Garden office

[Mydogisamassivetwat]

Anyone have any recommendations for decent garden offices that don’t cost the earth?

Dh works from home and current office is in the box bedroom, but we would like that room back.

I don’t know where to start really, just thought I’d try and get some ideas from people who alreasy have one!

we have the room, currently have an 8x10 dilapidated shed in the garden that we are getting rid of when the weather is less grotty.

Having some building work done on the house in the summer so would be a great time to do it all together.

We have a 7x3 one that we built ourselves. It's a log cabin. The basic shell was about 4.5k and we spent another 3k ish on insulating, stud walls and electrics. That was last year, got the shell on a winter sale/black Friday deal.

We love it and it's fantastic as an office/shed/ chill out space.

I love these!

have you any experience of them?

I’ve looked at these and similar. But with anything prebuilt, the trouble is getting it into the garden. We don’t even have side or rear access. It would have to be craned over the garage/utility which is about 30ft long, with the added danger of it hitting our house or next door.

We're due to get one in a couple of months. I will report back!

My house looks very similar in footprint to yours- 1930s semi, and we have done a lot of the work you are considering- loft conversion and knock through lounge and kitchen.
We both WFH and need two office spaces; one is the box room and the other is in the front room / snug space with a desk built into one of the alcoves. It's not ideal but was the best we could come up with and it works well- I use two screens and a surface pro. A local carpenter did it for us and it cost £350 so might be worth considering.

Buy a standard shed (bigger than u think u need , then get it insulated floor to etc, we added fab roof to , love mine
so much cheaper did have double glazed windows and door it’s fabulous 1/4 the cost of home office

Thank you! They look amazing…how is it going to be got into your garden?

We have side access so they are going to come and crane it in. They asked for photos of the site before confirming the order and talk through any obstructions (we have a cable that runs above our garden that they are going to work around).

I’m in a terrace with only back access through alley - yes I’m guessing they check they can get it in first!

That’s just a glorified garden shed, not a proper garden room.

Timely thread OP thanks, as I'm also in need of a cheap garden office. I love the look of the Hully, and the largest fits the space I have perfectly and is just about within budget too. Got all excited for a minute but logistically can't get past the shape precluding wall shelving. I'd run out of space very quickly if everything had to be ground level...

Has anyone seen anything else that sort of size and price (ie deep rather than wide)?

@TheOnlyAletheia and most of it seems to be the exposed canopy area.

It actually makes £4.5k seem quite extortionate when you consider how nothing is included aside from the timber

I've run our family business from home for over 20 years (from a small desk in the dining room). I've recently taken the plunge and put in a garden office but I rent it! (£165 + VAT per month, plus about £1000 for them to install it plus electrics, air con etc). Because it's our business I can claim the rent through the business but if you work for a company you wouldn't be able to do that and obviously it wouldn't add value to your home.

It's a company that was on Dragon's Den. It's brill. For the rentals, they do offices only. Mine is 16' by 8' but they do 8x8, 12x8 and 20x8. It's insulated so needs very little heating during the winter but we've had to add solar film to the inside of the windows to reduce the heat from the sun (last summer's heat was unbearable) and we've added air con.

I already had electric down the garden (about 100 metres from the house) so that was easy and I bought an external internet cable and ran that from my house router down to a box in the office. We have internet VOIP phones, computers, 2 desks and enough space for sundries like printers, paperwork etc

It is honestly the best thing we've done business-wise. I can now separate work and home, or even disappear down there for a bit of peace and quiet.

The company does sell units as garden rooms etc well and can add any number of things to it like bathrooms and kitchens. And it's all modular so they can fit them in the smallest of spaces.

I love mine!

can you post a pic?!

My office 😁

Oh my gosh that’s looks splendid and more than I coudo hope for!

is this the rented one?

I have a glorified log cabin I guess. I’ll link below. So not as fancy as some but it has insulation in the roof and I think the floor. It has electricity. In the winter I use an oil filled radiator and it warms up fast and gets toasty. It has thick walls which I think helps. 44mm makes a big difference compared to the 28mm one which was linked earlier

https://summerhousesunlimited.co.uk/product/alex-3-0m-x-2-5m-44mm-log-cabin-under-2-5m/

On the contrary I like this and would fit in with my garden style better

Did you put the electricity in?

I would only need for seeing therapy clients so coudo work for me - sporadic use

Yes. I hired an electrician separately and he put an armoured cable down to the end of the garden. He installed a little circuit breaker type box in the office, installed lights and plug sockets. Cost £700 extra. He had to do something technical in the house, I want to say add another ring main but might be wrong

Yes it’s a ring I believes one other question, did it come painted?

Yes, rented

No, they offered to paint it (for a cost). but I decided I could manage that.

It’s nice inside, I’ve got quite a big desk, a small book case, a sofa and a bike on a turbo trainer. 😁. My monitor is a smart screen so I can watch Netflix, etc in there so it doubles as a little snug in the evenings.

I’m amazed it’s so warm!