Building A Composite Garden Room in Borehamwood

The last thing one of our clients wanted to do was to have an unhappy daughter that didn’t have the space to complete her university work, so they contacted us to build an insulated garden office.

Yet many parents have made this mistake, as they may not understand the need for a quiet study space, resulting in more productive results.

He appreciated that having a quiet and secluded workspace would limit his daughter’s number of distractions.

It could be that younger family member or the parents checking if you are hungry and disrupting your train of thought.

But regardless of what it is, a distraction is a distraction, which will most likely delay assignments or reduce the quality of her work.

Initially, he approached builders for quotes to build an extension, but he was surprised to see the cost of a small extension (4m x 3m) was in the region of £55,000, which was almost triple his budget.

While looking for a cheaper alternative (as everyone does), he thought about purchasing a log cabin; however, after doing some quick research, he realised they were not the warmest structures in the world and knew his daughter would complain about the temperature.

As his daughter needed a garden office, to second as an art studio, he wanted to build something comfortable to work in all year round and keep the costs within his budget. He also wanted something that needed no maintenance and would be as warm as a room in his house to ensure a perfect environment to work in.

The solution? A fully insulated composite garden room.

He eventually contacted us as he was recommended to us by a past client of ours for whom we built a similar garden office earlier in the year. He had been in it a few times and appreciated the quality of work but wanted something slightly different.

His instructions were to build a new garden studio that had the environment of an additional room in his home. Still, it needed to be a much cheaper alternative to extending his house and fit in a designated space in his garden.

He had a couple of ideas in mind, and after weighing up the different costs involved, he finally decided to order one of our fully insulated composite garden studios

Now that he had chosen the design of the garden room, he needed to determine how much space they required in their Hertfordshire garden room.

His daughter’s requirements were quite specific, and he was motivated to ensure she had everything she needed in her garden office (what a lovely dad).

After a very detailed design consultation, it was clear that a 4m x 3m studio would give the required space to have both an office and an art studio in one, but he was concerned with the space available in his garden.

Our suggestion was to build to the boundary line with a long-lasting material that would need zero maintenance and could be confidently left with no risk of rot, as well as giving a minimal sacrifice of their existing garden space.

As we showed that it was possible to build to the fence line, we gained him an extra meter of space, and this left our client with more than enough garden to keep his beloved bbq area.

After this discussion between the family members, we went into the finer detail, and he was intrigued to hear about our foundation options, as most people do not know what ground screws are.

Ground Screws are a non-invasive alternative to dated concrete foundations. They are also known as screw pilings, and load-bearing matches traditional concrete.

What is the structural stability of a ground screw? Well, each of our screws can hold circa 300kg of weight, and when putting twenty of these under a garden room that weighs in the region of 2,000kg, we sufficiently beat the stress test.

If you are wondering, our ground screws come in multiple lengths, and depending on your location, soil testing and garden structure, we may need to use larger screws.

We also use ground screws as they are much better for people and the environment. Imagine trying to remove a slab of concrete in the future and the level of non-recyclable waste it creates!

Ground screws are portable, reliable and best of all, they are environmentally friendly and do not erode soil like concrete.

Did you know that concrete can affect the soil pH levels in your garden and damage the fertile layer of the earth, the topsoil? It can reduce the solubility of the minerals in the soil and limit what your plants can absorb.

As you can imagine, bad pH levels and eroding soil isn’t the most appealing thing for people that love their gardens and wildlife.

Enough of the negative effects of concrete! Let’s get on to the build of the garden room.

Now, this is where our client had the big decision of what external cladding colour to use.

We offer a great range of composite colours, possibly one of the largest of all garden room companies.

We ensure our composites are supplied by reputable, like-minded companies and offer clients guarantees on their products.

Our client was unsure whether to build a traditional garden room or use a more contemporary colour structure such as a grey composite cladding. Still, after showing him our grey composite cladding samples and taking him to an almost finished build in Borehamwood, he decided to go ahead with our grey wood effect composite with a traditional but modern look.

Once this was agreed upon, our installation date was booked, and everything was ordered to the site (his garden)!

Upon delivering the materials, our team began work immediately, with the foundations finished within the first day and the main structure erected in under a week; we were flying along.

Internally we fitted multiple double sockets in specific areas to ensure the office was as functional as possible, a wifi booster to send wifi from the house to the garden room, and wifi controlled underfloor heating to ensure the garden room could be pre-heated in the winter.

We also fitted additional high brightness LED downlights to the build that were precisely placed to ensure the best experience when using the art studio.

We installed a bespoke desk, wall to wall shelving, and custom draw units to hold art supplies as part of the fitting.

How long did this garden room in Borehamwood take to build?

From start to finish (once all materials were delivered), the garden room was completed in under 8-days.

What did our client say? He was over the moon, but more importantly, his daughter was so excited to start work in her new garden office/studio that we had to get our electrician on-site on the day to hardwire the electrics to the house and let her get on with her studies.

Before we left, he had to ask one of the most common questions in our industry:

Will a garden room increase my property value?

A 4m x 3m gives you an additional 12 square meters (129 square feet), which can add substantial value to your property price.

We spoke with the sales manager at one of Borehamwood’s leading estate agents (link Simmons Estates). He advised us that since 2019, properties with garden rooms are likely to achieve a significant premium on their sales price.

For example, he showed us two similar size/style/condition houses within two roads of each other, and both had sold within a short timeframe of one another.

The first house sold in Borehamwood did not have an outhouse, which sold in July 2021 for £470,000.

He then showed us a second house in Borehamwood with a garden room, and this property had a sale agreed on it in September 2021 for £530,000, a £60,000 uplift on the other property.

That returned a whopping £42,000 on their garden studio investment.

So, is building a garden room in Borehamwood worth the investment?

Based on the above return, I think so.

We work in a vast range of areas in Hertfordshire, and we are always intrigued to see what local estate agents think of garden rooms.

The most common response from estate agents is that a garden room is a good investment, but it must be built to good quality.

Meaning you can’t just make a shed and hope for a significant return on your investment.

Building high quality, bespoke garden rooms, outhouses and outbuildings are crucial to achieving a great return on your investment.

Garden rooms are an excellent and low-cost way to add all-year-round space to your family home. They have a huge range of uses and are the perfect office retreat.

Since Covid-19, we have seen an enquiry uplift of almost 300% for garden rooms, with so many people working from home and needing a long-term solution to limit distractions, efficiently work and have a multi-purpose space that has as many uses as any other room in your house.

Are you thinking of building a home office space or a bespoke garden room? If you do, contact My Outhouse and talk with one of our designers about pricing structures, the huge range of features we offer. of our outhouses and possibly arrange a consultation.

Alternatively, try our online 3D design tool and design a fully bespoke garden room. Our tool lets you make a large number of changes and will be a good step in seeing if you can get the additional space that you need from a garden room.

A My Outhouse fact:

Our team is made up of experienced carpenters and landscape gardeners. Building anything in gardens is second nature to us.

We don’t really mention this on the website as we are a garden room company, but some of our employees used to work at one of North London’s most premium landscape garden companies.

This means that we are a company that can do practically anything you need in your garden and make it something to envy.