Garden room/office
Discussion
I'm looking at options for creating more space at home (recent post re garage conversion) and it was suggested to me that a garden room may do the trick.
Having given this a bit more thought it would seem like a reasonable suggestion and one worthy of further investigation.
There seems to be an endless amount of different types varying from a glorified shed, to a full on insulted, double glazed, all-singing, all-dancing garden office. Mostly these things are classed as permitted development', so no nasty planning complecations.
Anyone installed one of these for use as an office or proper, year-round useable room?
Having given this a bit more thought it would seem like a reasonable suggestion and one worthy of further investigation.
There seems to be an endless amount of different types varying from a glorified shed, to a full on insulted, double glazed, all-singing, all-dancing garden office. Mostly these things are classed as permitted development', so no nasty planning complecations.
Anyone installed one of these for use as an office or proper, year-round useable room?
I work from a timber stable which has been converted to my office. Polystyrene (with a fancy tadename) insualtion between further layer of moisture resitant plasterboard walls and ceilling. In winter a little electric heater is all that is required. In summer the stable door is nice. Cost with electrics and someone else doing the hard work was £1,200.
Many years ago when we had a new little 'un and one already here I HAD to start working from home, being skint and the house being impossible to work in with kids around I bought a fairly simple garden shed, I made a base of slabs on the soil, insulated it with fibreglass held in place with boards, installed electricity by a cable and a phone line. It was waterproof and warm in winter with a small electric heater and very pleasant in the summer with the door open, I used it off and on for a couple of years.
This was about the simplest and cheapest such set up you could get and it worked well for me, so anything beyond this will work too I would guess. The shed itself is still in use about 15 years later having survived a house move, though now stores bikes and other junk, it's never leaked or suffered from damp. I'm not suggesting you use a shed, but that if this worked so well, you shouldn't have any problems with a similar but more upmarket wooden building.
This was about the simplest and cheapest such set up you could get and it worked well for me, so anything beyond this will work too I would guess. The shed itself is still in use about 15 years later having survived a house move, though now stores bikes and other junk, it's never leaked or suffered from damp. I'm not suggesting you use a shed, but that if this worked so well, you shouldn't have any problems with a similar but more upmarket wooden building.
I put one of these up http://www.shedstore.co.uk/itemdetl.php/itemprcd/h...
Then bunged some laminate floor down, put some insulation in the voids in the walls and plaster boarded over them. Found some cheap blinds on ebay and fitted those too. I now use it at least 3 days a week to work from home and it's great. I can chill out at the top of the garden away from the noise in the house, if it gets hot I can open all the doors and it's a very pleasant place to be.
Then bunged some laminate floor down, put some insulation in the voids in the walls and plaster boarded over them. Found some cheap blinds on ebay and fitted those too. I now use it at least 3 days a week to work from home and it's great. I can chill out at the top of the garden away from the noise in the house, if it gets hot I can open all the doors and it's a very pleasant place to be.
Edited by NikB on Monday 6th July 19:21
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