Does anyone here use a SHED or summer house as a garden office

[Covidcorvid]

I’m desperate for a home office of some sort and have vague plans of either a garden office or converting an existing outbuilding into an office. Grumpy dh reckons both options are too expensive.

He reckons I can make do with a shed/summer house. I’ve said it’ll be far too cold but he reckons you can get ones with slightly thicker walls, floors and insulation. That electricity can be added, etc. And it would be ok to use all year round.

Has anyone tried it? Was it ok? What thickness walls did you go for? Any recommendations of where to get one from?

We have this one (but from a local supplier) www.shedstore.co.uk/palmako-ines-4-2m-x-3-3m-log-cabin-garden-room-44mm with roof and floor insulated. We painted it ourselves with Sadolin Superdec. There's no getting away from it, you need two heaters on the coldest winter days, but we do use it all year. I wouldn't go any cheaper and the posh cedar clad ones are nicer if you have the cash. Being able to concentrate on work and shut the door on it: priceless.

Thank you, did you add the extra insulation yourself? I can’t see an option for it on the website.

I've been pondering the same question, following this thread with interest!

One option I'm considering is buying a log cabin in kit form, which takes thousands off the cost of getting one built for you. A neighbour bought his from Tuin and highly recommended them (both for the product and for the customer service/aftercare) and said the cabin was easy to build: www.tuin.co.uk/Log-Cabins.html
The thicker the timber, the warmer the cabin will be.

I work in a shed. A really basic one with no insulation! Having said that, as it was built on decking I made sure that the floor was really well insulated. I laid a layer of old floorboards followed by lots of old carpet.

It is really great and so worth it just to get peace and quiet. I'm so happy in there! Having said that, there are two obvious problems:

1. Heating
2. Lighting

There is no electricity unless I roll out a cable from the house. We investigated installing electricity, but apparently modern rules about cabling from the house (you have to dig a very deep trench rather than just running it along a wall) made it prohibitively expensive. So, I wear padded, insulated trousers, a hat, fingerless gloves and have a hot water bottle with me all the time. It sounds crazy but it's actually quite cozy. Even with electricity heating is very expensive in uninsulated places. I did look into other heating eg. gas and solar panels. They might be worth pursuing.

Lighting was my biggest issue for a while. Even with large windows natural light isn't enough, especially later in the day in winter. Eventually I discovered there are lots of good options. The best of which is a light which plugs into my laptop USB but there are lots of good battery lights too.

Although my shed is like basic camping and I hardly invested any money in it, it is fine and cosy. I sometimes envy posh especially designed home offices but mine is just fine. Do go ahead with it. If you can't afford a specially built garden office, a shed is a good option and so worth it for the feeling you have escaped from the house.

The place we bought it from installed it with the base and insulation, they would have painted it but we were happy to do that. You can get similar cabins from lots of retailers, they buy them in as kits.

Dh is a very good electrician. Though not a domestic one. So I think technically we’d have to get it signed off, but he’s actually capable of getting electrics out to it. So hopefully a plug in oil filled radiator would be possible.

I’ve just been reading about shoving blocks of sheep wool insulation on the walls and then covering in plywood. How hard can it be? 😆. Measure up, cut to size, screw it on! 👍🤷‍♀️

I’m unsure about the base....I’ve got a week off next month and nothing to do. Maybe I could try laying a patio....or a concrete slab or something? I’m sure there’s a YouTube video on it.

Oh I’ve just discovered plastic bases!

We have a Summer House. It was a bit extra to get it insulated but it is too cold in winter. I am hoping to use it for craft and art as well as enjoying a coffee and a crossword. It depends how much you want to spend. Ours was from a small, family concern but the drawback was we had to wait a long time. They put it up quickly and we could chose the type of windows and doors. It has a small deck at the front. They painted it but we possibly could have done it ourselves.
If your DH is an electrician and you can run that down what about an Everhot. They have just brought out a small one for about £1,250 -£1,500 and you can cook your dinner in it!
People on the Facebook page are loving them.

I have a log cabin with double glazing. power , internet and roof/underfloor insulation. I can work out there all year round unless it's really, really cold. I do have heating out there but then I'm too lazy to walk out there in the cold Luckily, I have a room as an office to use but the cabin means I actually get away from the house and when I finish I leave 'work'

The cabin was from Dunster House. Very pleased with it, and have been from day one. It arrived in kit form. I started with the base late on a Friday and had the walls up to roof level that evening. Needed. hand with the roof purlings on the Saturday and was out there Sunday afternoon chilling with a beer.

The cabin, with the thicker walls, double glazed windows and doors, insulation, roofing endpoint/sealer was just over £2.5k delivered.

endpoint'sealer?

and paint/sealer

We have a Dunster house garden office too, been fantastic and around £2.5k - probably the same one as @billyt

We have an insulated garden office. It’s great, though it does take a bit of heating on really cold days. Our electrician laid a cable from the house and stapled it to the fence and said there was no need for a trench (which we originally thought we’d need) My husband has now linked the heating and lighting to the Alexa so we can say “Alexa set up the garden office” so it heats up while we’re getting ready to go down.

We have a bog standard summer house and run a cable overhead from upstairs flat for electricity. We have wifi too.

Ours is the dunster, too, I think, we had it insulated. We also put cedar shingles on the roof. We have an electric radiator. I put thick curtains up, and layered rugs, and it’s used full time as an office. Even in recent freezing temps, it was fine. Having the heater on a timer is a good idea though.

Ok, looked at Dunster. Looking at 3.4k for one with insulated roof and floor. Over 6k for fully insulated. That’s with the clever base thing but no paint which seemed very expensive compared to tins of the stuff in B&q.

I’d have to get the cheaper one, not fully insulated. Guess I could always add insulation later if needed.

I ordered the paint/sealer with the cabin as it saved me hunting round. I thought as I'm paying a few grand for the cabin I might as well just a dd the sealer. I also have the shingles roofing.

One thing to watch with Dunster. When I first starting looking for a cabin I wanted to just sit back and let someone supply and install it. I've always done my own DIY but for once I was going to step back. To supply and erect the cabin was going to cost £1995! Even then the contractor they used also required a clearance of 1.5m around all elevations. That meant 3m width and depth I don't have. I queried this as he mentioned crash mats for Health and Safety. But if that's their terms then nothing doing to change that.

As I said it didn't take me long to erect. It's a simple matter of knocking the logs together as you build up the walls. I bought a rubber mallet for the purpose. The only mistake I made was getting carried away and didn't grasp that as the logs 'stagger' between walls the board under the left hand window had to be installed above the right and window. Meant I had to take all the logs back off down to underneath the windows to fit the LH board

dh is refusing to pay someone to erect it. I said I'm not sure I can. He went crackers and said he can. So I have visions of it being sat in a pile in the garden for ages!

We went for the thicker walls (45mm) as that meant DG windows and doors.

Their roof insulation comprised large sheets of insulation fixed to external grade chipboard. You then cut these to size and shape. the roof boards are fixed down to the rafters, then the insulation, then the membrane, then the shingles.

The underfloor insulation 'hangs' on little plastic pegs fixed to the joists, keeping it slightly off the base, then your flooring on top.

If you wanted to, you could see if separate insulation sheets then external grade boards are cheaper than their options? the insulation doesn't have to be stuck to the boards, it's just what they supply.

The only thing I needed help with, due to the cabin design we have, was the roof. the roof came with a large metal bracket called a spider. The roof beams then bolted into this. As you had to fit three before lifting it in to place it was not a solo operation. The other beams were fitted afterwards.

It really is simple to erect these. Each log has a cut out at each end. You simply drop one log on top of another working round the walls.

DH added insulation blocks (yellow stuff with silver backing) then plywood panels inside his, on walls, ceiling and floor. Then underlay, carpet and a rug on the floor. He has an oil filled radiator plus an electric heated office chair. Insulated electric cable run underground and signed off when our electrician was here on another job. The shed itself is thicker than a normal shed with interlocking 2cm thick boards for the walls. Think we paid £2k for the concrete base.

He says it's warm enough but I did buy him special warm socks and slippers.

Line the walls with kingspan (other makes are available) then cover with marine ply.
Ive got a shed made of tin. Its ok in the winter but like an oven in summer.

Mine isn’t insulated but I have put carpet down and have an electric radiator. I only need this on for 10 minutes before the whole room feels warm.
We put ours together ourselves (with the help of two teenagers) and it didn’t take long at all.

We have electricity and Wi-fi (independent fuse box installed).

Once you have the base in place they build up pretty quickly. We are normally keen DIY'ers but there's something great in having it arrive in the morning and they hand you the key in by the end of the day.
This is the supplier we used, if you are in the Midlands they might be worth a look. www.logcabinstore.co.uk/Log-cabin-store/