Garden Office or Loft Extension?

[Merryoldgoat]

I have a larger than average 3 bed house. We have two kids who have their own rooms and downstairs is an odd layout - kitchen with a small table but very large living area with dining table etc.

There is very little space to get away from the general clutter of family life and as we’re both wfh our work stuff is everywhere too.

We have a fair bit of equity in our house and could afford to either build up into the loft, or do a fancy garden office.

The cost difference is quite big but the end result is not dissimilar - two extra rooms for ‘us’.

The end result would be that we’d both have our own office/personal space.

My thoughts:

It would be nice to have everything under one roof so if money were no object I’d go into the loft for preference as we’d actually get master, bathroom and office up there.

Garden room is much cheaper and could be repurposed to teen den in a few years when kids are older.

So

YABU - do garden room
YANBU - loft is better

We have a garden room, it's great but if you go down that route I would advise having a wired internet connection (we have mesh boosters, they work well most of the time, but a wired connection would be better).

The other thing is that it is cold. It's worth having a proper heater put in. At the moment I have a fan heater and a small oil filled radiator but am thinking about investing in one of the Fischer heaters.

Our loft is too small for a conversion but we did consider a garage conversion. But the great thing about a garden room is that it's so quick. Ours went up in one day last summer - minimal disruption and then we just needed an electrician to attach it to the house mains. I use it as my office/home gym but we also have a sofa chair in there in case ds wanted friends to stay from uni sometime.

We used Booths Garden Studios and spent £13K. Plus around £1k kitting it out including the electrician, mesh booster, new desk and sofa chair.

Lofts are done from the outside via scaffolding usually so although disruptive for sure, they won't be tracking through the house in a pandemic. They break through to the rest of the house at the end.

Go up in the loft and check how much of it you can comfortably stand up in.. will give you an idea of the actual space available.

Presumably you have plenty of space for the new staircase?

The previous owner of our house put velux windows in our loft but you can only stand up in the very middle, so we would never use it as a room.

Gosh - lots to think about.

I think I’ve slightly misrepresented the living space - the living room is massive and additional to large kitchen which has a table in it.

The issue is that the downstairs living room is one big room so everything is in one place.

We can’t remodel it without really extensive work.

Kids are 3&8 but both have additional needs so not sure if they’ll ever leave!!

The loft has a lot of space - we’d put a full length dormer down one side to increase the useable height as we have a gable end front and back.

You would comfortably get a very large bedroom plus bathroom up there. Other option is two smaller bedrooms with bathroom for the boys and remodel the existing rooms.

I have a 3 bedroom house with an annexe at the end of the garden. The annexe is a proper building (not just a glorified shed) with insulation, heating and a shower room. We have one large room which is the office/guest room and a separate room which we use for storage. As a home office it works brilliantly, having worked in there I like the physical separation from the house, and the peace and quiet. As a place to store stuff, I find it a bit annoying having to traipse up and down the garden, but it's not the end of the world.

If I were you I'd do the garden room, do it to a high standard with good insulation and heating, put a toilet in there if you can, and a shower would be even better (so guests could stay there) but not essential.

A loft conversion would add value and it would be handy to have an extra bedroom and bathroom in the house, but as a PP said you would probably need more living space downstairs as well, to balance it out.

We are planning a ground floor extension and loft conversion is last on the list as we don't urgently need it yet, I want more living and storage space in the house.

Based on the age of your DC I’d definitely say loft conversation.

The question is, is this a longer term project (in which case loft probably edges it) or do you need a fairly speedy solution, within the next six months or so? If the latter then get a garden room.

A decent garden office gives you immediate space and separation.

In a few/several years , it still provides another space to be in when the loft is converted!

Loft

For now garden room - Booths can have it up in 2 days and no cement levelling required - spend around 20k and get either a mini kitchen or a toilet and sink.

I absolutely love mine and use it as a chill out at the weekend as the sound proofing is so good I can have loud music or films on.

If you really want to you can do loft later. They dont work well as office spaces anyway due to wifi/heating/working in your bedroom issues.

Is there scope for a garden office and a conservatory too?

I've got both a garden office and a loft. I love both but if I had to choose one it would be loft every time.

I thought my teenager would want to hang out in the garden office all the time, but they really aren't interested. And I love having a bedroom up on a separate floor in the loft. It feels like a very grown up and private space away from the rest of the house. I love it.

We have a loft conversion which was not too intrusive as they didn't come down into the house until the staircase was nearly ready to be installed. Took quite a while for the plastering to dry out and it felt bloody cold whilst it was!
Not sure how much planning regs have changed but if the amount that you can have as an extension on the ground floor is as a proportion of the existing house volume @AnotherEmma, you may wish to switch priority of loft and ground floor around- doing the loft first will allow you a bigger extension.

We have a lovely garden office with under floor heating. It was built pre covid as my husband's gym when DD was born. We built it with the understanding that when DD needs her own space in a few years time she can use it to see friends or sleep overs etc.... It has been amazing during lockdown as husband is now working from home full time so he can 'leave' the house to go to work and not be disturbed by DD.

It's also great that one my days off work he isn't in the house and I get a bit of time to myself 😂.

I would go with a garden office because it gives a physical and psychological separation between home and work, it would be more peaceful and you would have a lovely view of the garden while you work.
It would also be quicker and less disruptive to get up and running.

Definitely loft first. We had one done a few years back and not disruptive in terms of building work at all. We have two decent bedrooms and a bathroom and much more useable storage in eaves cupboards. One is currently being used a an office! The two bedrooms are only divided by a stud wall so easy to remodel to one larger room if required. Teens now would love a garden room but I suspect that would only really get used in summer.

@Glittertwins
"Not sure how much planning regs have changed but if the amount that you can have as an extension on the ground floor is as a proportion of the existing house volume @AnotherEmma, you may wish to switch priority of loft and ground floor around- doing the loft first will allow you a bigger extension."
Thank you but we've already got planning permission for the extension Just need to get on and do it! I'd been hoping we might have done it already but covid and a new baby got in the way, boo.
To fit stairs for a loft conversion we'll have to lose space in the bathroom, which we don't want to do while the kids are little. When they're older I'll be very happy to have a master bedroom and ensuite upstairs!

I'm surprised that there are not more in favour of the loft extension, which could be turning a three bed to a four bed house, and even if it is many years before you sell and move, adds value for good.

We have looked at the garden office but think it will cost a lot more by the time it's got full heat and power. I'm not also convinced by the security as we've had a few issues in the neighbourhood recently so wouldn't want anything of value in there. We also do not have a downstairs bathroom and the only downstairs room is carpeted so I doubt anyone would want to go back and forth in the wind and rain.
We didn't lose any floor space for our loft conversion, just a cupboard (now under the stairs) and a bit of headroom in the third bedroom.

Absolutely loft conversion, have you ever had a bedroom in a loft? It's lovely!

It turns your house into a four bed and I would imagine it will last longer than a garden room for when you do come to sell. And if you're not plumbing in a toilet to the garden room, you're right it would be a pain to traipse in and out. For me a loft conversion would be worth the little bit extra on the mortgage each month.

We had a loft conversion done on a previous house and it was not that much hassle. It massively increased the value of our house. The loft was the nicest bedroom in the house as it had great light, and a lovely ensuite. If you find in the future you are no longer working from home, you'll still have a great extra bedroom for you or for guests.

We have a garden room at our current house, a proper brick one with heating and a toilet etc at the bottom of the garden. It should be perfect now that we work from home, but in reality we don't use it as the wifi is patchy, you can't hear the doorbell, you can't grab a cuppa or a snack when you want to, if you are out there and it starts raining you get soaked just nipping back to the house, its an extra space to heat etc. We had great plans to use it for a home office or playroom when we moved here. Over time its become just a store room. Hopefully it might become handy when DC are teens.

Our garden room has saved our sanity during lockdown. It’s my husband’s office now and we both look forward to him heading out there every morning. 😆

Definitely loft. We have a lovely garden room that hardly ever gets used. We tried as play room (kids just wanted to play indoors where I was, and if I went out there I couldn't get pottering jobs done while they played) and office (mice! Damp! Cold! Again, in the pouring rain when you need a wee and have to traipse back in it is a bit sad). I would LOVE a loft conversion instead!

Loft[you get what you pay for normally].
But dont overextend yourselves financially.

@Toilenstripes

Our garden room has saved our sanity during lockdown. It’s my husband’s office now and we both look forward to him heading out there every morning. 😆

Funny 😆