Filed under: CONTACT US @ THE GARDEN ROOM SURVIVAL GUIDE
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Or Phone Lynn Fotheringham on 01524 737999.
It is not common knowledge as to when the first English Garden Room was built at the bottom of an English garden. It might have been in the late 18th century that architect William Kent’s potting shed spurred the interest in an outside retreat. Or perhaps it was the erection of 2.1 million Anderson World War 2 air raid shelters late in 1938?
The Garden Room has it’s place alongside mother nature herself – an abiding existence with so many forms and functions.
Every garden in the world is determined by its own biosphere. In Asia a historic garden room is the ‘pergola’ where foundations, four posts and a tiled or a thatched roof is the convention. So humid is it that in parts of Asia this works perfectly and allows for quick cover during tropical rain.
In contrast the thickly walled, Scandinavian log cabin has played an important role as a garden room, housing the family sauna or as a barbeque room, in Norway and Denmark since the Bronze era. Due to a shear number of Scot’s Pine Trees available it offers a resourceful efficient building material. The USA and the west inherited a great deal of the building processes from Scandinavian regions and as a result it is a very common garden room style throughout the northern hemisphere of the world.
Here in Britain, life in the garden room varies from region to region. Orchard rooms in Kent, Boathouses in Norfolk, Summerhouses in Devon, potting sheds in Yorkshire, Offices in London, holiday cabins in Scotland, work houses in Lincoln and kiosks in Essex. Garden room use changes by terrain, and the needs of the local people.
In Europe the garden room has evolved from a long history of early ‘AD’ pavilions for religious worship and also, from the 13th century, glass structures are used in to cultivate fruit and vegetables.
Later in European history we find a noticeable third reason for a garden room: to demonstrate wealth through the building of a folly. To create an impression within the grounds of their mansions and estates, the gentry of Europe built everything from pineapples to towers and temples to tree houses. In Europe, the garden room has been built in every shape and form.
Mother Nature has also been at work and has engineered the odd garden room of her own. See has created treehouses, nests, caves, dug outs, hives, tunnels, canopys, natural sunshades and grass houses.
Distant childhood memories provide a further twist on garden room dwellings. . As Beatrice Lillies elaborates in her 1934 record – there are “fairies at the bottom of the garden” and often the garden room takes centre stage. Fairytales and cartoons have fantasized of garden room flower pots in ‘The Wombles’; garden room tea pots in ‘Poddington Peas’ and let’s not forget Goldilocks’s experiences in the mysterious garden house or the adventures of The Three Little Pigs!
Beatrice Lillies You Tube video…
Throughout history the garden room has been more than a functional building. It is room for people to find themselves in, to explore their relationship with their own culture, their gods or themselves. It is a place of work, rest, play and worship.
The garden room protects its owner from demons. Used wisely the garden room protects your from extremes of weather, neighbours and intrusion. If you understand the peace and tranquillity of the garden then the garden room is yours to cultivate, and thrive in.
If your garden room is an escape into your own, personal, piece of nature, it makes sense if the structure is built from natural materials so that it blends into it’s unique garden setting.
A garden room should not be made out of plastic and PVC. This is an affront to the natural world and avoids the necessity for all of us to be more environmentally considerate. You can limit the carbon footprint of a new garden building by using locally sourced, natural materials that will automatically make the building blend into the domestic garden environment.
When the Pilgrims landed on the shores of the New World at the beginning of the 1600’s, they faced incredible hardships whilst building settlements and finding the means to survive. Materials that they had brought from Europe were unable to stand the new and harsh environments that the Pilgrims’ found themselves in. A source of help came from the local, indigenous peoples.
In the early days the Native Americans and the Pilgrims enjoyed a more friendly relationship than what came later. The early sharing that occurred between the groups is remembered in the American festival of Thanksgiving. One of the things shared by the Native Americans was the means to survive and build in the hostile American climate through the use of nature.
Western Red Cedar (Thuja Plicata) is the ideal material for roof shingles. It is a durable and waterproof wood that survives the elements for decades. It is the material that Native Americans used to build their canoes, fashioned simply from the logs of Western Red Cedar trees. Able to remain in the water for long periods of time without succumbing to rot, it is a natural and renewable roofing material source that for a sustainable garden room. The Thuja Plicata is also known for the smell of its cedar oil, which it keeps long after it has been cut into shingles, a welcome and soothing aroma in a garden environment.
As a proven example of the Western Red Cedar’s amazing endurance, many Native American Totem Poles have survived to the present day. Another Native American use of the Western Red Cedar’s wood.
It’s a given that anything that can be used to build a boat is going to be a reliable material to survive the elements. Like the Western Red Cedar’s use in Native American canoes, the best material for external wood cladding is Larch. It is a tough and durable wood, famed for its waterproof properties. Traditionally it was used in Europe for building fishing boats and it is still a favourite for yacht building. It lasts for years when used in salt water, one of the most corrosive natural elements on the planet.
As a living tree, the Larch is renowned for fast growth and its resistance to disease. These are properties that remain in the wood when it is harvested. It is extremely resistant to rot, even when in contact with the ground, which will give any structure built with this material an extremely long life. Larch is a fast growing tree, frequently grown in sustainable forests the UK. The British larch is known to be stronger and more durable than its European counterpart. This makes in a more sustainable choice than slow growing oak. Because the tree is grown in Scotland, its transport carbon footprint is small. A natural cladding wood for your garden room.
Comfort is important in the twenty first century garden room. As a nation devoted to home improvements the British are no longer interested in shivering in the garden shed of sizzling in the summerhouse Controlling temperature plays a huge part in comfort in a garden building. A functional garden room must be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Insulation is the key ingredient in a comfortable and sustainable garden room. However, many insulation materials are made from PVC and are not good for the environment. So what can we use that is more environmentally friendly?
The answer to this question is another question – “what is it that keeps people warm?” Answer – “jumpers”. A pure wool jumper is always snugglier than one knitted with man-made materials. Sheep’s wool can work as the perfect eco-friendly insulation. It grows naturally on the back of the sheep and is both sustainable and renewable. There are two major suppliers of sheepswool insulation the UK, helping to reduce carbon foot print of homes or a garden room: Second Nature and Black Mountain Insulation.
Filed under: garden room advantages
What is the best way to keep warm in a garden room , if you want to use it all year round? Electric heaters and air conditioning units in an uninsulated shed or cabin are not the answer. It is environmentally and financially effective to insulate to a very high standard so that you need minimal heating and condensation doesn’t form within the building.
If you avoid the temptation of whole walls of glass or folding glass doors and choose sensibly sized windows, your room won’t overheat in summer or be freezing in winter. The same applies to house extensions with walls full of floor to ceiling windows.
With sensible insulation and well designed glazing you can then easily heat your garden room in the depths of winter with a very small electric heater or a tiny wood-burning stove and can forget about air-conditioning.
Lighting doesn’t have to burn a hole in your electricity bill either. In a well-designed garden office, using Velux roof windows and narrow, double-glazed full-length windows reduces the need for electric light.
Internally, choose naturally plastered walls rather than PVC panels. Flooring can be a 100% wool carpet or a locally sourced wooden floor. Choose natural materials that have been grown or made in the UK and you are reducing the carbon footprint of your building.
Natural materials need less maintenance. Larch cladding does not need any preservative treatment. Cedar shingle roof tiles smell wonderful and don’t ned any maintenance. A felt roof smell industrial and will have to be replaced every five to ten years.
Filed under: Garden Room Theory
If you want to put your office closer than a metre to next door’s fence. No problem if you buy a building regulations standard garden room building.
A garden room with a floor space of less than 30sq metres does not need building regulations if it is built more than a metre from any boundary. [Unless it has a shower room].
Many garden room suppliers want to avoid garden room building regulations because their offices don’t have enough insulation to meet current regulations and have too much glass.
However, a garden room built within a metre of your boundary will need planning permission.
Filed under: garden room advantages
What is more intriguing than having a garden room tucked away from the house? Potential house buyers often have the opinion that a garden room adds more opportunity to the use of their potential real estate purchase.
The price of your house shouldn’t be the only consideration to think about when deciding if you need a garden room. Oh no! Take a look at the below…
1. Is a garden room the best solution for me or would it be more appropriate to extend the house or move? Do I want a temporary, sectional room in the £10,000 to £20,000 price range with a likely lifespan of up to ten + years. Or do I want a permanent garden room in the £20,000 to £40,000 price range built to a high constructional standard with a 60 + year life span?
2. Is it worth spending £10,000 or £20,000 on a sectional building built with cheaper materials, basic finishes and less insulation than you would put in your main house or would this money be better spent on a garage conversion or clever rearrangement of the corner of an existing room to create an office?
3. Do I want to extend my house or shall I choose a permanent garden room? As of November 2007 single storey house extensions are costing a minimum £1,600 + vat per sq metre. This would mean a minimum £32,000 + vat for a 20sq metre extension, plus architects fees, building regulations fees etc. A good quality garden room of the same size would cost you around £25,000 + vat plus around £2,500 + vat for foundation work if you don’t have an existing garage base or similar that can be reused.
From 3. above you will see that a good quality permanent garden room will cost you approximately 70 to 80% of the cost of a single storey extension of the same size. Is this a good investment? for many people it is, because good quality garden room’s produce the same increase in house value as a single storey extension. also if your house is potentially difficult to extend a garden room is an excellent alternative.
One further consideration when choosing between an extension and a garden room is the minimal disruption involved in constructing an room in the garden.
At the moment small house extensions cost anything from £1,600 to £2,000 + vat per square metre for the current building costs of a structure attached to an existing building.
With the world’s increasing concern about climate change, InsideOut garden offices are built to consume less energy and reduce their contribution to global warming. The walls of all our buildings are 200mm thick, ceilings are 310mm thick and floors are 255mm thick. All are filled with double layers of insulation and designed and checked with government approved software to ensure that condensation cannot form within the building or the walls.
We voluntarily insulate all our garden offices to perform better than the current *Government Building Regulation Standards for new homes and public buildings.
The small buildings market is a ‘greenwash’ of pretensions. To maintain very high standards it is best to research the best insulation and low impact materials then combine this with your search for a garden building provider. Don’t trust everything you hear, but trust a little more in mother nature.
For your build take a look at garden room timber windows and doors, alternative garden room insulation like wool and material choices like a garden room made from Larch cladding or a garden room roof made from long lasting cedar shingles.
