Garden room or loft conversion WWYD?

[LATBOTG]

Wise ones. Help me settle this debate!

300m2 garden so any building wouldn’t encroach on outdoor space
4 bed house (3 children)

Need home working space (2 children currently share)

Which would you do?

I'd go for garden Room but it would be more expensive to run and youd have to cross the garden in all weathers if you want to use it then. Adding a loft room if it doesn't detract from the rest of the house would add more value if you're looking to sell.

Garden room would be much cheaper, I think.
No massive 'works' to live with as all would be outside.
Clear boundaries between work space and home.

Loft room
With garden room you'd need the toilet and unless you install services you'd need to treck in and out the house in all weather

On the other hand the garden room is a retreat from the household caios

But I'd go loft room as it's more practical for your household

We have a garden room and it’s nice and warm, we got a properly insulated one with plastered and painted walls and double glazing. The only down side is having to cross the garden in the cold and wet to get to it but it is a very short 20-30 second commute so it’s not too bad! It’s nice coming back in to house for a tea break etc.
We also want loft done but that is ££££.

Could you attach the garden room to the house? Or would it be a separate building? If a separate building, I’d go for the loft extension. If you could do a ground floor extension garden room, I’d do that, though.

Loft, loft, loft.

We did garden room as our loft doesn’t have a high enough roof space.
TBH the garden room is spacious and insulated, with a 10 second commute. No toilet etc, but it’s good to get up and make drinks etc. It also means that when I have my lunch break I can get a real separation between work and home life.

I have a loft room in my house - bought like that. It has all the insulation etc necessary for building regs - was done relatively recently, but it's still freezing in winter and boiling in summer, and all the storage space is lost. Also, unless you're going for a mega speedy job then you'll have reduced headroom in at least part of it.

For these reasons, and with your size of garden, I'd do a garden room. If it's for work then the separation from the main house is a bonus rather than a drawback. You might be able to do some sort of covered walkway to get to it for inclement weather?

Spendy not speedy

We opted for garden room. We couldn’t face the upheaval and mess of a loft conversion and it was a lot cheaper (basically because DP built it himself - to a better standard than I’ve seen many professional ones) and also one of the positive points for us was that it’s separate from the house and involves a walk across the garden: it gives a sense of separation between home and work for him.

No official toilet, but DP installed a urinal and a composting tank for the effluent. He loves it. Everyone who visits thinks it’s hilarious. I pretend it doesn’t exist.

We’re London, and know several people trying to arrange loft conversions and finding there’s a lead time of almost a year (or more), and I think this is the case across much of the UK, so also depends how long you’re willing to wait I suppose.

we have a garden room that came with the house. DH is wfh full time. He used it to work in for 2 years when we had toddlers + nanny in the house because then he'd be well out of their way. Now the kids are at school, he gave up because it was freezing in winter / boiling in summer, and you have to put on outdoor shoes & walk over the v. muddy lawn to get there. now he works in a tiny study in the house but at least it is warm & the coffee is nearby.

So I'd go for the loft if that will be private enough from the rest of the house, or the garden room otherwise.

Loft would cost so much more, but could help towards providing an extra bedroom if that's a consideration.

Also consider how much the stairs to loft would compromise bedroom & landing.

I'm sure there's a reason why you've left this out but a ground floor extension seems the obvious half way house.

Thank you all for your wise council. You’ve give me lots of food for thought.

We already have a ground floor extension so can’t add more there without ending up with dark rooms.
I really don’t want a cold/boiling garden room, that would be miserable, equally don’t want that for a loft either.
Separation of work and home does appeal and we have a lovely garden so would be nice to be “in” it more.
Hadn’t even thought of the benefits an additional bedroom would bring so now need to consider that.
Our sharers are 1.5 and 3.5 so they should be able to stay together for a few more years while we save for either loft or garden room.
Those with garden rooms, are they noticeably expensive to heat? Again I hadn’t considered that. And, how do you manage with children playing in the garden? Ours are outside a lot.

We have a room in the garden. It’s heated and fully functioning as a room. We still don’t use it as much as we should. You will use a third storey loft conversion far more. But it will also cost a lot more. A decent garden room for the comparable space that you’d get in a loft conversion is now about £40k ish. A loft conversion a lot more.

Garden room, so you are fully away from the house & can work in peace. Will be a lot cheaper & much less disruption. We had a garden room built, as we WFH, not a Covid thing, we have WFH for quite a few years. Garden rooms vary enormously, assuming you need to use it all year round you need to have it double skinned, insulated, we have special glass that keeps sun out and heat in. Really happy with ours.