Anybody had a garden room/office built?

[mrsminiverscharlady]

We're considering having one of those prefabricated wooden garden rooms installed to give the growing number of teenagers in the house somewhere to escape to. I'd want it to be fitted with an electrical supply, insulated and heated so that we could use it year round. Has anybody done anything similar who could recommend a company to supply and install it? Or is it better to buy it and have a builder install it? Any pitfalls I should be aware of?!

You need planning permission.

Really? Most websites seem to say it should be allowable under permitted development. It wouldn't have running water, so wouldn't have thought it would count as a separate dwelling.

Shouldn't need planning, unless you put in a toilet etc to make it possible to live there. All the companies make it to the max height allowed without planning.

We have one but the previous owners put it in. We don't use it because kids are too young and it is cold and drafty. Needs new windows.

We have one but we don't heat it. It has electrical supply so we could do. We had one which is really used as a pool house but the company sells loads as Garden Rooms. We did not have to get PP. Ours does not have a loo , because we have a nearby gardeners' loo, but it is insulated and has a thatched roof. I like the look of the very modern cedar ones but that is not the style of our house. I think they work really well and I would not put you off. They are not cheap but you need to spend a decent amount if you want it to be used year round.

We have one but we live in Texas so UK planning doesn't really apply. It was built before we bought the house and previous owners used it as a gym but originally we think it was used as a granny / au pair annexe. There is a full shower room with wc, built in cupboard and kitchen with fridge, sink etc (no hob or oven). It is heated and has air con and an attic. We have a TV, dvd player and xbox out there, dh has a rowing machine and there are ikea sofas etc

My point is that we bought our house intending to spend the next 15 years here and our estate agent said it would be a perfect place for teenagers. He reckoned you could either have all the teens at your place or spend your life wondering whose house your own kids were at. Sounds like a great idea to provide a space for teens and it's a good way to increase the value of your property - people love a separate office / teen space / man cave / crafting room / granny annexe / au pair room etc

Thanks for the replies. I've got someone phoning me this afternoon to arrange to give me a quote.

A friend locally did have one built recently which looks great but she's reluctant to tell me who did it (as in whenever I ask who built it she changes the subject). I think she doesn't like the idea of us "copying"

Ours is just being finished and I'm more than happy to recommend garden room designs. Not sure if they cover more than East Anglia though? It's cedar clad and high tech rubber roof. T'is for use as an office so will be heated and has space age insulation apparently. Around £10k but bespoke built to fit on garage foundation, and looks the dogs bits :)

Oh, and includes French doors to garden and separate door from drive, and massive window.

We're in East Anglia What size room will you get for that price? That sounds like the kind of price I'd like to pay!

That does sound good misty

Happy coincidence! It's about 2.5m x 3.4m; it would have cost more if we'd needed a foundation laying, we only needed remedial work on the one we had. We also have electricity fed to the garage already. It's also taken them longer than they thought so they may charge more after this! James and Paul have been great though.

And it falls under permitted development, yes. I think if you add a wc, or anything that could render it a separate dwelling, then you need pp.

We have one of the building from Green Retreats

www.greenretreats.co.uk/

It was £10k, about 6 years ago. Has electricity and we put a fan heater in there. It's our go to place in the summer. They put piled foundations in as part of the cost.

Great, thanks everyone. Looking at a bunch of websites a lot of the models look as though they're made my a third party manufacturer and you're paying for the installation. Wonder whether it would be cheaper to buy a kit and get a local builder to erect it? More hassle though I guess.

I know our frame was made in their workshop and assembled on site then clad etc. For us, with all the electrics, plastering, glazing, flooring etc it would have been a major hassle to project manage ourselves given we can't even finish decorating our bloody bedroom , so we were happy to pay a premium for someone else to do all that.

In our county, we don't need planning permission if you leave 2m on each boundary for 4m dual pitched roof or 1m gap for less than 2.5m height and take less than 50% of the garden. Ours will have a wc and kitchen too. You cannot use it as sleeping accommodation and building regulations have no issues with us putting new drain to connect to the main drains. Electrics need to be part P certified.

It all depends what your budget is and what you want to use it for. We had one built [did need planning permission as it had a pitched roof and didn't have sufficient clearance against all the boundaries]. Not sure if we're allowed to say the name on here or not? But the builder was on The One Show and if you google 'tiny' 'house' and 'uk' you should get through to the associated website which highlights the custom built cabins that the chap also does.