Garden room or heavy duty log cabin

[Neron]

I work (when allowed) from a room in my home. I've been considering have an external space built, which would give more room and no more patients in my home.

The cabin is 44mm thick so no need for extra insulation unlike the room. The rooms are also coming in at least 4x the cost.

Does anyone have either a GR or a LC? How do you find them please?

When I've looked up log cabins, people seem to say that as there's no proper insulation you can't use them in winter (regardless of thickness - maybe), so the garden rooms do better if you need them year round.

Interested to know people's experiences too as we'd like a garden office and there's at least a 10k difference in costs.

A friend has one of these Arcadia cabins. It's heated all year round and is fab. No idea of cost but she has a large garden and no scope to extend house.

From my research, the 44mm thick cabins do have good feedback regarding working in them all year round. A heater of some kind is needed, but that is also required in the garden room.

I love the look of that Arcadia. Definitely what I had in mind.

Just all coming down to price really, as I also want to install a WC so that rockets the price too

We’re getting a large 18ft x 10ft wooden garage with an insulated roof and will insulate the walls ourselves with breathable wool insulation and boards over the top, we’ll lose a bit of interior space but not much.
Should come in at less than £7k inc. electrics.

I have a 3 x 4 log cabin with 44mm walls and can use it all year round with internet, lighting, heating and power.

It has been a Godsend during Covid

DH has offered to build one, which I know he is capable and it would save money - but it will be around his 12 hour shifts so will take a long while.

I'm glad you have said that Billy. The ones I've been in at outside show rooms have all felt sturdy and warm. Of course that's only been for minutes at a time so has been hard trying to imagine working from one all day most days

We lived in a log cabin for a year, that my exh designed and built. It was very cosy, except for the floor, which wasn’t insulated (it had to comply with one of the caravan and camping acts, be removable in two halves and sit above the ground). However carpet throughout solved this, so if you insulated the floor I think it should be ok.

I have a garden room which is fully insulated. I do put a blow heater on for 5 minutes if it’s really cold and then it stays warm. (I do mainly use it as a gym though)

I have a 44mm thick log cabin with roof and floor insulation plus thick Goliath flooring to make it suitable for year round use. It has good quality double glazing in there too (not shed glass). The 44mm walls are good but the roof and floor, you need the insulation as the cold rises through the floor and goes out through the roof (which aren’t 44mm thick). We do have some plug in radiators to take the chill off on cold days and it soon heats up and maintains the heat quite well. Rugs would also help with insulation but I don’t use them in mine as the floor needs to be wipe clean.

Thank you for the further comments.

Yes I would look to insulate the floor and ceiling. I would have double glazing too. Floor wise it will be something that can be washed daily so no carpet.

I do have a heated mat for my couch, and I'm normally OK when I'm working, just thinking of my patients. I work with all ranges, young to old, general complaints and injuries to people with cancer and medical conditions so want them to be comfortable

@Neron

DH has offered to build one, which I know he is capable and it would save money - but it will be around his 12 hour shifts so will take a long while.

I'm glad you have said that Billy. The ones I've been in at outside show rooms have all felt sturdy and warm. Of course that's only been for minutes at a time so has been hard trying to imagine working from one all day most days

TBH there are massive waiting lists/lead times to get ones built elsewhere. I ordered a very basic gazebo last month and it won't be here till May.

I use mine for a similar purpose, @Neron and find that if I have my 2 plug in oil filled radiators on for about an hour or less, they really heat the room up (into the 20’s when the outside temp is below 10) and that is maintained for hours once the rads are switched off. I think my rads are 2kw each. I’ve got kingspan insulation, not sure of the thickness.

I should say the cabin is a single room 6 x 5 metres, 2.5 metres tall, to give an idea of the space being heated.

We have a log cabin. Insulated floors and double glazing with a sedum roof. It has two offices and a larger room with sofa, table and exercise equipment.

We use it year round, we have two small electric heaters and a larger one for the bigger room. It is lovely and toasty, though in the depths of winter the heating definitely cost at least £3.50 a day. In the winter it seemed to be cooler than many of the garden rooms that colleagues have been working in, though we did put fans in for the hottest days.

Aesthetically I adore the look of it.

We have a 3 x 4m cabin with 44mm walls, double glazing and 50mm of Celotex insulation board in the floor and roof. At the moment we're mostly using it for storage while we have an extension built, but we used it a few times earlier in the winter.

A 2.7kW oil-filled radiator heats it up in no time, and it stays warm for ages before the thermostat turns it back on again.

Thank you all.
I don't want to go ahead with this if it isn't suitable, so I'm really happy for all your replies.

I do have a room to work in, so happy to wait for the cabin. Everywhere I've looked has said long wait times. We're also going to do the base ourselves to save money, so we would have time to get that done

If you want a WC you may need planning permission

I was thinking of a chemical toilet, as I really don't want to be digging up my garden, but also cost. The most someone is with me, is 1.5 hours, and no one has ever asked to use the bathroom.

I feel unsure whether to install something or not, and it does complicate things