The Garden Room Guide

Garden room, garden office & garden studio buyers guide

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contemporary design

Garden 2 Office

The Scandinavians are well known for the quality of their design and for their timber buildings which have to withstand the extremes of their climate, and these two skills have been combined to create a range of contemporary, modular garden rooms, offices and studios. Garden 2 Office is the exclusive UK supplier and installer of these Swedish modular buildings and can install anything from a mini WorkPod to a fully formed house.

The team from Garden 2 Office suggest 10 reasons why their Scandinavian designs are so good:

THREE TIMES AS GOOD

Garden2office buildings are the only modular buildings on the UK market that fit triple glazing as standard. We don’t buy in budget Upvc frames, our units are built in our own factory, along with the wall blocks. That way we can control the quality, every time.

THE BEST…NATURALLY

Sweden’s goal is to have an oil-free economy within 20 years, so it’s no surprise the building methods and materials have been carefully chosen for their sustainability. For example, our plywood isn’t just any plywood, it’s formaldehyde-free. The wall insulation can be up to 70% recycled material and factory assembly means less site waste. Our buildings travel fewer than 5km on roads before they reach the UK.

ALL YEAR ROUND

If you need a building that you can use all year around, night and day, it has to be well insulated. We use Isover glass wool insulation for our wall systems. This environmentally-friendly product gives us thermal ‘U’ values down to 0.18 (220mm wall units). The benefit is that you stay warm in winter and cool in summer, with exceptionally low heating costs.

SOUNDS GREAT

The combination of triple glazing and thick wall insulation is ideal for stopping sound. If you live near a busy road or railway, your building will reduce noise levels from 80 to 36dB. It works both ways, of course, teenagers with drum kits or a home cinema set-up won’t annoy your neighbours.

FLEXIBLE LIVING

Our housebuilding expertise in Scandinavia means we can make exactly the building you want, give or take 300mm. The wall and window units can be assembled in millions of combinations and sizes. If you need a building up to 12.5m wide, we can help. We’ll also help you design the building you want, rather than try to sell you a building from a range.

SAVE MONEY, GAIN SPACE

There’s never been a more cost effective way of adding extra space to your home or business. Loft conversions and brick extensions mean disturbance to your home and a higher cost. What’s more, a well-built garden room can make your property a lot more saleable in tough times and more valuable in the good times.

DESIGNED FOR YOU

We work with you to design a building to suit your home and garden. We don’t just make one style. Our unique modular system is more flexible than most. We can create a pitched roof garden room with tiled roof and oak cladding for your cottage or a contemporary office in cedar and steel for the urban plot. All have the same fantastic heat-retaining walls.

YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU

Our buildings use a genuinely demountable system. Six screws are used to secure the interlocking wall blocks, making it possible to remove the cladding and pack the building for transport to its new site.

FUTURE PROOF

Many of our clients have included bathrooms, sinks, store rooms and bedroom areas within their buildings. The sturdy walls are strong enough to add partitioning from new or in the future. As your needs change, so your Tomoku Hus can be adapted.

Check out the Garden 2 Office website for more information.

Click on the photos below for a slideshow

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Sanctum Garden Studios

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Sanctum Garden Studios build modern, contemporary studios which would be a fine feature in any garden.

Sanctum Garden Studios have designed their buildings to be maintenance free, this is achieved by choosing high performance materials such as western red cedar for the external cladding, EPDM rubber membrane for the roof and vinyl wrapped UPVC doors and windows.

The garden studios have their own foundation system of mini piles and pre formed ground beams, so other than removing vegetation from the site, no groundwork’s are required before construction starts.

Sanctum Garden Studios use a traditional timber frame system, creating a sandwich of timber, insulation and protective membranes – the wall panels are typically 175mm thick. The framework is highly insulated, between the studwork mineral wool batts are fixed, this type of insulation protects the building from heat loss by convection, over the mineral wool a combined vapour barrier and multi layer reflective foil is fixed, this prevents heat loss by radiation, and it also prevents the garden studio becoming too hot in the summer months.

The garden studios are clad in western red cedar which is one of the best thermally performing timbers available; it also has a natural resistance to moisture and fungal and insect attack. Western red cedar starts out a reddish brown colour but will weather to a silver grey with time.

The garden studios have a modern white interior and commercial grade laminate flooring. The garden studios are pre wired electrically and come with a consumer unit and brushed steel sockets, switches and spotlights.

The flat roof is covered in EPDM rubber membrane; this is a high performance roof covering with a life expectancy in excess of 50 years.

The French doors and windows are black foil wrapped UPVC so no painting is ever needed! The doors and windows have insurance approved multi point locks with chrome fittings as standard, and are glazed with Low E glazed units which are toughened for safety.

Sanctum Garden Studios offer a range of optional extras including double glazed units with built in blinds, folding sliding doors, additional windows, external lighting, air conditioning and under floor hearting.

On site time is as little as a day for small studios, whilst larger garden studios can be completed in four days. Sanctum Garden Studios use their own construction team rather than sub contractors, and all the customer needs to do is instruct an electrician to connect the garden studio to the mains electricity supply.

Prices range from £6,550 for a 1.8m x 2.4m garden studio to £16,850 for a 3.6m x 6m garden studio – these prices are fully inclusive, the only extra is the connection of the electricity to the mains.

So if you are looking for a garden sanctuary, visit the Sanctum Garden Studios website .

Click on the photos below for a slide show.

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Warwick Garden Offices

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Warwick Garden Offices are part of the Warwick Buildings Group which has over 20 years experience producing quality timber buildings.

Whether you are looking for a traditional or contemporary design, bespoke or budget garden office, Warwick Garden Offices have a model to fit the bill.

Their traditional style garden offices have a pitched roof with an asphalt shingle covering which looks like a conventional tiled roof, and features quality doors and windows which are double glazed and have security locks.

The contemporary range has glazed feature walls comprising of opening French doors and fixed sidelights which gives the building a modern feel. The contemporary range of offices can either have a pitched roof or mono pitched roof depending on the style and feel of building required.

If the standard size buildings on offer don’t fit the bill, Warwick Garden Offices are able to offer a bespoke service, this offers customers the opportunity to mix and match features to create their perfect garden office. This bespoke service is particularly useful if you have an awkward site.

Warwick Garden Offices all have a traditional timber framework with treated shiplap forming the external cladding; this type of finish has a 25 year rot resistance. Under the cladding bitumen based breather membrane stops moisture entering the building, 50mm polystyrene insulation is fitted between the framework and the interior is lined with 12mm grooved plywood. The floor of the garden office also has a plywood finish which is fixed over the polystyrene insulation into 38 x 75mm treated joists.

The roof of the garden office is constructed with 9mm plywood forming the internal ceiling, between the rafters, polystyrene insulation is fitted, and on top of this 12mm sterling board (also known as OSB) creates a deck for the roof covering, which takes the form of under felt and asphalt shingles which give the appearance of a tiled roof, and come in a red/brown, clay tile effect and a grey slate effect. The roof is finished with a brown rainwater guttering system.

Warwick Garden Offices come pre wired with consumer unit, 3 lights and 3 sockets as standard but more can be purchased to suite your needs. The electrical system is ready for a qualified electrician to connect to the mains once the building has been installed.

Warwick Garden Offices require the customer to install a 150mm concrete base or heavy duty slabs incorporating a damp proof membrane before installation of the building, which can take as little as one day.

Warwick Garden Offices are a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen which gives a benchmark for quality workmanship. Prices start at £4500 including VAT for a 2.4 x 2.6m office, so are a very affordable way to gain extra space.

For more information visit the Warwick Garden Offices website.

Click on the photos below for a slideshow.

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Garden room of the month – Booths Garden Studios

[caption id="attachment_363" align="alignright" width="300" caption="December's garden room of the month"]December's garden room of the month[/caption]

Each month our editor will choose his favourite garden building, with the aim of highlighting the best in garden room design, build quality and price.

December’s choice is the QC2 VF by Booths Garden Studios.

The QC2 VF is a brand new addition to the Booths Garden Studio range. The building is cleverly designed to maximise inside / outside space – full length glazed panels on three elevations give you the feeling of sitting in the garden whilst enjoying the comforts of sitting inside – particularly appropriate at this time of year!

The QC2 VF is a contemporary design with flyover roof that creates a covered deck area which is ideal for sitting and having a drink in the evening.

You’re going to want to spend your time using and enjoying this building so it’s a bonus that it’s very low maintenance. When you look at the QC2 VF you will assume that it is a painted wooden garden room but it is in fact made from PVC-U and steel products. The corner pillars, decking and fascia boards are all finished in an oak effect PVC-U, whilst the doors and window frames are a dark green. The wall cladding, whilst looking like traditional wooden shiplap is in fact moulded steel. These materials have a life span in excess of 25 years and should not need any more maintenance than soapy water wash down in the interim.

[caption id="attachment_364" align="alignleft" width="297" caption="QC2 VF by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk"]QC2 VF by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk[/caption]

The QC2 VF can be built easily on most sites due to its unique foundation system, so no need for a concrete base!

The financial terms for the QC2 VF are also very attractive – Booths don’t ask for a deposit before delivery, a 12ft x 10ft QC2 VF with 4ft veranda costs £9473.09 and installation takes just 2 days.

For more information visit Booths Garden Studios

Booths Garden Studios

[caption id="attachment_312" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The QC2 garden studio by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk"]The QC2 garden studio by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk[/caption]

Booths Garden Studios build low maintenance garden studios in a number of different designs. All the studios have a contemporary feel with large expanses of floor to ceiling glazing to maximise the view of your garden.

The QC2 studio is a family recent addition to the Booths range and it has been designed as a cost effective garden room solution, and at £7881.53 for a 10ft x 12ft (3050 x 3600mm) studio including VAT it certainly is. This reasonable price is achieved by the choice of materials used and the speed of onsite installation.

Externally the QC2 has pillars and plinths which are made from PVC-U in a light oak colour, which looks like real wood. The doors and window frames are also made from PVC-U but in a holly green colour – these elements have a maintenance free life expectancy of 35 years.

The external wall cladding looks like shiplap boarding but it’s not in fact timber – it’s actually a moulded pre coloured material made by Corus Steel and has a performance guarantee of 25 years, as well as its low maintenance benefits it also adds additional security to the building.

[caption id="attachment_313" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A small QC2 garden studio by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk"]A small QC2 garden studio by www.boothsgardenstudios.co.uk[/caption]

The QC2 is insulated with multiple layers of aluminium airtec foil which is very efficient; in testing the QC2 wall has a u-value of 0.17 which is better than the Building Regulations level.

Internally Booths Studios are finished with a white PVC-u ceiling and the wall has been finished with a white fibreglass wall paper which incorporates a vapour membrane. The floor has oak effect laminate flooring.

The QC2 can be installed on site in one day which is amazingly quick installation, for more details visit the Booths Garden Studios website.

For more photos of Booths Garden Studios visit our Flickr page.

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