# Turning a Breezeway into Livable Space



## jmorse30 (Apr 20, 2015)

Hello,

I am new here, and everyone seems so helpful here, so I'm hoping someone can give me some guidance. I am considering buying a house with small square footage. It has a breezeway so I think it could be expanded and I'm just wondering how much work it would take. It is bordered on one side by the house, the other side by the garage and the one end by the laundry room of the house. It is only the front that is open and it is screened in. I realize it would take more work to make it completely livable, but I was wondering what I would need to do just to get rid of the danger of moisture that could damage any items left in the room. I just want to factor this in to decide if this home would work for me and my family.


----------



## nealtw (Apr 20, 2015)

Welcome to the site..

Breeze way, concrete slab?
Same heght as the floor inside house. Garage foundation same height as the house foundation.

How many feet between house and garage, guess?


----------



## joecaption (Apr 20, 2015)

Need all that info and a picture.


----------



## jmorse30 (Apr 21, 2015)

It does have a concrete slab about six or eight inches lower than the floor of the house I would guess. The width is about nine feet. Here is a photo.


----------



## nealtw (Apr 21, 2015)

Is the house floor a concrete slab or is there a crawspace.


----------



## jmorse30 (Apr 21, 2015)

The house has a crawlspace.


----------



## nealtw (Apr 21, 2015)

The normal problem is water, the maindoor of the garage and slabs like this seldom has a footing or foundation. so you never get to leave enough space betweeen the bottom of the siding  to the dirt level. If you have a dry crawlspace, you likely have a perimeter drain around the house but we don't know about the opening to this slab.

Are you thinking of matching the floor level with the house or just using the slab for finish floor level.


----------



## jmorse30 (Apr 22, 2015)

I would put a subfloor in and some type of flooring on top to match the floor of the house and help prevent moisture. Since three sides are already closed in on the breezeway, I am just wondering what I need to do about the front that is screened in. And I wondered if that would be enough to prevent most moisture to the room for the time being - enough to store some furniture until I could do the rest of the work.


----------



## bud16415 (Apr 22, 2015)

How much height do you have now from the slab to the header beam on the screen wall? How much height will you loose with making the floor flush with the one in the house? 

You should be good to go on the two walls (house and laundry) the garage wall will need insulation most likely and drywall on the inside of the garage if you don&#8217;t have that already. The screen wall has to be framed in and seal up inside and out with doors and windows and insulation. The door that leads into the house and storm door could maybe be reused in the new wall. 

The job shouldn&#8217;t be too hard the major thing to get right is the bottom 6 inches of the new wall and making sure no water can get in under your new floor. 

You will also have to figure out how to heat and AC the area.


----------



## joecaption (Apr 22, 2015)

Someone made a big mistake by installing that indoor-outdoor carpeting over that old wood deck.
There's no way for the wood to dry out.
If they glued it down it's a nightmare to get off.
Nothing is impossible if you have enough money, but a few issues that would need to be addressed for this to work are, finding out exactly what's under that wall.
If you where to just slap a wall on top of those old deck boards water is going to be coming in under the wall, outside air can get in because of the gaps in the decking, sheathing at the bottom of the wall and the insulation will rot and mold up.
I've hard to deal with this after the fact many times when people try to enclose carports, porches, close in old garage over head doors.


----------



## nealtw (Apr 22, 2015)

Joe:  Concrete deck.

I would think you could store stuff out there, maybe on top of pellets, just in case there is some moisture problems.


----------



## joecaption (Apr 23, 2015)

Look close again at that picture.
Anyone else seeing lines under the carpet spaced about 5 1/2" apart?
That's what made me think it's decking not a slab.


----------



## nealtw (Apr 23, 2015)

joecaption said:


> Look close again at that picture.
> Anyone else seeing lines under the carpet spaced about 5 1/2" apart?
> That's what made me think it's decking not a slab.



I saw that too but we have to go with what the OP says it is. It is up to them to get it right.


----------

