About to drop £££ on a garden office, what mistakes to avoid?

[Buddy Bradley]

After almost two-and-a-half years of working from home in what is effectively the entrance hall to the house, with interruptions from the Amazon man and Mrs BB wandering back and forth doing housework, I've decided I fancy a garden office pod as a dedicated work space. Having looked around at the options, from "basically a fancy shed" through to expensive steel-and-glass architecture, it seems like the higher end option is going to be best for offering decent insulation and construction to keep it warm in winter and cool in the summer. I found a company that offers units with feet so we don't have to spend a lot on getting a concrete base laid, and assuming the internet-over-powerline system works as intended it should suit my needs pretty well.

Anyone with experience of garden office working have any words of wisdom, or recommendations for what to avoid/look out for?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

found a company that offers units with feet

i thought for a moment you meant they had followed the rees-moggy anti-metric measures line...



as for the original question, no idea, although might just think about it when moving house happens

 

[contadino]

No personal experience but a colleague at the place I've just left had opted for the glass front summer house type garden office and was moaning that it was too cold with the glass doors open and like a sauna when they were shut. I guess that means his wasn't sufficiently insulated.

 

[souljacker]

Insulation is v important. Mine was stupid hot in the summer and freezing in the winter.

 

[platinumsage]

This might sound obvious but you won’t “keep it warm” in winter unless it has a heating system with sufficient kWh output for the volume of air and degree of insulation in the walls, floor and ceiling.

 

[Elpenor]

Someone has one from their posts on here IIRC - can’t remember who!

 

[souljacker]

This might sound obvious but you won’t “keep it warm” in winter unless it has a heating system with sufficient kWh output for the volume of air and degree of insulation in the walls, floor and ceiling.

I had a little heater that warmed it up quickly but it was freezing before you put that on. The heat in the summer was worse because even opening the doors and windows and getting a fan running couldn't deal with it.

 

[TopCat]

Fit an air extraction and heating system. Get controllers you can operate from the house. Warm it or cool it before you commute across the garden.

 

[A380]

Insulation, insulation insulaltion.

In winter you are equivalent of a 3KW fire.

 

[danny la rouge]

Get a coffee machine.

 

[BristolEcho]

Guess safety is important to if you're going to have gear there. That was my first thought.

 

[BristolEcho]

Get a coffee machine.

Ah yes I was misguided. This should have been my first thought.

 

[keybored]

assuming the internet-over-powerline system works as intended

If you need to run power to the building you may as well run an external ethernet cable at the same time. It'll be more costly to remedy it later if you find out the powerline units don't work well.

 

[Glitter]

Depending how long your commute is make sure you have a kettle and brewing doings in there. In winter if it’s nicely heated and you have to trek back to the house for a brew you’ll be fuming.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Depending how long your commute is make sure you have a kettle and brewing doings in there. In winter if it’s nicely heated and you have to trek back to the house for a brew you’ll be fuming.

and a pisspot?

 

[Elpenor]

On a serious note if you’ve got room for a sofa or comfy chair perhaps you can use that for some calls / work that doesn’t involve sitting upright at a desk.

 

[JimW]

and a pisspot?

The garden's right there!

 

[alex_]

If you need to run power to the building you may as well run an external ethernet cable at the same time. It'll be more costly to remedy it later if you find out the powerline units don't work well.

This times 10

 

[haushoch]

We had a garden studio built out for us by one of those companies that built the garden rooms out of SIP panels, these are "structurally insulated panels", our studio sits on feet as well, and the floor, walls and roof are all made from the panels. The walls are then clad in cedar. There's a glazed double door back into the garden. We also opted for a green roof, this is just a sedum mat which gets rolled out over the flat roof. The sedum mat looks really beautiful. The studio is connected to our house via an armoured cable to get power out there. We asked for an air con unit for heat and cooling, which works well. Working in there is very comfortable in both winter and summer. The company we used did deliver a great product, and built the whole thing really quickly. There are height restrictions (2.5m from the ground level) due to permitted development rules, which makes the internal ceiling height a bit low, but that's ok. You need planning if you're in a conservation area. Overall we're very happy. Do not believe any of the companies that claim that they can offer a sound proof room using SIP panels though. That's a big fat lie.

 

[bimble]

if you run water to it i want to know about that process please! (new pipes across a garden).

 

[Buddy Bradley]

If you need to run power to the building you may as well run an external ethernet cable at the same time. It'll be more costly to remedy it later if you find out the powerline units don't work well.

Yeah, I am concerned about that - I've used powerline units in the house before, and they work 99% of the time but that 1% is super annoying. I don't really know what the logistics are of extending the ethernet though, since our router is right at the far end of the house from the back garden where the office would be - do I just need like a 40m cat5 cable and drill holes through all the walls in between, or is there a more sensible way of doing it?

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Someone has one from their posts on here IIRC - can’t remember who!

Might be ATOMIC SUPLEX judging by a search for relevant terms.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Depending how long your commute is make sure you have a kettle and brewing doings in there. In winter if it’s nicely heated and you have to trek back to the house for a brew you’ll be fuming.

Indeed, I already drink my tea black so adding a kettle and teabags is a definite benefit.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

On a serious note if you’ve got room for a sofa or comfy chair perhaps you can use that for some calls / work that doesn’t involve sitting upright at a desk.

I was looking at the 8x12 foot option, which is big enough for a desk at one end and a sofa and coffee table at the other end. Means we can sit out there and watch Netflix in the evenings if necessary too.

 

[what]

I had one years ago. The thing was a full supply and install package. They came one week and put in loads of mini piles (only took a day). Had to wait a week or 2 for the piles to be ready. They then came back and had the room constructed in a day or 2. Power I had got arranged earlier but they connected up. Used power lines which were no problem for internet.
The room was the SIP panels mentioned above and all glazing was double glazed.
The heating we did with an oiled filled rad which was fine. Dont think at that time anyone offered heating included.
The only issue I had was very quickly local foxes got under. Had to pay for a brick wall around the base which we went down a foot or 2 to deter any fox who wanted to dig in.
Was a great place to work.

 

[alex_]

Yeah, I am concerned about that - I've used powerline units in the house before, and they work 99% of the time but that 1% is super annoying. I don't really know what the logistics are of extending the ethernet though, since our router is right at the far end of the house from the back garden where the office would be - do I just need like a 40m cat5 cable and drill holes through all the walls in between, or is there a more sensible way of doing it?

Run a network cable back to the wall nearest your router and drill it through the wall, you’ll need a sparky for the electrics in the outside room, get them to put a network port on the wall next to your router then you just cable that to your router and plug the end in your posh shed into your laptop

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Make sure there’s the space/capacity in your existing consumer unit to feed the one in the office. Might be worth getting a local sparks to take a look and give a quote before ordering the build.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

“garden office”
“dedicated work space”

Yea, yea, we all know it’ll be your grubby WANKING SHED

 

[urbanspaceman]

Insulation, insulation insulaltion.

In winter you are equivalent of a 3KW fire.

If you mean by "you", a person, that number is wrong. It's more like 100-120W

 

[Buddy Bradley]

“garden office”
“dedicated work space”

Yea, yea, we all know it’ll be your grubby WANKING SHED

The full height blackout blinds came as standard, honest!