland?
A garage conversion in Ireland costs €15,000 to €25,000 at a standard finish, €20,000 to €30,000 mid-range and €30,000 to €45,000 at a high spec, VAT included. Dublin and the commuter counties run up to a fifth higher. A shower room adds €4,000 to €8,000 at a basic finish or €10,000 to €18,000 mid-range, and opening it into the house with a steel beam €2,000 to €4,000.
How much is a garage conversion with an en-suite?
About €30,000 to €48,000 at a mid-range finish, and €50,000 to €85,000 at a high spec with a high-end shower room, at national prices.
How much does a garage conversion cost in Dublin?
€18,000 to €29,000 at a standard finish and €24,000 to €34,000 mid-range, VAT included. Garage conversions in Dublin.
Is a garage conversion cheaper than an extension?
Converting the garage costs €20,000 to €30,000 at a mid-range finish. A 20 m² single-storey extension at the back, with drawings and engineer's fees, comes to €42,000 to €54,000, roughly twice as much, because the foundations, walls and roof of a garage are already built.
Do these prices include VAT?
Yes, at 13.5%, the rate for building work on a house. Furniture and appliances you buy yourself carry 23%.
Why do quotes for the same garage differ?
Usually because they price different jobs. One includes a new roof or relaying the floor, another leaves it out. Give every builder the same drawings and ask for the floor, walls, roof, door opening, electrics and heating on separate lines.
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The room you need is already built
Pick the kind of garage, what it becomes and the finish to see the cost in your county. When you want a firm price, your plan goes to a single vetted builder for your area.