Garden Room

[Baileys20]

Hello,

We currently have a raised patio at the bottom of our garden. It’s about 5.5 m wide x 4.5 m deep and debating whether to remove it and extend our lawn as our garden is only medium in size. Or now beginning to debate whether to have a garden room with bifold doors across. If we go for a garden room would like it to be usable all year. Minimum maintenance - only wood cladding on the front as the sides and rear would not be visible so would want something that requires no maintenance (on the sides and back). Would want it installed and finished internally to look like a proper room (no toilet to be installed and will go for an option that does not involve planning permission). Any suggestions on garden room Companies that could achieve this at a reasonable quality for less than 10K?

No. Not a chance at that spec. Bifold doors will eat into that budget. We have just looked into this and you need £15,000 for any decent spec. (Internal finish, flooring, heating, lighting, electrics, insulation, bifold doors, foundation slab etc) There’s no cheaper alternative to wood that’s maintenance free. You could maybe get something like a wood cabin for less but the spec would not be as high. So less usable all year round.

Less than £10k

www.waltons.co.uk/4m-6m-waltons-insulated-garden-room

Untreated wood, no base and no bifold doors. As I said, not possible.

We used Green Retreats. Got a 4mx3m insulated, treated garden room with electrics and base with a sliding door for about £13,000. It was one of the cheapest and a decent size.

4.5 by 5.5 is huge you're looking at £30,000 for a good quality with electrics and bifolds. The electrics alone will be £2,000 and the bifolds the same. Go smaller and reduce your spec. Like the earlier poster said 4 by 3 is more affordable or like the link a glorified shed with no bifolds.

@SallyLovesCheese

We used Green Retreats. Got a 4mx3m insulated, treated garden room with electrics and base with a sliding door for about £13,000. It was one of the cheapest and a decent size.

Does the Green Retreat Rooms require concrete base or it can be dropped on the grass?

They require a concrete base. We have an order from them ongoing. Their bifold larger doors are over £3000. They are very decent buildings but £10,000 buys a log cabin (as suggested above) but not much else.

We have a friend with one 8x12ft, posh metal one so no maintenance and no need for a base - it just goes on whatever your ground is like, doesnt need to be level but no bifold doors and that was 11k.

It does go up in 2 days though - bet they have a wait list into next year.

@My0My

They require a concrete base. We have an order from them ongoing. Their bifold larger doors are over £3000. They are very decent buildings but £10,000 buys a log cabin (as suggested above) but not much else.

I'm looking for a garden room for a Gym. Will the Green Retreat Garden room be an overkill for my requirement?

linky to my friends one: www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk/

Ours is from Green Retreats too, but you'd need a larger budget. If you're able to increase it, I would 100% recommend them. Their showrooms are fantastic and seeing the installations laid out there made it much easier for us to choose the features we liked. The base is concrete. They did a site survey, came back separately to lay the base and then again to do the build. We got the electrics done ourselves, but arranged blinds and plastering through them. All we had to do was paint it internally.

We got air-con in ours with the idea that we could later use it as an office or gym (it is south facing) in comfort.

No problem using it as a gym. Consider an expensive cooling fan or air con. We went to a showroom too. We are actually getting stables instead as we have lots of acres! Better for adding value for us. But we looked into the garden rooms very carefully.

Thank you to everyone who replied.

For those who have a garden room, do you use it much?

We do actually have one adjacent to our swimming pool. It’s used when we use the pool. We do have quite a big house so don’t really need the extra space.

However I have friends who use the garden rooms year round as offices, gyms and for teenage children to have a sitting room. I would strongly suggest you need to ascribe a definite use to the room. Don’t use it as a store and make sure it can be used year round if your intention is that it’s another room - a house extension. If it’s high quality and not too remote from the house, you will use it if you have a definite need for it.

We use ours as a living space. I purposely haven't put a TV in there as I know that if I did t the DC would take it over.

We got ours last year and we've used it pretty much every day since lockdown. DH and I work in there sometimes, or we read or just chill or sit in there whilst the DC play in the garden and come in and out.

In there is a massive sofa and chair, stool, breakfast bar type table and high stools, a sideboard, coffee table, ladder shelves and a fridge. It is wired by not plumbed. We have blinds as it is a south facing room. I keep drinks and snacks in the fridge and some ice creams in the freezer section.

We put air con/heating in so that it can be used all year round. It also allows us to re-purpose it as a gym or an office. We decided not to plumb it as the space for a loo meant a compromise on the living space, but if I had more space, a higher budget and was doing it again, I would put a loo and sink unit in. That way, we could stay down there for longer without coming back to the house to use the loo. I keep big bottles of water down there so that I can boil the kettle