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I am looking to put up a garden room to use as a home office and somewhere to put a turbo trainer. I want to insulate the floor, walls and roof and run electrics and extend the home internet out into it. Will use a small fan heater or oil filled radiator for heating.
The question is do i go for a log cabin type building where the insulation is a sandwich in the walls and electrics have to be surface mounted and internal wall finish is wood or do i go for a more traditional wood framed building where the electrics can be run in the cavity and clad internally with plasterboard or wood panelling. Insulation in the wood framed building would then be rock wool in the cavity. The space allows for a building up to about 12 x 8 feet which should be plenty big enough.
Looking at prices and i can get either building for around the same price and looking for advice as to which will be best please.
It may pay to look into a diesel heater, my stepdad has one in his workshop and it’s really good and saves having high draw electric heating
Are you getting someone to build it for you?
I've heard of the integrated insulation causing issues if there is any weakness at all in the dpm / vapour barrier, so if you go along that route I'd want to make sure it was done well.
Personally I'd go with the wood frame option as I think it would feel more like a "proper" room inside.
I've posted plenty of pics of my Dunster House Coronet. You may want something bigger though. I've got insulated roof and floor. I just went for the thicker walls (non-insulated). It cools down fairly quickly, but heats up quickly too with an oil filled rad - I've got a wi-fi one and keep it on a cycle through winter
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You might need to think about putting an alarm in or taking valuables out at night
I'm currently using our sumer house. It wasn't particularly expensive - just overlap wood, but at the time, we lined it with the foil covered bubble wrap insulation, then ply lined the lot. Electrics are behind the ply panels. It's all been painted. Floor was covered with additional timber.
I did that five years ago, and we've not used it loads, wife had craft stuff in there. I picked up a cheap oil filled radiator that I have on a 7 day timer to heat it during office hours. Front is 3/4 perspex, so we fitted some spare curtains to reduce draft from the doors.
I have a docking station left in the 'shed' and just take the laptop and two monitors out each morning. We don't lock it as it's at the side of the house. Never had anything stolen as you can see there is nothing of value to rob.
Thanks for the replies, i have found out that i live in a conservation area and will have to apply for planning and possibly a building warrant. It’s going to take a bit longer than i thought. I am thinking the timber framed building is the best option and also considering making it myself from scratch. Has anyone made their own “shed” and did it work out much cheaper than buying one ready made.
I've built a c. 5m x 3.5m building from scratch. I didn't go with an off the shelf one because it's used as a gym so needed to be slightly higher inside but also needed a considerably stronger floor and roof construction to take the weight of what was going in it/hanging from it. I sourced loads of stuff from Facebook marketplace (windows, timber, insulation, roof covering) and it look me a long time to build it to be honest (like, a year) but it was at least half the cost of a dunsterhouse equivalent size, and is a better build (if I do say so myself!). Electrics are hidden in the cavity but I wouldn't get too hung up on surface fixed, it can be neat and tidy if it's in conduit.
Has anyone made their own “shed” and did it work out much cheaper than buying one ready made
You'll be able to do it slightly cheaper, but as the poster above says, the big advantage is making it exactly how you want it. I put in a Tuin Riina last year, same as AFKASTR I use a wee oil rad, works pretty well.
I'm for replacing the shed this year, which is 12x8, gonna do a self build and extend the base out to a 16x8 so I can have a wee workout area too. Similarly, I'll be looking on gumtree etc for doors and windows etc.
I did a self-build shed/workshop and have found the roof extension/awning over our deck area has been very useful.
Good for drying bikes off and you can have a trainer set up outside when it's raining.
Makes me wonder why more houses in the UK don't factor in porch/covered area design.
Just need to get myself a rocking chair and a banjo now 😉
Thanks for the replies, i have found out that i live in a conservation area and will have to apply for planning and possibly a building warrant. It’s going to take a bit longer than i thought. I am thinking the timber framed building is the best option and also considering making it myself from scratch. Has anyone made their own “shed” and did it work out much cheaper than buying one ready made.
A few years ago I ran a company and we needed some additional desk-space, so got two of these in (and then another attached on six months later).
Example:
https://www.spring-field.co.uk/building-types/portable-cabins
I've got a 4x3m log cabin, it has double glazed windows and doors, twin skin floor with 50mm Kingspan sandwiched between 16mm board and 16mm T&G, 44mm thick timber walls and a roof that is similar to the floor, with felt and single tiled roof.
On the floor I have the foam sandwiched in foil underlay and bogo laminate from B&Q.
Electrics and internet surface mounted in flat trunking, heating wise I have a Calorgas Cube heater and a little de-humidifier that runs overnight to keep things nice and damp free.
There's loads of space for my corner desk, a cupboard, my youngest on his home school desk and my bike set up permanently on my trainer.
Buy? Surely you'll be hand-crafting something in oak and cedar in just under a month!
Good for drying bikes off and you can have a trainer set up outside when it’s raining.
Makes me wonder why more houses in the UK don’t factor in porch/covered area design.
100% this! So handy, drying washing under them as well!
I've an old bomb shelter, suffers from water running down off concrete roof and into cracks in brickwork, I'm for an oversized roof on it to create a decent sized canopy for those reasons you say too FH.
I built a 5 x 3.5m workshop, using ebay for supplies and youtube for ideas.
I had to move an oil tank, lay a concrete and rebar base, source the wood, build the frame, the walls, the trusses, the roof, a skylight and cedar tiles, the electrics and the internet.
As a software engineer, this was all new to me, but if you are a little bit handy and you have got the time and the weather, some basic tools then its not rocket science. Be aware it takes a lot of time, and a lot of effort though, especially if you want to go at your own pace and do it your own way.
I think I over-engineered mine, but every time I go in there its a source of pleasure that it has never leaked, moved or got damp.
Makes me wonder why more houses in the UK don’t factor in porch/covered area design
It would mean that your shed would require planning permission. For permitted development you cannot have a veranda on an out building