i30 Builders · Residential
Garage Conversions in Rockwall and DFW
Turn the garage into a bedroom, an office, a gym or a guest suite that reads as part of the house from the street and from the hallway.
Written scope and locked price before any deposit. One-year workmanship warranty.
Get a written estimate
Four fields. We call back within one business day to set up the site visit.
- GL + umbrella coverage
- $1M + $1M
- Workmanship warranty
- 1-yr
- Cities served
- 33
Who builds garage conversions in Dallas-Fort Worth?
i30 Builders, a general contractor based in Royse City, TX, converts attached garages into bedrooms, offices, gyms and guest suites across Rockwall and DFW for homeowners across Dallas-Fort Worth, centered on Rockwall, Collin, Hunt and Kaufman counties. The door opening framed and finished to match the house, the slab leveled and sealed, insulation, a mini-split, egress and alarms for a bedroom, with the permit, parking rules and HOA handled and the price in writing after a site walk. Every job is measured and designed for the house, then priced in writing after a site walk, before any deposit, with permits handled.
- Pricing
- Written price after a site walk, before any deposit
- Permits
- Handled by us
- Warranty
- One-year workmanship warranty, in writing
- Where
- Dallas-Fort Worth, centered on Rockwall, Collin, Hunt and Kaufman counties
Updated
Start Here
A garage was built to keep weather off a car. A room has to do a lot more.
A garage already has a roof, walls and a slab, so it looks like the easy square footage. It was not built like the rest of the house. The slab sits below the house floor and falls toward the door so water runs out. The walls were never insulated. The ceiling may carry attic storage, and the water heater often lives in a corner. The door opening is a hole across the front of the house. Each of those gets solved before the space is a room.
So we plan from the floor up. How far the slab sits below the house, how much it falls, and whether moisture comes through it decide the flooring. The door opening gets framed, insulated and finished outside to match the front elevation, with a window if the room needs light. Cooling is its own system, because the house unit was never sized for this space. And the use of the room sets the rest: a bedroom brings an escape window, alarms and a closet, and a suite with a bath brings drain lines cut through the slab.
We design and build the whole conversion as one scope, and we check the city's parking rule and your HOA before anything is drawn. Carpet over the slab, a sheet of paneling across the door and a window unit is not a conversion. We do not take that work.
How the planning works
Measured, drawn and picked before anything comes out.
Step 1
What the room will be
Bedroom, office, gym, guest suite or a room for a parent. The use decides the escape window, the alarms, the plumbing, the circuits and whether a closet goes in, so we settle it first.
Step 2
Floor, moisture and the step
We measure the drop from the house floor and the fall toward the door, and check the slab for cracks and moisture. That decides between a raised sleeper floor with no step and a leveled slab that keeps one.
Step 3
The front of the house, parking and HOA
How the door opening is closed and finished, in siding, brick or stone to match. Then the driveway: some cities want the lost parking replaced on the lot, and many HOAs review any change to the front.
Step 4
Written scope, permit, build
One price in writing for the room as drawn. The permit is pulled with whatever energy paperwork your city asks for, and the work is inspected at framing, rough-in, insulation and final.
Finish levels
Mid-grade or high-end, named by what goes in.
Most rooms mix the two. Tell us where you want to spend and where you do not, and the written scope names every material either way.
Mid-grade
- Framed wall with a window where the garage door was, fiber cement siding matched to the house
- Slab leveled with underlayment, LVP over a vapor barrier
- Batt insulation in the walls and blown insulation in the attic above
- Single-zone ductless mini-split on its own circuit
- Drywall, trim and doors matched to the rest of the house
High-end
- Brick or stone infill matched to the front elevation, with a window sized to the room
- Raised sleeper floor brought level with the house, so there is no step at the door
- Spray foam in the walls and along the roof line
- A full bath or wet bar, with drains cut through the slab
- Built-in closet and storage, recessed lighting on dimmers
The water heater, the attic stairs and the laundry often sit in the garage. Where each one goes is drawn into the plan before framing.
Code and permits
The rules that apply to this room.
- Dallas requires a building permit to convert a garage to another use, with a whole-house floor plan, an elevation of the new exterior wall and an energy compliance form from a registered third-party energy provider. City of Dallas, Garage Conversion for Single-Family Dwellings
- At final, Dallas checks for insulation in the walls and ceilings between the new room and the outdoors, smoke detectors through the house and the converted garage, and carbon monoxide detectors where the house has gas-fired appliances or an attached garage. City of Dallas, Garage Conversion for Single-Family Dwellings
- In Dallas, if the converted garage becomes a sleeping room, a gas water heater cannot be in a closet with access from that bedroom. City of Dallas, Garage Conversion for Single-Family Dwellings
- Dallas requires one off-street space in R-7.5(A), R-5(A) and TH districts and two in other single-family districts, behind the front setback, not tandem, each at least 8 ft 6 in by 18 ft. City of Dallas, Garage Conversion for Single-Family Dwellings
- Mesquite requires a building permit for a garage conversion and requires the converted parking spaces relocated so the total off-street parking on the lot is not reduced. City of Mesquite, Ordinance No. 4990 (Zoning Text Amendment 2022-04)
- Sachse asks for a mechanical plan showing ductwork and an energy compliance report, and inspects a garage conversion at framing, electrical, mechanical and plumbing rough-in, insulation and final. City of Sachse, Residential Building Permit Procedures: Garage Conversion
Read from the model codes on the dates linked. Each city adopts its own edition with its own amendments, so we confirm the rules for your address before we pull the permit.
Ready to get yours planned?
A free site walk, then a written scope and one price within five business days.
In every job
- The garage door removed and the opening framed, insulated and finished outside to match the house
- The slab checked for slope, cracks and moisture, then leveled or built up before any flooring
- Insulation in every wall and ceiling that faces outdoors or the attic
- Cooling sized to the room, usually a mini-split, with its own circuit
- Permit and inspections for framing, electrical, mechanical, insulation and final
- The punch list before final payment, and a one-year workmanship warranty
How we quote it
We do not publish prices or ranges. Every job is measured and built for your house, so a number off a website would be a guess.
A site walk, then a written scope back within five business days. The scope names the work, the materials and the price, and the price does not move unless the scope does.
Anything found behind a wall or under a slab that changes the work gets priced and approved before we touch it. That is a change of work, in writing, not a surprise on the final invoice.
Payment is by ACH, card, check or cash, on the schedule written into the contract.
What Moves the Number
Up and down, before you ask for a quote.
Pushes price up
- Bringing the floor up level with the house so there is no step
- A bathroom, which means cutting the slab for the drains
- Brick or stone across the old door opening to match a masonry front
- Moving the water heater, the attic access or the laundry out of the space
- A bedroom, which brings an escape window, alarms and a closet
- New concrete on the lot to replace the parking the garage provided
Keeps price down
- Leveling the slab in place and keeping a step at the house door
- Siding across the opening where the front is already sided
- An office or gym with no plumbing
- A panel with room for the new circuits
- The water heater left in place behind a proper closet wall, where the room's use allows it
Common Questions
Garage Conversions questions, answered
Do I need a permit to convert a garage in Texas?
Yes, in every DFW city we work in. Turning a garage into living space changes the use of the room, so it is a building permit with framing, electrical, mechanical and insulation inspections. Dallas, for example, asks for a whole-house floor plan and energy compliance paperwork, and checks insulation, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms at final. We pull the permit and meet the inspector. A conversion done without one tends to surface when the house is sold.
Can you get rid of the step down into the garage?
Usually. The garage slab sits below the house floor and slopes toward the door. We can frame a sleeper floor over a vapor barrier, level and brought up to the house floor, so you walk straight in. The ceiling height decides how much we can raise it, and we measure that at the walk. If the room is a gym, keeping the slab and the step is often the better choice.
Can a converted garage be a legal bedroom?
Yes, when it has what a bedroom needs: an emergency escape window sized to code, smoke alarms in the room and the hall, carbon monoxide alarms where the house has gas or an attached garage, and a closet if you want it counted as a bedroom. In Dallas, a gas water heater cannot sit in a closet that opens off a bedroom, so the heater's location is settled before the walls go up.
How do you heat and cool a converted garage?
With its own system, almost always a ductless mini-split on a dedicated circuit, sized to the room. Tying into the house ductwork rarely works: the house unit was sized for the house without the garage, and the run out to it is usually the longest one. The new walls and ceiling are insulated first, because cooling an uninsulated garage in July is a losing fight.
What about my HOA and city parking rules?
Check both before you design anything. Many HOAs review any change to the front of the house, and some deed restrictions require a garage. Cities set parking rules too: Mesquite requires the converted spaces relocated on the lot so the off-street total does not drop, and Dallas requires one or two side-by-side spaces behind the front setback. We read your city's rule and your HOA's documents before drawing.
Will converting the garage hurt resale?
It depends on the street. Where every house has a two-car garage, buyers notice the one that does not. Where buyers want bedrooms, a permitted, conditioned room is worth more than parking. What hurts in either case is a conversion that still looks like a garage from the curb or was never permitted. We tell you at the walk if your street or HOA works against it.
How long does a garage conversion take?
Most run 4 to 8 weeks on site once the permit is issued. A bathroom adds slab cutting and plumbing inspections, brick matching adds lead time, and a raised floor adds framing. Permit review comes before any of it and varies by city. The written schedule shows each of those before work begins.
How is a garage conversion priced?
From a site walk, with the number in writing. What moves it most: whether the floor comes up to the house, whether there is plumbing, how the front is finished, and whether the room is a bedroom. That number holds unless the scope changes.
Prefer to give us the details now?
Tell us what you want built and roughly how big. We walk it, then price the scope in writing, and the price does not move unless the scope does.
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