Garden Office - Do I need planning permission?

TheCyclingProgrammer

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

Well yes true if you have 10-15K to spend that will buy you a very nice building, just being on a money saving site and all a very comfortable space can be made for a lot less (didn't consider the cost of the electrics to be fair).

Like I said, you could get a cheaper, lower spec building for maybe half the price, for example:

https://www.cranegardenbuildings.co.uk/salthouse-studio

But for a couple of grand it will only be a shed and it won't be comfortable to use all year around. I realise this is MSE, but spending this little on a garden building is a false economy. If you're going to be in there most of the year around, you want something good quality and semi-permanent. A decent spec building may add value to your home. A shed won't.

WeAreGhosts

If you're going for a lower-spec building I really recommend raising it off the ground a little - no more than 30cm or you'd need PP. I had a glorified shed that I used for crafting and raising it off the ground made a real difference to how cold it got in winter. Cheap carpet tiles on the floor helped, too.

Doozergirl

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I don't have a garden office but I do have a barn with loft rooms so I think they're similar.
They are homely rooms with windows, painted walls, pretty beams, nice carpets, lots of power sockets etc. The barn also has it's own furnace, air conditioning and a loo downstairs so it's probably as nice as you could make it for outside offices.

However, I really need the heating and A/C up there. I rarely turn either on for the downstairs part of the barn and I'm down there a lot but upstairs by the roof (as if it was a single floor garden office) the temperature is usually uncomfortable in one direction or the other.

The barn is also full of spiders, other creepy crawlies and a few mice. I keep a few decorations in one of the rooms and every time I go up there, I'm sweeping cobwebs away. With my face usually.

I have a motion/noise activated internet security camera pointing out of one of the rooms' windows and it often gets triggered by something horrid scuttling up the glass and there are some truly creepy noises at night.

There are a lot of barns where I live, being used for offices or artists studios and just like mine, they almost always feel a bit odd and unsettling. I have rarely been in one that didn't feel like some kind of insect ridden shed.

Celotex between the joists. I 'reconverted' a coach house annex as part of a much larger house restoration and it was uninhabitable, in my view, because it was so cold. Much colder than the main house with no heating on. The previous owners had let it out, which was shocking, imo as it couldn't retain any heat at all and you'd get the ride-on lawnmower fumes coming straight through the floor!

We put celotex up in the ceiling of the garage (and stuffed what little loft there was) and it made so much difference upstairs.

EachPenny

Doozergirl wrote: »

Celotex between the joists. I 'reconverted' a coach house annex as part of a much larger house restoration and it was uninhabitable, in my view, because it was so cold. Much colder than the main house with no heating on. The previous owners had let it out, which was shocking, imo as it couldn't retain any heat at all and you'd get the ride-on lawnmower fumes coming straight through the floor!

We put celotex up in the ceiling of the garage (and stuffed what little loft there was) and it made so much difference upstairs.

+1 for Celotex (or similar).

I (re)built a number of sheds/barns/workshops for my brother using plastic coated steel on the roof. We compared the cost of using Celotex as insulation against the cost of getting the sheets lined with anti-condensation material, and went with Celotex (partly due to availability issues).

The Celotex keeps the various buildings cooler during the summer, and makes them tolerably warm during the Winter, even if unheated. A small fan heater is usually enough to quickly bring them up to a comfort temperature if needed.

aj9648

For those that have got a garden office, any chance of putting some pics up? I!!!8217;m looking to get one too.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Some pictures if mine here. The landscaping has matured a bit since then.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1787313571301021&id=540617072637350

aj9648

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

Some pictures if mine here. The landscaping has matured a bit since then.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1787313571301021&id=540617072637350

Thanks

Can I ask how much that was all in with the decorating etc and the landscaping?

TheCyclingProgrammer

aj9648 wrote: »

Thanks

Can I ask how much that was all in with the decorating etc and the landscaping?

The office came to just over £14k all in. I decorated it myself. The flooring and plastering was included in the cost of the office. Probably £15k when accounting for electrician costs, paint, furniture etc.

The landscaping was part of a complete relandscaping of our garden, including clearance, prep, paving and patio, lawn, bed prep, that came to about £18k including landscaper fees, materials, garden designer fees and planting costs. The office was incorporated into the design.