home offices

cooksterman

I was in the same position as yourself. Our budget meant that all the 3 bed houses in our area had small bedrooms and the 3rd was always a box room, to the extent that a single bed wouldn't fit in. In the end we ended up with a two bed Victorian house with large double bedrooms, generous sized rooms, basement and large garden. I've just build a 4m x 3m garden office, which is a log cabin build, very solid, the floor and ceiling are insulated and it will shortly have power and internet connection.

The main benefit for us is work is kept separate from the house, so off to the garden office for work and the house is a work free home. Work stuff is out of the house so the dinning room table can now be used for eating!

If I could have got a 3 bed house with a useable 3rd bedroom that would have been my preference but again you'd then want to use it for a bedroom when friends and family stay so would probably ended up building the garden office anyway.

I've managed to bring mine in for just under £5K which given its a a solid separate building, double glazed doors, two large double glazed skylights is good value in my opinion. I've built it myself from kit and have added the skylights as extra and upgraded the roofing from felt to EPDM which will have a 20 year life span.

I would recommend shopping around and finding a good quality building which meets your needs, and spending money on good quality foundations rather than just paving slabs.

picklepick

Just out of interest at the moment really, but what would a 'shed' office need in order for it to be ok for insurance purposes? Supposing you're going to be keeping office equipment, computer, etc in there.

bouicca21

I've already decided that a 3 bed that consists of two beds plus box room means the box room has to be the guest room, so it has to be big enough take a single bed. Then one of the larger rooms becomes my office and gets a sofa bed if it's big enough.

Hadn't thought about insurance - tbh I'm mainly worried about the point jbainbridge raised - the books in winter. I do have a awful lot of books .. plus of course need the desk, computer and solid internet. I can manage without a phone but can't live without kettle and teapot

planning_officer

And just to clarify - a detached home office will require planning permission. Whilst sheds etc can be permitted development and hence not require planning permission from the Council (subject to complying with several criteria), these permitted development rights only apply to ancillary outbuildings like sheds, greenhouses, etc. An office goes beyond the 'ancillary accommodation' label and there are plenty of appeal decisions to show that they are primary accommodation that cannot be permitted development.

tbs624

I want one - http://www.archipod.com/en-gb/the_pods.php

tbs624

planning_officer wrote: »

And just to clarify - a detached home office will require planning permission. Whilst sheds etc can be permitted development and hence not require planning permission from the Council (subject to complying with several criteria), these permitted development rights only apply to ancillary outbuildings like sheds, greenhouses, etc. An office goes beyond the 'ancillary accommodation' label and there are plenty of appeal decisions to show that they are primary accommodation that cannot be permitted development.

Can you give further info? At what point does an insulated shed- type building become "primary accomodation"?

jamesmorgan

I had one built about 10 years ago. Size is 11m*4m. This is the about the largest that you can build without planning permission (although building regs was required). Planning permission is not normally required if the purpose of the building is 'incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling house'. This would normally exclude anything related to cooking, eating or sleeping. Mine was built on the basis that it was an outdoor play area. It consisted of 2 rooms and a shower-room/toilet. It is fully heated with hot/cold water, internet and phone access. Planning regulations are such that once it has been used for its intended purpose for a period of time (suggest a year) it can then be used for any purpose. Although it could not be used as a separate residential dwelling - ie you could not rent it out.

In terms of appearance it looks more or less as good as it did 10 years ago. You need to treat the pine with Danish Oil every year or two but little other maintenance. We have found it invaluable, and used it for a whole variety of purposes - from an office, to extra space for teenagers (home cinema system, sleepovers) etc. If we hadn't built it we were going to look to move house but stamp duty alone would have been £30K+, so financially it made sense to invest that money in our own property.

One word of warning is that good quality home offices are not cheap. You should budget about £800/m2 for a mid-range one up to £1200/m2 for top-end. I don't know whether we will get our money back on this when we sell, but feel it has paid for itself for the benefits it has given over the past 10 years.

HTH

DVardysShadow

bouicca21 wrote: »

I would need somewhere that would accommodate a large number of books so it has to be dry.

I would suggest that a home office would not be suitable. You will need to keep it permanently heated to a certain level to keep the damp at bay.

planning_officer

tbs624 wrote: »

Can you give further info? At what point does an insulated shed- type building become "primary accomodation"?

|Sorry for the incredibly late response, my fault for not logging in for a while!

The issue is purely the use of the building, not how it's built or what it looks like. Primary accommodation, like a bedroom for example, is normally considered to not be 'ancillary' as it is regarded as primary accommodation, i.e. something you'd normally find inside the main house. So, if someone wanted a detached shed type structure to be used as a bedroom, it would require planning permission, irrespective of its size etc.

missile

bouicca21 wrote: »

.. I do have a awful lot of books .. ..

Do you really need all those books? Have you considered accessing books on the internet.