Planning a home gym garden room with Warwick Buildings
Headroom, a solid wall for the mirror, the right floor and enough sockets: how to shape a garden gym around the equipment in Warwick Buildings’ online configurator.
A home gym asks more of a garden room than most uses. It needs headroom for overhead work, a floor that will take a loaded rack, air moving on a warm afternoon, sockets where the machines stand, and at least one wall left solid for a mirror or storage. Most of these are fixed when the building is designed, so they are worth settling before it is ordered.
Warwick Buildings, who have made timber garden buildings in Warwickshire since 1988, give each design in their garden room range its own online configurator. Nearly every one of those decisions has its own step, so a buyer can plan the gym around the equipment and see the price before speaking to anyone.
At a glance
- Best suited: the Contemporary, which comes in two heights.
- Headroom: 2.1m or 2.4m inside the Contemporary, and up to 2.6m under the Studio’s exposed ridge.
- Walls: each panel can take a window, a door or be left solid for a mirror or rack.
- Floor and power: plywood ready for rubber flooring, and up to 10 double sockets.
- Company: Warwick Buildings, who design, manufacture and install their garden rooms near Southam, Warwickshire.
More garden gyms →
Size and headroom
The Contemporary is the design Warwick Buildings suggest for a gym, and it comes in two heights, 2.5m or 2.8m, giving 2.1m or 2.4m inside. In the configurator it runs from 2.6m to 7.4m wide and 1.8m to 4.2m deep, which covers everything from a treadmill and a mat to several machines and a weight bench.
For pull-ups or overhead pressing, the Studio goes further. With the taller 3.0m ridge, the ceiling board can be removed to expose the ridge beam, giving 2.6m inside at the highest point. Within 2m of a boundary a building needs to stay at 2.5m to remain under Permitted Development, so the taller options sit better further from the fence.
Windows where you want them, solid walls where you need them
The most useful step for a gym is the layout plan. Each wall is divided into panels, and every panel can be given a window, a door, or left empty. Empty panels give an unbroken wall for a full-length mirror or a squat rack. In the gym above, one long side has been kept solid and mirrored from dado height to ceiling, with the television fixed in front of it, while the windows run along the opposite wall. The 900mm x 500mm vent window is the one Warwick Buildings point to for gyms, as it lets air through while keeping the room private, and an aluminium bi-fold door opens the whole front to the garden in warm weather.
Comfort, floor and power
The buildings are insulated for year-round use, with 50mm as standard and an upgrade to 70mm. A south-facing gym benefits from extra ventilation and blinds between the glass, both configurator options. Air conditioning and heating are not, so they are worth raising when the quote goes in.
The floor is 15mm plywood on joists. It can be finished in one of five laminates or left bare for rubber gym flooring laid straight on top. The room below takes a middle route, with rubber tiles under the rack, bench and dumbbells and laminate running on past a short partition to a desk and sofa, so one building serves as gym, study and somewhere to sit. Three double sockets come as standard, with up to 10 available, which is worth working out against the equipment list, since a treadmill, a bike, a fan and a speaker each want their own point.
Two questions are best asked before ordering: how much weight the floor is designed to take, and which wall lining suits the fixings for a heavy mirror or rack.
Getting a price
Pricing starts on the garden rooms range page at warwickbuildings.co.uk. Each design has its own page there, and each of those opens its own configurator, so the building is chosen first and then shaped. The configurator builds an explorable 3D model as the options are chosen, and a postcode adds delivery to a total that includes VAT and installation. The design is then submitted as a quote, with a comments box for anything the configurator doesn’t cover. The show centre near Southam has 21 buildings on display, which is a good way to check ceiling heights against a piece of equipment.
Learn more about Warwick Buildings
Warwick Buildings design, manufacture and install timber garden rooms, offices and garages from their base in Long Itchington, near Southam, using their own teams. To price a garden gym, choose a design from the garden rooms range at warwickbuildings.co.uk and open its configurator, or call 01926 815757 to talk through a layout with the team.
