The weather has turned cold, but you should be as snug in a garden room as any room in your house. The best way to ensure you are warm in your garden room during the coldest winter days is to buy a well insulated model.
Most of the garden rooms featured on this site are as well insulated as a modern house, but you should be aware when examining the market that not all garden rooms marketed as insulated are going to be truly warm in winter, particular culprits are log cabin style garden rooms which only feature a thin layer of insulation in the floor and roof – what about the walls?, the biggest surface area?! These buildings are going to cost a lot to heat, and you’re going to lose a lot of that heat through the un-insulated walls.
You really should be looking for a garden room that has insulation in the floor, walls and roof, in addition any doors and windows should be double glazed. The types of insulation used in garden room construction varies from supplier to supplier – some suppliers use thin layers of foil backed rigid insulation whilst others use fibreglass or thick layers of sheep’s wool insulation, each type of insulation has its merits and which you will opt for will depend on cost, desired wall thickness and how Eco friendly you want your insulation to be.
One way of comparing the thermal performance of different garden rooms is to compare the buildings u-value. U-values are the rate at which heat passes through a material, the u-values of all the materials in a walls makeup i.e. the cladding, insulation, framework etc are added together to make the u-value for the wall, the lower the figure the better performing the structure.
The building regulations set out target u-values for new housing Floors: 0.25w/m2k, Walls: 0.30w/m2k, Roof: 0.20w/m2k and this is a good benchmark for comparing garden room insulation – many garden rooms meet these targets and a few exceed them!
A highly insulated garden room will cost you a bit more than a poorly insulated room but it is money well spent, as it will cost you less to heat and will be a comfortable space to spend your time in winter, another bonus is that it will be cool to use in summer!
You really need to consider insulation when you buy your garden room as it is difficult, expensive and not overly successful adding insulation at a later date.
Check list for buying a warm garden room
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- Buy a garden room with insulation in the floor, walls and roof
- Make sure doors and windows are double glazed
- Ask your supplier about u-values
- Compare different supplier’s u-values, the lower the figure the better
- Insulation is great but remember to specify a heating source too!
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It might seem you don’t have anything to show for your investment in insulation, let’s face it it’s not as flash as bifold doors or a living roof, but it’s an investment you’ll be pleased you’d made for years to come and it will pay for itself in no time!
