What is a Garden Room?

Garden rooms have been growing in popularity over the last few years, as more people come around to the possibilities they create for making the most of your garden space. What goes into a garden room and how is it different from say a summer house or posh shed we hear you ask?

While each of our insulated garden rooms is bespoke to each client, as standard each room contains several high-specification elements. Although they vary in size, each garden room type is made from quality materials. 

Features of a Garden Room

Insulated Garden Rooms - The Key Ingredients

Building from the ground up requires steady, solid foundations. Our garden rooms use ground screws wherever possible, and in other cases where these aren't an option (ie if a building warrant is required for an en suite) we use concrete to ensure lasting support for your garden room. A summer house or shed is usually simply sat on slabs. 

The walls, floor and ceiling are made from our own constructed SIP's (Structural Insulated Panels) - coupled with our insulation board, this ensures these won't deteriorate due to moisture. Each of our insulated garden rooms is wrapped in a fire retardant, insulating foil membrane and black, waterproof breather membrane. Internally we line the entire Room with a vapour barrier for added protection.  These steps help it stay draught-free, and is the last step before we add the final siberian larch cladding. Again, a summer house is a simple single skinned draughty timber building not suited for year-round use. 

Our garden room roof comes with a 20-year guarantee, and each roof is virtually maintenance-free due to the rubber membrane we use. As well as this, we can also include a sedum roof - a layer of plants put on top of the roof. As well as being easily maintained (no watering, mowing or pruning required!) these unique touches really make the room part of the garden. A shed or summer house will have a bitumen roof that can degrade and invariably leaks due to joins in the fabric. 

If a green roof isn't your thing - then how about tonnes of natural light flooding your garden room? We can add roof windows to our rooms too, meaning that all important daylight won't be in short supply. 

As well as an optional roof-light, we use velux windows in our garden rooms. As standard, our insulated garden rooms come with UPVC sliding patio doors, meaning they are secure but easily accessible and provide open aspects to really bring the outside in. Summer houses feature single glazed timber windows which have far lesser insulating properties and will require far more maintenance. 

Bespoke Elements

In addition to the high-quality materials used to make our standard garden rooms, we also offer customisable elements to make sure we fit with your requirements.

When one of our clients approached us to create a garden room for a care home, an accessibility ramp was a necessity. While all of our garden rooms feature low-threshold steps, it's important that all users can get the full benefit from the room. We created a ramp to make sure the room catered to all needs. 

When creating our larger Duo+ rooms we feature more than one space which allows us to add features like an en-suite or a shower room*. 

Using internal sliding doors allows us to make the most of these larger spaces. For our client looking for a room with adjoining garden office, this was the perfect space saver. 

* Please note - should your Garden Room require an ensuite or WC you WILL require a building warrant and possibly planning permission. If you're unsure about what permissions your room would require, visit our FAQs page for more information. You will also need planning permission if you're in a conservation area or listed building. 

If you're ready to make the most of your garden, please contact us for more information about what we can do for you. Alternatively, find us at the Ideal Home Show at the SECC in Glasgow, between 24th - 27th May 2019. We'll be at stand 300, so come and say hi!