Crane Garden Buildings are one of the leading names in timber garden buildings. They are known for their range of high-quality sheds, summerhouses and garages. What interests us, though, are their three ranges of insulated garden room.
Crane Garden Buildings have been designing and manufacturing timber garden buildings for more than 40 years at their Norfolk HQ. Not many garden room companies can claim such history, and it is easy to see how their years of experience has fed into the design and specification of their garden rooms.
Three garden room ranges
The Crane Garden Buildings team are regular exhibitors at the Chelsea Flower Show, and over the years, we have seen each of their three garden room ranges up close. While many of the design features are considered more traditional than we see in the Cedar clad rooms we feature, they have been combined to create stylish buildings with a contemporary feel.
Signature Garden Room
Pavilion Garden Room
If you like the idea of a covered seating area at the front of your garden room, then the Pavilion Range is for you. Buildings less than 3.6m wide have a 1.2m deep veranda, while buildings wider than 3.6m feature a 1.8m deep veranda.
Like the Signature Range, you can choose between slate effect tiles, terracotta effect tiles, and Cedar shingles for the roof covering.
Apex Garden Room
As the name suggests, the Apex Range features an apex roofline. What is interesting is that the pitch of the roof can be specified so that it is Permitted Development friendly.
The three roof coverings already described, can be used on the Apex Range.
Each of the three pitched roof designs creates a room with a vaulted ceiling. This offers a much more spacious, airy feel than garden rooms which have a mono-pitch roof.
Scandinavian Redwood core structure
All Crane Garden Buildings are constructed using FSC certified Scandinavian Redwood. Sourced from northern Sweeden, the cool climate results in a slow-growing timber which has a close grain, dense structure and is dimensionally stable.
Redwood timbers are used for the traditional timber framework and the exterior and interior cladding and windows. The doors are crafted in the Crane workshops using Hemlock, which is particularly suitable for doors.
Externally you can choose from the standard shiplap cladding profile or choose a weatherboard profile, which is slightly more rustic in style.
The external cladding, doors and windows are painted in the shade of your choice from the Valtti and Farrow & Ball colour palettes.
Talking of the windows and doors, you can choose from either plain glazing, leaded glazing or Georgian style glazing. Your choice of glazing pattern will have a significant effect on the style of the garden room.
Inside, the walls and ceiling are clad with 15mm thick matchboard, creating a shaker style, panelled feel. You can choose to leave the boards natural or have them painted. Often people choose to paint the walls while leaving the ceiling natural, which has a lovely feel.
Installed by the Crane team
Your garden room will be crafted in the Crane Garden Buildings workshops in Norfolk. It will then be delivered to site and installed by Crane Garden Buildings own installation team. Not all garden room companies have in-house installation teams; instead, they subcontract the build to a local company. There is, however, a lot to be said for working with one company throughout the project.
Typically the lead time on garden rooms is 8 to 12 weeks with the on-site build time averaging at 1 to 3 days.
See before you buy or design your garden room online
There is the opportunity to see a Crane garden room before you buy. As well as exhibiting at the big RHS shows, they have eight-show sites dotted around the country.
Each of the garden room ranges links through to a nifty tool that allows you to design your garden room online and get a quick quote for it. Try it out!
