Case study: Garage to home cinema in Carrington.
An indie film maker and boxing fan needed a real screening room. We took a standard integral garage and built a fully kitted home cinema -- feature wall, built-in audio, dedicated consumer unit, bespoke wood panelling on the exterior. £13,600. 10 days on site.
Project at a glance Verified Wolsten build
- Property type
- Integral garage · Carrington
- Conversion type
- Single Room Conversion
- Time on site
- 10 days
- Fixed price
- £13,600 all-in
- Use
- Home cinema + screening room
- Spec highlights
- Built-in audio · Feature wall
- Building Regs
- Full submission + sign-off
- Built by
- Three founders on site
Why they called us.
The Carrington client wasn't after a generic "spare room with a TV". They were an indie film maker who'd studied film, made their own independent movies, and were a big boxing fan who wanted to watch the big fights properly. What they wanted -- and had wanted for years -- was a real screening room. Surround sound, a proper feature wall, ambient lighting, the kind of space you set up an indie premiere or a Saturday-night fight in.
The garage was already there, sat under-used like most integral garages. The question was whether to do a "tidy-up" job or to commit to building the room they actually wanted. We walked them through both options at the survey. They chose the dream space and committed to the full build.
We came back with a fixed written quote at £13,600 -- itemised, all-in, no caveats. They accepted, we booked the start date, and the price never moved.
What we did.
This was a 10-day intensive build. The client wanted something unique and classy -- a phrase that ended up driving every spec decision we made. To make it feel like a proper screening room (not a garage with a telly), we built in audio infrastructure from first-fix, designed a feature wall, ran dedicated electrics on a fresh consumer unit, and finished the exterior with bespoke wood panelling so the room reads as a deliberate piece of the house rather than "a converted garage".
The build sequence took 10 working days on site:
- Stripped the old fixtures and fittings out of the garage back to bare brick
- Installed a brand new dedicated consumer unit for the room -- so the cinema kit runs on its own clean circuit, independent of the rest of the house
- Laid full floor insulation + new chipboard floor build-up
- Laid out the room geometry and erected the stud walls ready for wall insulation
- Wall insulation throughout for thermal and acoustic performance
- First-fix electrics + internet cabling -- including the AV pre-wire for surround sound + projector and CAT6 to the seating wall
- Plasterboarded walls and ceiling
- Laid new laminate flooring throughout the room
- Bespoke wood panelling fitted to the exterior -- transforms the look of the garage face from "garage door" to "designed-in part of the house"
- Plaster, paint, second-fix electrics, AV terminations
- Final clean-down, Building Regs sign-off, walkthrough
The four images below walk through the whole transformation -- garage door to indie screening room.
The whole build, in four shots.
Real photos from the actual project -- exterior craft, build progress, finished cinema.
Bespoke wood-clad exterior face. Tongue-and-groove timber built out around the garage front -- our finishing touch.
Inside the garage before. Bare, cold, storage.
Mid-build. Fresh plaster, electrics first-fix complete, downlight cans wired.
Finished cinema. Feature wall, AV-ready, ambient lighting, bespoke exterior panelling.Every detail of the Carrington build.
The full set of photos taken throughout the project.
For the discerning homeowner.
What we actually built into this room.
Dedicated consumer unit -- clean power for the cinema
Most "garage with a telly" conversions just spur off the existing house ring. We installed a brand new dedicated consumer unit for this room -- meaning the projector, surround-sound amplifier, downlight dimmers and AV gear all run on their own circuit, independent of the rest of the house. No flicker from the dishwasher cycling, no shared spurs causing audio interference. Cleanest possible power for AV equipment.
AV pre-wire -- first-fix surround sound + projector + CAT6
Critical to do this at first-fix, before plasterboard goes up. Liam (qualified electrician) ran the surround-sound cabling routed in the walls to the speaker positions, the projector HDMI + power back to the seating wall, and CAT6 to the entertainment cabinet for streaming. None of it visible after handover, no surface trunking, no dangling cables.
Floor and wall insulation -- thermal + acoustic spec
Full floor build-up: existing concrete slab, DPM, floor insulation, chipboard deck, laminate finish. Full wall insulation in the stud cavities -- thermal performance for comfort, acoustic performance for the surround sound to do its job without bleeding to the neighbours. This is what stops a converted garage feeling like a converted garage.
Feature wall -- the design that gives the room identity
The client wanted "unique and classy" -- a phrase that drove the feature wall design. We built a recessed feature wall with integrated downlighting, finished in a deeper paint shade so it pulls the eye to where the screen lives. Turns the room from a square garage into a proper cinematic space without big-budget cinema-grade treatment.
Bespoke wood panelling on the exterior
The visible exterior was reclad in bespoke wood panelling. Two reasons: (1) cosmetic -- the room reads as a deliberate part of the house rather than "former garage", which preserves resale value; (2) practical -- the panelling adds a weather barrier and thermal break to the previously-bare external face.
Building Regs route -- full sign-off
Habitable garage conversions need Building Regs -- always. We submitted, scheduled inspections, achieved full sign-off (structural, thermal, electrical, fire safety). Planning not required -- garage conversions on this property fell under permitted development.
Three founders. No subcontractors.
Liam, Ryan and Paul on every job.
Liam
Designed and installed the entire electrical setup -- dedicated consumer unit, AV pre-wire, surround sound routing, internet cabling. Without the first-fix planning, the cinema look would have been impossible to achieve.
Ryan
Handled the structural side -- floor build-up, stud walls, wall insulation. Made sure the room was thermally and acoustically tight before AV went in.
Paul
Designed and built the feature wall and the bespoke wood panelling for the exterior. Every cut on site, every join detailed personally.
Carrington · Manchester
Carrington sits on the M31/M33 corridor on the Trafford side of Manchester -- an excellent area for garage conversions with substantial housing stock that includes plenty of integral garages sitting under-used. We've worked across Carrington and the wider Trafford / Sale / Altrincham area for years.
We're based in Westhoughton, about 25 minutes from Carrington via the M60.
Questions homeowners ask about cinema-room conversions.
Can I get a cinema-style garage conversion for around £13,500?
This Carrington project came in at £13,600 fixed -- a single integral garage converted to a fully-kitted home cinema with feature wall, AV pre-wire and bespoke exterior panelling. Cinema-room conversions on similar properties typically sit in the £10k-£22k range. The variables are: how much AV equipment is built in, whether you want acoustic upgrades, and whether you want exterior treatment like the wood panelling we did here.
Why install a dedicated consumer unit for the cinema room?
Because AV equipment is sensitive. If your projector, amplifier and downlights all share a spur with the dishwasher or the boiler, you get interference, flicker and the occasional pop in the speakers. A dedicated consumer unit gives the room its own clean power. Most clients never knew they needed this until we explained it -- then it becomes obvious.
What about acoustic treatment?
For most home-cinema garage conversions, properly-specced wall and floor insulation does most of the acoustic work for free. We do offer dedicated acoustic plasterboard as an upgrade (extra £4-8 per m²) on cinema or music studio conversions where bass-heavy content would otherwise bleed to the rest of the house. The Carrington project used standard insulation spec -- the client was happy with the bedroom-above isolation as-is.
How long does a cinema garage conversion take?
This Carrington build took 10 working days. Single-room garage conversions typically run 2-4 weeks on site. AV-heavy specs add a day or two for the first-fix cabling planning and the second-fix terminations.
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