Getting a garden office. What do I need to know?

[GrabbyGabby]

Hiya

Being priced out of a major renovation, going to get a garden office put in. Prices seem to vary wildly. Looking for about 4.5 by 3.5 m, definitely with full installation and wired up with wifi access.

Any recommendations / watchouts would be very welcome.

Ta

…and you can’t connect to your neighbours, as it is a two stage system - one in house/ in router and one where you need it elsewhere. If your external electrical cabling is on same main electrical system, it will work. Even if another fuse board is added to that system.

Crane buildings - ours is fab. Get an ethernet point to the shed. You will use it a lot so get a good one.

Our garden lights keep dying though.

Thank you

We had a small garden room installed by Booths Garden Studios as an office and have been pleased with it. Went up in a day, then a second day for electrician to install electrics and aircon. Due to the position it does get a lot of Sun so needs aircon available when it has been baking in the sun. Snug in the winter and needs little heating. No maintenance required to date. Look isn’t to everyone’s tastes but works well for us.

Just booked in with a local builder. Built to spec, so we can maximise the use of space. Several local recommendations. Have to wait until July, but good to get it sorted.

do a sketch, if you can! I'd love to see your plan

My husband had one built by Sanctum Studios. It’s really lovely, designed how he wanted and all insulated, heated with ASHP, electrics etc. All plastered and painted inside and laminate flooring. Looks super smart. Only thing I think we would have done differently is not faced north as even with glass doors and windows, it can be dark! Ours was built in two or three days from memory.

mumto3boysHE you rent the room from them? What's the company please?

As a poster mentioned above, I've seen Booths Studios highly recommended on Mumsnet (do a thread search). Garden Offices UK | Garden Cabins | Garden Outhouses | Booths Garden Studios

I'm considering a garden studio and after a lot of research they would be my first choice. All garden studios are not equal and theirs are built to last with minimum maintenance.

Yes, Booths look good but the numbers mumto3boysHE mentions are a lot cheaper than them! Hence my curiosity...

Have you got any outhouses? We were going to have a wooden office at the bottom of the garden thinking our old wash house was only single skin. Turns out it isn't and it was much cheaper to have it insulated, wired up, new window and door etc then the quotes we got for a new wooden one. DH seems happy out there, although it did pain me to remove all traces of the old copper and the nail on the wall for the tin bath.

The house my son is buying has a garden room complete with electric heating and water
it’s really nice and was a big reason why my son made the offer
its huge 17ft by 12 ft I think
I can’t seem to add images otherwise i would

I actually went for a cheaper option and it’s been fine. So had a log cabin, with floor and roof insulation but the walls are just thicker than normal shed planks.

it has electricity and bought a WiFi repeater so the WiFi from the house reaches it (long garden). Cost 7k all in.

I use it all year with a 1500w oil filled radiator and it’s fine. The radiator is on a thermostat and doesn’t come on all the time. It’s a small space and it heats up quickly. It’s 3.5mx2.5m. I do wear a coat in winter because I’m tight and would rather wear a coat and have the thermostat turned down a bit.

That’s my sons garden room at the bottom of his garden

We used these people, highly recommended…

https://www.foragarden.com/model-03-4m-x-3m

Friends of ours have a bed that switches into a gym that they recently saw at Grand Designs Live. It's mostly in gym mode like a wall bed when it's up (so not obviously a space to sleep or accommodation) and let down when guests stay round. When the bed is up vertically, it has gym equipment underneath and a fold out rack for strength training (the husband is all over it)
So they have a work space, gym space and sleep space in their garden room. The best use of space I've seen.

We got a local builder to build one a couple of years ago just before the market for them went crazy. Found inspo on Pinterest and he built it from pictures with pergola attached for £19k. We separated ours into 2 rooms. I have the smaller one as a cosy office (cheaper to heat) and the larger is DH's occasional office and gym space. All insulated, own wifi (cabling from house) and lots of electric sockets. Each space has a window.

Hi, would you mind letting me know which company you hired from? Sounds a great solution for me! Thanks

It's Booths. The details are further up the thread.

How's it going OP?

I'm having some issues with Booths - mostly around their 18 month minimum contract as we're only renting here for 12 months. Coming back around to building one on the cheap but can't find a decent builder to do it - particularly the base.

Oooh. So we went with a local builder, build starts in 2 weeks. Means we could afford a higher spec. Will post pics!

Bit late to the party but if you are at all handy it isn’t the hardest thing technically to just build yourself. I recently did ours - about 4.5m x 3m in dimension. Took me 3 months on my own other than having a sparky come in for the electrics due to regs. Total cost in the region of 7k and it is high spec finished with cedar cladding at the front, 100mm PIR insulation, electrics and internet, Philips smart lights, composite decking and aluminium bifold door. Same thing would be in the region of 20-25k from company and there are plenty of videos on YouTube that guide you through step by step how to do it.

Really make sure it’s woodwormed proofed.

mines ruined despite the wood supposedly have been treated.

I have less than zero handy type skills. This stuff i pay for.

The build is not wood, it is composite and has a 20yr guarantee and is maintenance free.

Concrete plinth has been poured and it set.

Woo hoo.