Garden Office

[Ticklemycarpets]

I am thinking of getting a garden office. Does anyone who has one have recommendations or things they wish they'd taken into account?

I used this company to build mine www.amcgardenrooms.co.uk/

Another popular company is www.greenretreats.co.uk/ if you are patient with their waiting list

We used Green Retreats. It's a great room and the service was good. Perhaps not the cheapest, though.

I bought a log cabin from www.leisurebuildings.com/log-cabins/ and built and insulated it myself, them had an electrician run power to it.

This was a fraction of the cost of using a "full service" garden office company, and the end result is perfect for our needs.

You could hire a carpenter or handy person to build it for you and still save money, I'm certain, but do make sure they understand how to build the cabin as there are some pitfalls compared to a shed. Things like needing a completely flat base, or the need to allow for the logs to expand and contract when fixing anything to the walls.

www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk/

We used this company and they were amazing. Whole thing constructed in a day and a half and they have tried to be environmentally friendly in the design and construction.

The space itself is fantastic.

@balloonsintrees is that a half-pipe in your garden? Cool.

@balloonsintrees You mean a day and a half to build and complete it?

Mine took 4 weeks (mon-fri only) from beginning to the end.

We have a booths garden studio too and would highly recommend.

Yes @chukwe the fit is super fast as most of the build is done offsite and they just put it together when they deliver. Ours was only a day I think. Amazing service, long guarantee. Meets building regs, well insulated (great for a home office).

How do people find them as comfortable places to work, especially on hot and cold days in summer/winter? Do you find they get full of spiders?

We have one at the end of our garden. Built by previous owner who used it as an office. I wfh but don't want to work in it when I have a beautiful home.

So husband fitted a bigger door, keeps his motorbikes in their. Not something I woukd build.

We are really pleased with ours, used a local bespoke garden room company, insulated, solar glass, double glazed, data cabled. If you want to use the room all year round it needs to be double skinned & insulated. The firm we used are booked up until Feb, so if it’s something you need, get some quotes as soon of possible and be prepared to wait, but it worth it to get what you want. Good luck OP.

We have one from Green Retreats and are really pleased with it. It is definitely on the pricey side though, there are many other companies that will provide a garden room for less and a local builder/carpenter for even less.

Ours has cedar wood, double glazing, sliding doors, extra windows, outside lighting, blinds, plaster walls and engineered wood floor. Power and air on/heating.

All of those things all to the base cost but make it look and feel really nice.

I had mine built by Rooms Outdoor last year and was fortunate enough to get 20% off due to Covid. I looked at Green Retreats and although they came across great, ultimately they didn’t offer the design I was after.

Rooms Outdoor were fantastic, quality of workmanship and everything was executed faultlessly. They even sent me an expensive bottle of champagne for Christmas. Here’s a photo of my studio.

My husband bought a cabin from Dunster House which he uses as a workshop.
He and his mate laid a decking for it. Then it was delivered in pieces, and he put it up in about a day. It has taken longer to fit the roofing , guttering etc and as a pp we have an electrician coming to connect the power.
Unfortunately I have seen quite a few spiders . Altho maybe some of the more expensive brands are more spider proof?!

We have a log cabin type, there's no getting away from it, it needs quite a good heater in winter. Make sure you run enough electric (more than 13a) and an internet cable, also that you have lighting and a pathway to it. Otherwise it's great, we don't have a space to work in the house so it's really helped us out. I'm not bothered by spiders but it just needs dusting/de cob webbing/vacuuming like any other room.

You’ll need to have heating in there for the cold months. Could be expensive given increase in energy costs.

We got a ours from summerhouse24.co.uk/

Fantastic service from start to finish. We ordered a Barbados to use as a home office, which was assembled and ready to go within two days.A very well built cabin and perfect for our needs.

We had air conditioning installed in ours cost £1k about 4 yrs ago, heats and cools perfectly. As our is a wooden cabin we laid laminate flooring to break up the wood colour and make it easier to keep clean.

After searching for a long time we went with e-spaces.co.uk
I made the mistake of buying a £5k log cabin (paid £1k extra for base)during lockdown and it simply wasn't fit for purpose.
These guys charged £9k for delivery and installation to Hertfordshire. For this I got a 3.2m x 2.2m office with the same type of double glazed door and windows you would get in a house. It has all in-built electric sockets, lights and even a heater that has an app control! It was insulated with 'real' insulation in the roof and walls and had insulation within the floor. It is so snug and dry...
They even use a metal type tile for the roofing rather than the felt paper you see on sheds. If you wanted an all-in-one type deal I would recommend these guys. I've seen cheaper options, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Anyone got a twin skin one? I upgraded to a twin skin one thinking it would be warmer/better. Just reading a few stories about the two skins expanding and contracting differently (since one skin is exposed to cold/heat more than the other) and this can cause gaps to appear.

Just wondering if anyone had experienced this or anything to remedy it?

It's due to be installed in next couple of weeks.