Building a small garden room with a toilet to start my own childminding business from my own garden? How much would it cost to build and is it worth it for the job? Also adds value to house.

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Hello, I am considering leaving teaching and starting my own childminding from home through ofsted. I have an upstairs bathroom and it would not be very great so if I can build an outbuilding with a toielt at the back of my garden how much would it cost me ? Can I somehow do it for below £15k ?

You would need to consider if planning permission would be needed, getting the plumbing in place, labour and materials etc. Would it literally just be for the bathroom, or a bigger space for the children, too? The size of the footprint affects costs die to the cost of laying foundations etc. if you are essentially adding an extension. Otherwise is there room to add a cloakroom downstairs within the existing property?

You wouldn’t want to spend all day in the one room with the children though would you? You’d want a kitchen, and a variety of spaces for different activities.

No. I've seen kits for about £13k for a one room plus bathroom but you have to install it.

No we would use the ground floor of the house also, parts of the day.

So you'll use the house, but the garden room for the toilet? How will you manage that with more than one child and would even bother outside the warmest months?

How would that work if you were in the main house and one of the children needed to be taken to the loo?

Doesn’t sound practical to be honest and I doubt you would get one with bathroom, plumbing and heating for that sort of money. Probably money better spent to look at a smaller extension to accommodate a downstairs toilet. Do you have an integral garage you can convert into part toilet/part playroom?

I don’t think that would pass pre-registration visit. If build new school buildings you can’t design it so that pupils have to go outside to access another building for the toilet, so I would assume they would expect you to use the bathroom in the house

But OP would be building a home office, playroom or summer house, not a school. I don't think it's a great plan, but it won't need to pass commercial building requirements.

@Sparklytoe I’m not talking commercial building regulations, but if OP tells OFSTED that is the toilet they will be using I am not sure she would pass for OFSTED registration as children need to go outside to access a toilet

I think the garden room sounds lovely, and I’ve seen it done before for childminding/home tutoring etc, but I agree that it would be better if you could get the downstairs toilet in the main building somehow. Looking at my house, we could convert our garage to do this. Is that an option for you?

Going outside to the garden room for the toilet is probably less convenient than going upstairs to the bathroom tbh.

Sounds like you're trying to build a small classroom with a toilet to run a small school from your garden. Is it really childminding you want to do? Or is it rather teaching in a different environment to a mainstream school? If you're going to all that effort of altering your home, you could consider starting up a Micro School yourself instead.

If it is just childminding you are interested in, I'd find another space within your existing home to put a downstairs loo in.

Will you have enough customers to justify the expense? My sister in law is an experienced childminder and she is struggling due to the new nursery provisions. Have you done your market research?

I wouldn’t choose a childminder where my DC had to go outside in winter to access a toilet. You need to use one in the house.

I think logistically it would be a nightmare - if in the house then you'd have to put shoes on to go outside? Unless you're planning to use upstairs loo for when in the house and then outside loo for when in the garden? Are you building a play room attached to the toilet?

In all honesty I think it would be easier / better to build a small extension toilet. Do you have a under stairs cupboard? Sometimes these can be converted.

We have a garden room which I use as a home office. It’s at the bottom of the garden. I love it but there are a couple of things - when it rains you have to have a plan for getting to and from there with umbrellas and also managing muddy feet. It gets very cold in the winter so you will need timed heating which goes on well before you need it to heat it up and then is on whilst you are using it - because it’s insulated differently from a house the heat doesn’t stay. In the summer (especially if you are SE like me) it gets very, very hot. I saved up for air conditioning which has made it much better, but before that it was so uncomfortable in the hot summers we have been having down south.
We wanted to put in plumbing for a loo but would have had to have planning permission and our neighbours had already complained about our extension plans so we didn’t bother. It is a pain going back and forth!

No garden room will not just be a toilet it would be insulated play area. That way we can spend most our day in the garden and in the playroom. My garden is not the biggest so also very close to the living room and spend part of our day in the living room to have snack and lunch etc. So I’m not sure what you meant?

If your garden isn’t very big, wouldn’t it be better to leave it as it is, or at most putting up a cover so can have a bit sheltered from the weather and use your upstairs bathroom?

It sounds Ok for the summer months, but would you go out there in the winter and when you're in the house, would you need to take all the children, get all their shoes on etc, when one wanted the loo?

We built something similar about 20 years ago & I think it cost about £15K then, but it was built for us & not so many were available then. The groundworks for the electricity supply & sewage can be expensive.
If that's the toilet you are using you'd have to take all the children every time anyone needs the toilet.
Planning permission?
As pp have said, ours in quite cold in winter, which is ok for adults working in there but maybe not do good for children. I think it must lose heat through the floor as it always seems to be our feet that are cold.
We are really pleased with ours, but it is a home office, not a child minding space.

It might sound all good to you but to how many parents would sign up for it if planning permission, costs etc. were all fine enough to make it possible anyway

Have you spoken to your local authority for advice on floor space/children ratios etc? There’s usually lots of help available from the Early Years team when setting up as a childminder. I’d give them a call and get them down to see your plans

So you are in the house having lunch and a child needs to go to the toilet. How do you manage? Take everyone out?

OP, by garden room do you mean a separate building in your garden, or a conservatory type extension attached to your house?