Advice for buying summerhouse?

boots_babe

Hi,

Helping someone to look at buying a summerhouse for their garden. It's to be used as an extra living space, with heating and electricity hooked up. Something along the lines of:

http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/log-cabins/billyoh-huntsman-log-cabin

However someone mentioned to me that you can pay a few hundred pounds to have a summehouse pressure treated, meaning it doesn't need to be repainted every year and will last longer. I can't seem to find out much info on this, is this worthwhile?

What should you look out for when buying a summerhouse, what should you avoid? The prices vary so hugely that there must be a difference, but am struggling to figure it out.

Many thanks.

martinsurrey

boots_babe wrote: »

Hi,

Helping someone to look at buying a summerhouse for their garden. It's to be used as an extra living space, with heating and electricity hooked up. Something along the lines of:

http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/log-cabins/billyoh-huntsman-log-cabin

However someone mentioned to me that you can pay a few hundred pounds to have a summehouse pressure treated, meaning it doesn't need to be repainted every year and will last longer. I can't seem to find out much info on this, is this worthwhile?

What should you look out for when buying a summerhouse, what should you avoid? The prices vary so hugely that there must be a difference, but am struggling to figure it out.

Many thanks.

do they want a room in their garden or a glorified shed.


the one you linked is a shed, heating it will be a waste of time and energy as it'll leak heat like a sieve, it'll be freezing in the winter and wont last long without leaking


a proper garden room will be insulated, have moister control layers in it, have a decent roof system, and will cost 10times as much as a shed.

boots_babe

Good question, well in your terms, they are after a glorified shed :-)

Something that will be watertight so they can have their music/TV in there, and can sit in on a nice day to have their own space.

Most definitely not a full 'garden room', if they wanted that it would make more sense to do an extension as it looks to be £10k+ for a proper garden building, so an extension would be a better option!

martinsurrey

boots_babe wrote: »

Good question, well in your terms, they are after a glorified shed :-)

Something that will be watertight so they can have their music/TV in there, and can sit in on a nice day to have their own space.

Most definitely not a full 'garden room', if they wanted that it would make more sense to do an extension as it looks to be £10k+ for a proper garden building, so an extension would be a better option!

You get what you pay for.

Don't forget to factor in the costs of getting electricity to the shed.

One area NOT to skimp on is the roof. Cheap shed roofing will very quickly deteriorate, one storm and the TV will be swimming.

I wouldn't bother with heating, if its too cold outside, it'll be too cold inside, and a panel heater wont do much good in a 19mm thick single skin wall, 11mm single skin roof, wooden shed.

TheCyclingProgrammer

boots_babe wrote: »

Most definitely not a full 'garden room', if they wanted that it would make more sense to do an extension as it looks to be £10k+ for a proper garden building, so an extension would be a better option!

Proper garden rooms are more expensive but probably less than half the price of an extension! A 4x3 insulated garden room will set you back anywhere from £12-16k on average depending on finish and detailing. Some really high end buildings will cost more than this. But I can't imagine any decent sized extension costing less than £30-40k.

If you want to get a summer house like the one you linked to, you do have to accept it literally is a "summer" house. It will be unusable in the winter and some of late Autumn/early Spring. It may get too hot on a really hot summer's day (insulated buildings help keep heat out as well as in).

I would be looking for something with an EPDM roof or heavy duty roofing felt, not shed felt.

Do also bear in mind building regulations - these buildings will not conform to any kind of building regs so they will need to be a certain distance away from the garden boundary and no bigger than a certain size. It will not be suitable for any kind of sleeping accommodation (even occasional guest use).

PasturesNew

£159 is going to be "a very cheap shed" and not the lifestyle they appear to wish to aspire to.

It'll be as warm/cosy and insulated and airtight/watertight as a sieve floating down the road in Texas.

EDIT: Ah, then the price changed to £1100... so flakey webmanship there on their coding part.

It still looks a bit thin/shakey though.

vansboy

Have a look in
http://whatshed.co.uk/corner-summer-house/

I'm not sure the website is quite as subjective as the Which? magazine we all know of, but at least it does have some interesting comments and links worth checking.

I've looked at small 'summer houses', but for a bit
more space, I like the idea of this. It combines what can be considered a 'useable room', plus a good shed area. So the cost of buying a cheap shed and a cheap summer house, isn't representing good value.

http://whatshed.co.uk/5m-x-3m-right-sided-corner-lodge-plus-log-cabin/

and its available in THREE different timber thicknesses, plus the cost of building it for you, varies from one dealer, to another, so take that into consideration, as well.

If you look at the youtube videos, of them being erected, you'll see it's not quite as easy as you might think, as it comes in lots n lots individual pieces of timber, not made up panels, as sheds usually are.

As for treating - they all seem to tell you to do it yourself and regularly, to keep it in good condition.

VB

Furts

boots_babe wrote: »

Hi,

However someone mentioned to me that you can pay a few hundred pounds to have a summehouse pressure treated, meaning it doesn't need to be repainted every year and will last longer. I can't seem to find out much info on this, is this worthwhile?

Many thanks.

Pressure treated timbers are 100% vital for the UK climate. Even then do not expect the cut ends to have been properly treated so do these yourself when the shed is being erected.

I do not understand the comment about not having to be repainted every year - pressure treating timber is a preservative treatment and has nothing to do with a decorative finish. Indeed if the treatment is water based then leaving it unprotected after erection could be storing up problems for the future.

As for a decorative finish ... a problem area. The vast majority of consumers are not prepared to pay for satisfactory staining. Instead they tend to adopt the fencing treatment approach and happily apply a coat every year. There is an alternative approach. My external timber gate was coated with Sadolin Classic 30 years ago and has never needed to be recoated. Coating a summerhouse in this manner will not be cheap, but you are likely to only do it once in your lifetime.

boots_babe

Thanks for all the replies, some useful information there.

I'm not sure about the comment regarding the 'lifestyle being aspired to'? This is just about them having a bit of extra space to relax in occasionally that's all, not trying to aspire to anything.

I will look at the sites and other information provided and pass this on, thank you all!

boots_babe

Furts wrote: »

As for a decorative finish ... a problem area. The vast majority of consumers are not prepared to pay for satisfactory staining. Instead they tend to adopt the fencing treatment approach and happily apply a coat every year. There is an alternative approach. My external timber gate was coated with Sadolin Classic 30 years ago and has never needed to be recoated. Coating a summerhouse in this manner will not be cheap, but you are likely to only do it once in your lifetime.

I've just tried to look up the Sadolin Classic, based on what you've said I expected it to be really expensive but all I can find are what look like normal stains like this one:

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p29448?mkwid=soNWYc7Uz_dc&pcrid=189687010201&pkw=&pmt=&product=29448&gclid=Cj0KCQjw557NBRC9ARIsAHJvVVNya2X0

Is this product you're meaning? Thanks.

getmore4less

The risk of condensation is quite high with a shed with people using it

Electrical items don't tend to survive long.