Garden office - rough costs? Do you need planning permission etc

[startingoveragainagain]

I'm looking to downsize and i've found a house that's nearly right. But I think it's probably one room too small. I'd like somewhere to work from home and somewhere to put my running machine.
So I'm thinking if I could add a room like the attached, I could make the house work for me.

If you've put had something built similar, how much did it cost and what did you need to do?

Thank you.

There are loads of threads on here you can dig up that will give you your answer. That one isn’t too dissimilar to the one I built last year which cost around the £10k mark. That was for a 3 x 5m space and very well specced with aluminium bifolds, smart tech, 100mm PIR insulation, cedar cladding etc etc. If going cheap I reckon it would have cost about 6k perhaps all in. I did all the work myself however, and if you’re needing a company to come do it then double that figure at least - same finish as min I’ve seen them around 25-30k, though we’re London.

Planning permission wise as long as you’re keeping under 30 metres squared and / or less than 50% of your garden size then you won’t need planning. You won’t need regs either, but it can’t be a habitable space, so no kitchen and the such. You also need to keep things under 2.5m high if building close to the boundary of your garden. In short, you can pretty much do what you want as long as building a relatively modest sized room - not like the bloke in the news last year who built a bowling alley in his garden….

You may need planning - its depends on the area (conservation area, national park, onto a path) . Also depends on what you want to put in it (toilet etc). Our neighbours had to go for planning 4 times before they got consent and no-one objected.

I had a “log cabin” built in 2021 as it was cheaper than a proper garden office. So thicker wood than a shed, insulation under the roof, double glazing. Cost 7k fully fitted inc the base. It has electricity.

i have my desk in there, a sofa, a bike on a turbo trainer.

I heat it with an oil filled radiator and use it all year round. I don’t actually need the radiator on much or for long, it’s on a thermostat and the space heats up quickly. By the time the sun comes round at midday and heats the room up the radiator stops coming on even in winter.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/outbuildings/planning-permission

Check here to see if it will need PP. It depends on the size, location within the garden, whether the property has been previously extended and the location of the property in terms of Conservation Area, AONB, National Park etc.

If it's a relatively new property (generally 1970s onwards), you will also need to check whether the permitted development rights have been removed when originally built.