Can I build a garage without building regulations?

Often, yes. A detached garage under 30 square metres is normally exempt from building regulations approval, and a structure under 15 square metres doesn't need to meet building regulations at all. The conditions: it must stand apart from the house, and close to a boundary it should be built predominantly of non-combustible material — which a concrete garage is. Check with your local building control to be sure.

Size is the first test. UK building regulations apply to most construction projects, including garages — but a structure of less than 15 square metres doesn't need to adhere to building regulations, and a detached garage under 30 square metres is normally exempt provided it meets the other conditions.

Most single prefab concrete garages fall inside those thresholds, which is why the typical garage order involves no building control paperwork at all. Go bigger — a large double or a workshop complex — and it's worth confirming where your floor area lands before ordering.

Floor area alone isn't the whole test. For the exemption to hold, the garage should:

• Be detached from the main property, with no shared walls. • Be built predominantly of non-combustible material — concrete, brick or blockwork rather than timber — if it sits within 2 metres of any boundary, fence line or hedge. • Be capable of standing up to the weather without becoming dangerous.

That non-combustibility condition is where sectional concrete garages quietly shine: concrete is non-combustible by nature, so a concrete garage can sit close to a boundary where a timber building of the same size couldn't. Rules are applied by your local authority, so check with building control if your situation is at all borderline.

No — they're two separate systems, and a garage can need one, both or neither. Building regulations govern how a structure is built: safety, stability, fire. Planning permission governs whether it can be built there at all. The size thresholds differ too — the building regulations exemption works around 15 and 30 square metres, while permitted development for planning has its own limits on height and garden coverage.

Most standard concrete garages clear both hurdles without any application, but check each one separately rather than assuming one answer covers both.

Some. Agricultural and horticultural buildings can qualify for their own exemptions under specific rules, which occasionally matters for garages and stores on smallholdings. And whatever the category, the practical advice is the same: exemption from approval isn't exemption from building sensibly — a garage still needs a sound base and proper installation to last. Ours are installed by our own teams in around a day, on a base laid to specification.