Can I use my Garden Room all year round?

It’s a common dream for many homeowners: a dedicated space in the garden to use as a home office, gym, games room, or a cosy reading nook. But one question we get asked a lot is: can you truly use a garden room all year-round?

The answer is a resounding yes! And here’s why…

Far more than just a fancy shed

Our garden rooms are very different buildings compared to, say, a summer house (shown below), which is a simple timber structure, normally single-glazed, which realistically, is only suitable for warmer days.

If you are thinking of turning a shed into an office or gym, then you’ll soon learn, for a variety of reasons, that using it for long periods of time simply doesn’t work. And that’s before the weather turns and it becomes an outdoor freezer that's very damp inside!

So, how is a garden room different?

Well, a garden room is a small, self contained, super insulated room that can be used all year round. These rooms are often built to standards that rival or even surpass those of traditional extensions.

Our bespoke Garden Rooms, which can be used as gyms, cinemas, offices, studios, craft rooms or anything else you can imagine, are fully insulated from the floor to the roof with high-performance materials. We work with you to design a garden room that makes the most of your available space, creating a beautiful, versatile pod you can enjoy all year round.

How does a garden room stay warm in winter and cool in summer?

Timber kit

We construct all of our garden rooms using our own custom-made timber kit panels. This allows us to build incredibly strong panels for the walls, floor and roof, which sandwich hemp insulation in between. Once the timber kit shell is in place, we wrap it in an insulating, breather membrane, which not only weatherproofs the building but also offers a further layer of insulation.

Insulation

Insulation is arguably the most vital component for all-year comfort. Without proper insulation, your garden room will feel like an oven in summer and a fridge in winter.

Our rooms feature a combination of rigid foam or PIR insulation in the floors and ceiling and hemp in the walls. Hemp is grown in the UK and manufactured in the Scottish Borders. It allows the building to breathe and, unlike conventional insulation materials, it helps tackle climate change by having a net capture of carbon. The thicker the insulation and the higher its R-value (or U-value, which measures heat loss), the better the thermal performance.

A living roof

We fully insulate the roof of our bespoke garden room as standard and then cover it with a single synthetic EPDM rubber membrane cut specifically to the size of your room. A single sheet means no joins or weak spots where water could penetrate. 

We also offer an optional sedum roof. The sedum roof is a blanket of hardy vegetation specifically grown to be virtually maintenance free and resist anything the Scottish weather can throw at it. The Sedum roof brings the dual benefits of attracting pollinating insects and acting as an additional layer of insulation.

Windows and doors

This is where many cheaper garden rooms fall short. Single-glazed windows and ill-fitting doors are a recipe for heat loss in winter and excessive heat gain in summer.

Our windows and doors are UPVC double glazed as standard (the same as you’d have in your home) ensuring excellent thermal insulation. We always insist on a window that opens as adequate ventilation is just as essential in a small space to help with airflow and avoid a buildup of moisture.

We also regularly fit aluminium bi- folding doors to really throw the room open to the outdoors!

Laminate flooring

Over many years of building custom garden rooms across central Scotland, we’ve learned that one of the best floorings of a garden room is the latest generation of Quick-Step laminates, which offer class-leading water resistance and because of the insulation below, ensures no cold toes!

Heat source

To comply with Permitted Development rules, a garden room can’t have a permanent heat source. Therefore, we install plug-in electric radiators. Because of the level of insulation and the double glazing, the room heats up quickly and retains the heat. The slimline radiators feature a programmable thermostat or, with the addition of a smart plug, you can control your heat from your phone.

If you’re looking to pack your room from floor to ceiling with storage, desks, sofas etc. as per the example below, and need to maximise wall space, we also offer ceiling mounted infra red heating panels which, instead of directly heating the air in a room, the panels heat the walls, ceiling and floor evenly which absorbs the heat and gently re-emits the heat back into the room. This is more efficient than conventional heating systems, which waste energy by heating large volumes of air.

Garden room orientation

As part of our consultation with you, we will carefully consider the sun’s path when recommending where to position your garden room. South-facing rooms will benefit from passive solar gain in winter but may require more shading in summer. North-facing rooms will be cooler but less susceptible to overheating.

Window blinds, pergolas with climbing plants, or strategically planted deciduous trees can provide much-needed shade in summer, preventing the room from becoming uncomfortably hot.

Contact us today

Outside In Garden Rooms builds stunning bespoke fully insulated rooms across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Central Scotland. We work with expert landscape architects to ensure you get the garden room of your dreams. Speak to us today to start your journey.