Garden Office

[Raspberry10]

DH is now working from home more often and always on conference calls which makes it awkward for the rest of the family as he’s in the dining room next to the kitchen. I’ve been waiting to make a cup of coffee for 3 hours now....

We’re in a very standard 1930s 3 bed semi, so not much space in the house to —shove him— give him an office. So I thought maybe we should get a home office in the garden. We have a long garden and plenty of space.

Has anyone had one put in? What should I watch out for? Should I put a loo and mini kitchenette in? What kind of price are they? I know that’s a bit how long is a piece of string? But would love recommendations and hear about others experiences of installing one.

Marking place.

I am in your husband's position where I used to work in the what was the dining area and our dining was in the conservatory. However, ever since baby arrived, its too open plan so I have a small corner in the box room upstairs which is not ideal.

I am considering a garden office. Our sheds are very old so I'm considering replacing both with a building that can be divided into two rooms with the shed storage on one side.

I think with a toilet and kitchen you might have to look into planning rules as I think it makes it a dwelling. I'm not sure though.

Things you have to consider are good wi-fi, our signal from the house is very weak in the position I want to install the office in. Electrics also have to be considered.

You will need to look at insulation obviously.

Also think about security since it is not attached to the rest of the house. It would depend on what you left in there.

With regards to the WiFi, you could get a mesh system which will extend your WiFi. I have the BT Whole Home in my house. Parental controls are good too. shop.bt.com/products/bt-whole-home-wi-fi-088269-CDXH.html?utm_content=RR00&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2L7jBRCBARIsAPeAsaNMLzCiIIbdavEDzov8sRwMGWhsNiRYR8ajdDwhsrIVdtxF2TFXTpEaAsclEALw_wcB

I am converting our shed into an office. It is well built, and already has the electrics in. It was extended so the extension wil remain the 'shed' shed, the inner part dressed properly.

I'm including:

A mini fridge
A kettle
Insulating the walls
Wall mounted electric heater
A tumble dryer (Ok, that's because there isn't room for it in the kitchen)
A wifi extender
Opening windows

It won't have water or plumbing. The inner shed will lock from the outside.

Putting in a toilet will be the trickiest thing and will add cost and complexity to what is otherwise quite straightforward. The plumbing will probably requirea Saniflo and some ground work.

A toilet and kitchenette should be fine with planning as long as there is no "bedroom" but all of the companies that install them will know how to navigate that. Have a Google of garden room companies in your area and get one over to talk through your options. That would be the best place to start so you know what you want and what might be possible.

We had quotes that ranged between 10k and 30k and in the end we just moved to get the extra space we needed.

Thanks for the answers! Sadly, moving is out of the question at the moment. DD is two years off finishing school and then I suspect we’ll go somewhere completely different in the country.

Good thinking about getting the WiFi and electric to it. We have an ancient shed about 30ft from the house so that probably the best one to tear down and start again, putting a storage shed in somewhere down the end. The base will need extending, so that’s something to factor in. I’ll get some quotes and come back to let you know how we got on.

We had one of these fitted about 4 years ago www.thecedarroomltd.co.uk We've been extremely happy with it. Installation included all electrics and we added a plug in WiFi extender very cheaply. No bathroom facilities because it would have added a lot of expense and potentially required planning permission. It cost us around £12k iirc.

Friends did a DIY version more cheaply by buying a summerhouse and then getting a builder to add insulation and electrics.

We've got a wooden summer house which acts as DH's office. It suits pretty well. WiFi is sorted, electrics installed. He's got oil filled heaters, opening windows.

I think it's quite a good thing that he hasn't got plumbing/toilet etc because he's forced to come into the house and interact with the family during the day, otherwise he wouldn't see a soul during daylight hours and he has a tendency towards low moods when he feels isolated for too long.

We've got a Ring doorbell on the house, so he can see if anyone is at the front door.

He's got a Sonos but I made sure his desk is in front of a window that looks down the garden so that he doesn't get spooked when I pop in to see him!

The only thing I worry about is that there's some expensive equipment in there, and I'm not sure if we'd be fully covered if we had to make an insurance claim. I really should check that out ...

Thanks for the recommendation @reallybadidea and good to know the toilet idea might attract planning I wasn’t sure. I guess then they’d see it as an annex and then it attracts more council tax etc.

@gazelda great idea about the Ring doorbell! Hadn’t thought of that at all. And good point about the insurance that’s something I need to look at as well.

@thecatsthecats Good thinking with the kettle and mini fridge. Also wondering if I can fit a stand up freezer in ours as we have no space for one anywhere. I’ll think about that.

I would speak to your planning department about bathroom facilities and planning permission etc - it might be different for you because we're in a conservation area.

We have been looking at these www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk
As they are fully mobile we can buy it through the business as an asset. We like that they are a metal structure rather than wood. Also a concret base is not needed which for us is great as our garden is quite sloped. They also rent them which is another option we have considered! I have literally spend weeks trawling the internet looking at various options!