What do you use your garden room for? Do you love it?

[Meltingsocks]

DP and I are debating whether to get a garden room. Quote is 30k for 2.5 by 4m, 37k for 2.5 by 5m (long, narrow garden).

I WFH most days, he plans to 2 days a week. Currently when we both WFH, I have a permanent office in the loft and he's at the dining table,

So one use is a private office for him. But how else do you use your small garden room? Kids are 8 and 12, so hoping it might a bit of teen den, although I don't really want to put a screen in there. I might use it to read. Struggling to see justify cost unless I can imagine how we'll use it above and beyond a part time office for him.

Can't extend main house any further...

Thanks in advance!

You don't need to spend that much. We have just done 3x4m for under £10k

We use ours as an office and a second sitting room as our garden goes steeply uphill and we have it on the flat bit at the top. We have lovely views up there so it's a nice place to sit. It has a sofa and TV as well as office set up and it's a lovely place to be. I imagine DD will use it when she is older too but she's too small yet.

@Thursday37 presumably you self built? We're not willing or able to do that..also we want air con, which adds to cost...

Ours has cost roughly £4.6k for the room, £2k for the base, £1k for the heater, power and data cable, £250 to paint it inc a special sprayer we bought which we will use on other things. He then spent a bit more on some tools and a taller ladder so that was a few hundred more. But all in all not much.
It still needs flooring and we might deck the area outside it, as that's still unfinished.
DH put it up himself, took him about a week but not full time. But if you needed to pay someone to put it up it wouldn't cost £30k!

Ours is from Dunster House. It is insulated.

It's no harder than putting up a shed, it just slots together, You don't build it like a house. The base was done by a builder not us.

You are being had over for £30k that's crazy. You could get it put up for about £1.5k if you can't do it yourself.

Ours cost 11k and would have been 1k more for the aircon. Your quote sounds like a lot. But yes I use it as an office, a music room (as its better sound insulated than the house) and a bit of a gym.

We paid £33k for a 6x4m room and it's been an absolute game changer. DH uses it as his office and I do my workouts in there. We live in an area where a landscaped garden with large garden room adds quite a bit to the value of the property, so we will most likely recoup more than the cost upon sale.

That does seem a lot, we put this one in at beginning of last summer , mainly as an outdoor entertainment space in case Covid lasted forever !
We bought it for about £5k, though it's now more
Spent about £10k on base, decking and someone to build it, plus electrics etc.
They have loads of different styles.
It's been great, we use the outside bit all the time. Have pallet sofas and an old dining table so great space for entertaining
The inside bit is rarely used to be honest .

https://www.tuin.co.uk/Lilou-Log-Cabin.html?gl=11tj4hjljlupMQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuui9tM2E-QIVTO3tCh0NigZ3EAAYASAAEgL42DD_BwE

Thanks for answers so far. We live in an insanely expensive part of the country and are prepared to do zero work ourselves so we do have to suck up the cost.

Ours is has been a full time home office since Covid, but it’s also a music room, occasional guest room, play room etc. We’ve got a cheap projector out there for movie nights too. It’s so nice having a bit of extra living space that’s away from the house (especially when the house is open plan). We planned the furniture so it’s really easy to change around as needed.
Ours also has a shower room/toilet which has been really handy because the house only has one bathroom.
Our builders were absolutely brilliant. Not the cheapest option but worth every penny for the way they managed everything and kept things on track and were just genuinely lovely throughout.

This is separate to the house?
Wire it for heat and internet and use as home office hobby room. Your kids may turn it into a den as they get older - no need gif a screen, teenagers don't hang out to watch TV!

Seriously, it's far too much. I live in Hampshire and paid £13K for mine. Add £1K for aircon and another £3K because everything has gone up and that's still way less. Took a day to put up and we didn't do any work ourselves. You are being ripped off - listen to us.

I use it as a garden office and we also have some gym equipment in here.

Ours is 5 x 5.5m. We have it set up with 3 rooms - 1 is a small office for dh, 1 is for storage and then the main room is a lounge with sofa/tv Xbox and also a desk for me.
It took 2.5 months to build and us fully insulated and hardwired for internet, aircon/heating and is warmer and cheaper to heat than our house in winter. People talking about ones that go up in a day or a week are talking about a summer house - a proper garden room is a whole different thing and does cost more like £30-40k. Ours also has a deck as it's on a hill. We use it every single day and us the best thing we've ever done. It's more like an extension that just isn't attached to our house. I love it. Our teenagers throw parties in there and we can't hear them 🤣

Thank you @bubblicious3 - yes that's exactly what we're building. It's a 1-2 week project, not a slot together shed...

Our garden room (H calls it his man cave 🙄) is the allowed 27m square. It has decking outside and outdoor furniture. The floor is resin on concrete. There's a large sofa, rugs, tv, table, chest of drawers, electronic piano and a full sized pool table. It has a unit which is air conditioning in summer and heat in winter.

We use it daily - I mainly go there for peace and quiet. Although the grandchildren love playing in there when they are with us.

It collects seeds from next door's tree, leaves and twigs and lots of spider webs and is an extra 'thing' to keep looking smart - but well worth it.

Find a local builder that will do it cheaper. Like a kitchen fit it's all about the type of company you use.

Self employed guy cheaper than big company. Not necessarily a better build either.

Ours is my dh's office as he wfh full time. It took 5-6 weeks to construct. It has electricity, heat, internet etc

His office is roughly half and the other half has his gym equipment and a large screen with Xbox.

It's 5m x 2.5m. I think. Maybe 5x3.

It cost just shy of £20k.

Are any of you who've had garden rooms built in or near Derbyshire? We're thinking of investing in one if our house move goes ahead as planned, so interested in recommendations.

We have a 4.5m x 3.5m garden room from green retreats. We’ve had it for about three years now, and I absolutely love it. It has big sliding doors which are almost the width of it and some side windows, air con, nice indoor and outdoor lighting and it is plastered and has laminate flooring. It is a proper room.

We use it to sit in, basically. We can work in it as there is a bar type table with stools. But it also has a big L shape sofa and an armchair, coffee table, sideboard, shelving unit and a fridge with a small freezer compartment. Perfect for drinks, snacks and ice creams. We purposely haven’t put a screen in there to encourage talking and reading!

I can spend hours in there.

I am in southern Scotland. My son makes these to precise requirements and is always busy! Prices are much cheaper up here but he still makes a good profit.

Could you save money by putting a small caravan instead?

Garden room. I never heard of such a thing.

Thanks @WellTidy - it's great to hear from someone who's had theirs for a while! We don't need one for people to sleep in, or a loo etc, probably more of a home gym and office for DH - we both WFH so it's likely to get used virtually every day.

I also like the look of these by Wohobo, if anyone has experience? wohobo.co.uk/

I love our garden room, it's just off the kitchen and we have a sofa, armchair and bookcase, peloton and a ball pit. Couldn't be without it

That seems very expensive! But I am in NI.
my garden room is 4x3m and was £11k fully built, painted inside, nice wooden floor, electrics and sliding full height doors. It is by no means a shed 😄
www.gardenroomsni.com
constructed off site and assembled onsite. Took about a week iirc.
used for gym equipment.

Best money we've spent on the house. Proper garden room, sliding down, fully insulated, triple glazed, alarmed, heated (in hindsight we put too much glass in it so air con would be a good call for summer.) DH uses it as his office as he is fully WFH. We also have a tv, sofa and bookshelf in it so in the evenings it's a second sitting room which is mostly taken over by our teens. We also sectioned of a small uninsulated at the end as a secure storage area.