Frequently asked questions
Normally no you don't! Garden rooms normally come under Permitted Development. Have a read of the Outbuildings section on the Planning Portal website for the rules https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/outbuildings/planning-permission
We keep our designs to 2.5m high unless the customer wants to go for permission for a taller structure. If you are 2m or more from the boundary it is possible to go higher without permission.
If you want to use the garden room regularly as sleeping/living accommodation then you really need to get Planning Permission or choose to go for a Certificate of Lawfulness for a caravan/lodge type build to use as Ancillary Accommodation. Our parent company specialises in Lodges and Annexes so we can help there too. We recommend reading up on the topic and speaking to a Planning Consultant about these things.
Give us a call or email for a chat. We are not at all pressuring. We can usually give you a ballpark price making some assumptions without seeing the site. All of our rooms are one-offs so they are all different. If you've seen one that you like on the site or social media, we can let you know roughly how much it was.
Garden room builds can be large structures. The limiting factors are keeping below 30m2 internal floor area so that most Building Regulations don't apply and covering less than half of the area around the property to avoid Planning Permission. Very big spans greater than 4m can become tricky when keeping under 2.5m high.
Officially, no. If you are intending to have someone sleeping in there you should either apply for Planning Permission or have it built in such a way that it could be removed intact and apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness for a caravan to be used as Ancillary Use. We recommend speaking to a local Planning Consultant about these things.
These rooms are really heavily built and designed to last. We prefer to use ground screw foundations. These are metal screw piles that go down 600+mm into the ground. You must be certain that there aren't any services beneath. If you prefer to organise your own concrete pad, then perfect! We would look for approx 150mm of concrete with 6mm steel mesh inside.
Our rooms are heavily built from pressure treated timber with very strong floors. This means that we build most rooms on site rather than at the factory to then be reassembled. A 4x3m sized room usually takes approx 2-3 weeks. Our guys are directly employed by us and are lovely chaps. Lots of customers say they are sad to see them to leave!
Drop us an email or phone call and have a quick chat. We like to come and have a brief visit to see the site and access and to measure up. Once we know what you are looking for, we draw up some 3D ideas for you to consider. When you are happy with the chosen idea we fine tune the details and produce a plan and spec for you to place a deposit on. We book the ground screw installer and once they are in place and we are ready for you, we build your garden room.
Usual terms are 10% deposit, 45% upon starting construction work on site, 45% when complete.
We give you a 10yr structural warranty.
We have a couple of older display rooms (one is 10yrs old!) here at the factory that are used by our teams as break rooms and meeting rooms. We are lucky to have some lovely previous customers, not far from our base, who have offered to let people have a look and a chat. Drop us an email and we can arrange a visit. They are more representative of what we now build and the customers can give you their view on what it was like dealing with us.
We can do super heavy duty sheds and workshops with tough floors and UPVC doors and windows. If you are just looking for a good quality traditional timber shed, we always recommend Toby's Sheds at tobyssheds.co.uk They are a reputable local company who look after their customers.