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There has been a good thread here:
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...=garden+office
Am looking at getting a home-office built at the top of the garden. I’ve had a look at some local pre-fab units but these are coming in at around £12k+ (more with groundwork + cedar + extras) and I’m guessing that finding a competent builder locally could reduce the cost by a fair chunk.
This is what I’m looking for:
• 5m x 3.6m wooden structure with overhang roof
• Patio door and corner window
• Cedar cladding on exterior (not at the rear as this won't be visible)
• Plastered walls and ceiling
• Electrics
• Groundwork
Something not a million miles away from this I suppose - https://www.moderngardenrooms.com/su...e-canopy-room/
Any idea what costs would likely be for this please based on:
• Timber
• Cedar cladding (sides and front only)
• Patio door and single window
• Insulation
• Roofing
• Misc - paint / lights / sockets / flooring
• Labour: groundwork / build / electrics / plastering
There has been a good thread here:
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...=garden+office
10 years ago I paid £20k ish including installation but not groundworks for a 9m x 6m wooden garage, lined internally with 20mm marine ply with insulation behind. £3ish of the price was cedar shingles on the roof but the cladding is only softwood.
Add 1k or thereabouts for electrics.
I'm not sure you could have a wooden building plastered, it will move too much and crack the plaster, dry lining is the best you'll get.
Have all four walls in cedar or you'll curse yourself when you are slapping preservative on one wall every three to four years.
I would expect to pay in the region of 20k for a flat roof cabin of those dimensions. This is based a construction of substantial materials and not the thin wood often found on the off-the-shelf variety, along with full wall and floor insulation, electrics and UPVC windows.
I was quoted £41k for a 6m x5m cedar garden room from one of the big players. This excluded electrics running to it.
I then asked a good carpenter to quote for the same and he came in at £11k plus the bifold plus the base. It was likely to be c.£20k via that route so around half price.
My company has built these two. Budget around £15-20k. The bottom one is my office and measures 3x5m excluding the decking.
Wow! Nice outbuildings on those pictures! A lot nicer than the newly-built-old-fashioned ones we see here in back-gardens...
Just thinking: when you use this as an office in the summer, doesn't it get very hot? In other words: do you need an airco for that?
I’ve got a dunster house one I built myself a few years ago. It’s fine in summer with the doors open. I did put extra insulation in the roof which I think keeps it cooler in summer as well as warmer in winter. When it’s really hot a fan is a help! Also electric underfoor heating was definitely worth it for cold days like now.Originally Posted by thieuster
For the OP, approaching 20k is about right for a fully finished job I’d say.
This summer was the first I’ve used mine and it did get very hot, it’s well insulated but there’s a lot of glass and a huge sky light.
I’ve applied reflective film to the glass which helps a good amount. It’s also less bright and more private. A Dyson fan cooled a bit too but I may get an aircon unit next year.
An air con unit is essential. My office went over 30C in the summer when the air con PCB broke.
Although not a home office a few shots of my garden Room I had a builder do.
This was three years in the planning and a lot of thought went in so my thoughts.
I looked at every option on the market from insulated log cabins from the likes of dunster house to to composite insulated panels and also one built of SIPS.
In the end I went for a traditional timber build, we'll insulated including the use of cedral cladding which is more or less maintenance free.
I ended up with a building that is warm with minimal heating and can be used all year round.
But believe me for something right of good quality there is no cheap options!!!
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We built a 30sq.m Pilates Studio around 3 years ago, it was bespoke built to a good spec, it cost £15k, we’ve added A/C and underfloor heating this year at a further £5k.
Thanks for all the advice people.
A local place does what I’m after for about £15k so maybe that isn’t too bad a price. I was thinking I could get it done for about £8k but think I’m living in cloud cuckoo land !!!
A decent garden building will be £20K plus.
My summerhouse was a Dunster House thing. Not a patch on the quality of the one in my old house but it's ok and cost about £3K up and built. It's cold in the winter - I bought a £20 heater. It's hot in the summer - I bought a £20 fan.
Works for me.
Hi
Previous neighbour had a Finnforest cabin put up in 3 days, concrete raft base, including electircs from house to bottom of garden. Based on Scandinavian design so allows for harsh cold, variety of sizes/looks to suit.
Link: http://www.cabinliving.co.uk/range.asp?range=Finnforest
If I hadnt gone for traditional cavity wall construction/pitched slate roof I would have had a Finnforest cabin.
L-K
I’ve been looking at buying similar but to my mind a ‘log cabin’ is made of logs, not planks!
My neighbour just built one for me. Platform was about 5x4m and he reckons cost £1k, then he did the 4x3m shed for £4k. Got a fibreglass flat roof with a big skylight etc. I was shocked at the price but going by this maybe it’s pretty good!
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That’s a bargain I think.
A local place near me does a 3m x 2.4 for £5k and you’re is much larger.
A good builder today costs between 20k and 30k. But depends on the size mostly
Useful stuff.
Doesn’t exactly meet the exam question but I built a tuin log cabin last year for the same purpose and use it as my office 5 days a week.
I went for the ‘Jenny’ model which is 5m x 3.5m, the build quality is fantastic and I was able to put it up with a friend in a day then shingle the roof in another day.
The walls are quite thick and I’ve insulated the roof so while not as good as a lot of the posts above it maintains 18 degrees+ using my electric wall mounted radiator.
All in I’d say it was around £5k, although most of the labour was myself. Probably took me a total of 10 days of my time. If you decide to go that route lmk and I’ll share more details.
Do the larger log cabins i.e. more than 20sqm need to meet building regs and thus require a planning officer to give the nod of approval?
I also vouch for the Tuin cabins...bought a 'Gustav' 5m x 3.8m kit from them back in Sept (approx 4k) ...I built a concrete base myself (approx £600 for 7tons of aggregate and readymix concrete)..I used celotex insulation on the roof and underfloor (another £400) .building the cabin was really easy..2 days effort then an extra day for the shingles. I decided to paint it (Bedec Barn paint..excellent) and my bro in law is a sparkie so he did all the electrics. Its a cracking snug/bar for us and the kids..really pleased.
As the OP asked more than 2 years ago, maybe he's built one by now?
Oh wow had no idea the original post was that long ago - revived from the depths. What did you opt for OP?
Oops, my bad reviving the post. Haven't noticed the last post was 2 years ago. Still, it's interesting what exactly the OP built. I've personally got the 8ft x 40ft shipping container to build a nice room for woodworking. I had nothing to do during the lockdowns, so woodworking was my new hobby throughout 2020. But I didn't have a good place for work, so building a shipping container garden room was my obsession last year. It wasn't difficult to find the container but building a good workshop place. I'm not good enough with electricity and wiring, so I had to hire an electrician to do all the wiring jobs. Had to spend a little more, but it doesn't matter because now I have a good workshop for my hobby.
Last edited by fisher2; 6th January 2022 at 11:19.
Do we know what he opted for?
How do you even find such old posts to revive and as you’re in the US your costs are hardly relevant anyway.
Is that for the height or girth of the builder? And is that dollars or pounds?
Every house and garden is different as are your expectations from other people.
There only meaningful way out of your problem is to get a quote from at least 3 builders.
I’m dreading the shingles on mine think I might be at it longer than a dayit was suppose to turn up in September and arrived late November perfect for the rain!, apart from that it’s another thumbs up for Tuin it went together very easily.
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I converted an old farm building outside toilet 3 years ago that was in danger of collapsing and the total cost was about £10k, everything was completed to modern building specifications, so it’s very warm. It’s not huge, but it’s been absolutely fine in the last 3 years of use. It has all my home office equipment inside, plus I leave a bike permanently on my turbo trainer in the office as well, there’s still plenty of room.
After
Before
Internal - Just before skirting boards went on.
Last edited by neebsta; 5th January 2022 at 10:14.
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