Bespoke Garden Rooms Built For You.

Per sq metre, you can expect to pay in the region of £1000. This means, average prices for a 3m x 3m garden room extension will cost upwards of £9000. Costs vary depending on the materials used, additional trimmings and of course your own post handover ideas also. Compare this to a side extension on a UK semi-detached home, where all you really needed was one extra room, and you are comparing £9-15,000 vs £50,000 + and the longer build time.

So if costs per square metre are the same between extensions and garden rooms, why such a big difference for a finished project?

Well it comes down to ‘dead space’. A side extension requires connecting structurally to the main residence as well as space over and above that additional room you wanted. Just as two homes of equal square footage can feel vastly different in how much livable space one has over another – the final bill for a garden room extension will always come in far cheaper. That’s why they are being built in ever increasing numbers.

According to a Yopa study in 2020, a garden room is estimated to add 5% to the sale price of a property in the UK.

Source: Yopa

October 2020’s house price index (and Rightmove), puts the average property price in the Essex region as being £374,000. With 5% coming in at £18,700, this covers the installation and fit-out of most garden rooms. Certainly it covers garden room extensions that we can build. 

When you consider the value of being able to use your home more fully, tax breaks from using home-space to work from and house price appreciation, a well built garden room is potentially a solid investment to make.

Source: Rightmove

For properties not in a conservation area, you are able to build a garden building seperate from your main home, providing it does not take up more than 50% of the available plot. This can be done without building regulations and planning permission in most cases. This makes a garden room a quick and pain-free option for enhancing your home.

Garden rooms cannot be built in front of your property, and there are rules on the height too. For more accurate information you may wish to check if your home is in a conservation area, but general guidance can be checked at the UK Planning Portal. We talk with our potential customers about the checks they have made, and work with them to ensure that their garden room stays on the right side of the law. 

More info:

Planning Portal

The size of garden room you can have is dependent on where your house is based – conservation or not, and how much available garden space you have. If you are lucky enough to have a large garden, you can go bigger; however for most homeowners, we pride ourselves on a little ingenuity to make your garden work. Providing your garden room does not occupy more than 50% of your non-built land to the side and rear projection of your home, the options are fairly flexible. 

The best garden rooms start on a Pinterest board, or a sheet of paper as a wishlist. Knowing what you need it to achieve helps to ensure you don’t overbuild or face disappointment with an unworkable space. We take pride in the work we do, there is no satisfaction for us to produce something for you that won’t make you ecstatic – if we think what you want isn’t suitable we will say. 

So, in the first instance we advise you make a list of the materials, colours, style and needs that mean something to you. Whether you want to share a mood board, a Pin board or even a sheet of paper with some thoughts, we can work with that. From that we can produce some rough drawings, talk about materials as well as a variety of options for those, so we can bring to life your garden room in the best way at the best price for your budget.

We have in 2021 begun working with a range of foundation options to improve speed of build and a reduction in cost, without any loss in durability. If your wish is a traditional concrete base we are happy to work with that, but will always suggest a range of options that may also work for you too. Foundations for garden rooms are less rigorous in their needs than a conventional house extension, however due to the likely evolving use of homeowner’s garden rooms, we aim to match the same standards. This future proofs your project and helps in any future home sale.

While every project is different, as an estimate, we have been able to remove an existing decking, install foundation supports and build within 4 weeks with a heavy snowfall in the middle of this. That means from initial design sign-off, you could have your new garden space within a month of us arriving on site.

The rules on habitable accommodation vary from region to region, and depend on facilities installed ,as well as time used per year. Many homeowners build fully fitted garden rooms to generate an income on short lets providing it is classed as occasional or guest use. Long term stays require planning permission. The rules here are quite specific and can be checked on the UK Planning Portal. But in theory, you could feasibly live in a garden room.

Our garden rooms feasibly can last for 20+ years if not longer, but this would be with occasional annual or bi-annual care. From cleaning gutters, to checking your roof, fresh coats of paint or sealant – just as any property needs maintenance and care. The properties we build are structurally guaranteed for 10 years.

Conservatories have long been a popular option for a quick solution to increasing the space in your home. However they tend to expand the space of an existing room and serve a great option in those cases. Where they tend to lag is in the extremes of weather for all year round use. From lower temperatures in the winter, to uncomfortable heat in the summer. This is down to the amount of glazing required to meet planning regulations.

Garden rooms offer an entirely different proposal, essentially a separate space away from the home that can be used all year round. Designed and fitted to work as a conventional room. For those who want a private extra room on their property, comparing garden rooms vs conservatory, the outbuilding comes out on top. From the sense of solitude, the removal of yourself from the house to work, or to exercise, we think they win in this need.