A garden room is something you only buy once – well, unless you keep moving and need a garden room at each new house! So, it’s important that you make good decisions – this is why we created The Garden Room Guide, to help you make informed buying decisions.
While how you will use the garden room and what you want from it today will be at the forefront of your mind when you buy, it’s a good idea to think about how you will use the room in the long-term too.
Garden rooms are designed to last for many decades and to remain a valuable asset; it’s a good idea to think about how it will age and its usefulness as your life changes.
Here are some things we urge you to consider:
Ageing – As we say, garden rooms are designed to last for many decades. Consider how a cutting edge design feature that seems cool today will look in years to come. Also consider how the finishes will age, particularly the external cladding. Painted finishes are always going to need more care, but the natural wood finishes will dramatically change appearance as they age, weathering to a silver colour – will this affect how you feel about the appearance of your building?
Use – You might be buying your room for a specific use today, for instance as a home office, but what might it be used for in the future? Choosing a good size room can open up a number of different possibilities. Some people like the option that the room could always be used as a spare bedroom, but you MUST remember that a garden room has to be built to Building Regulation standards for you to ever sleep in the room. If you want to ensure that this option is available, buy a garden room that is Building Regulation compliant.
Technology – Garden rooms come with a good standard electrical system, but audiovisual and data cabling are normally extras. As we become more dependent on technology it would be a good idea to design in the cabling even if you don’t make full use of it today. One tip is to specify a data channel that runs from the house to the garden room. It would be buried underground at the same time as the armoured cable for the electrics. If the channel has a draw wire, any new cabling can be pulled down the channel to the garden room in the future.
Facilities – Adding a toilet, shower room or kitchen area offers several options for the future as you are creating a self-contained living space. Like with electrical work, all plumbing work must meet Building Regulation standards. If you think you might want to use the space as living accommodation you will need to ensure you are fully Planning & Building Regulation compliant when you build. Adding these facilities today will significantly increase your project costs, but it would be a complicated and disruptive job to add them in the future.
