Posts by selfbuild
Garden room cladding fixings
Most garden rooms feature timber cladding on the exterior, whether this is expensive Western Red Cedar or something a little more economical like Siberian Larch or Thermowood. When fixing timber cladding, it is important that you use stainless steel fixings. If you don’t use stainless steel fixings, you will find that the fixing bleeds an…
Read MoreYou can make good savings on materials self-building
With each set of sample plans, we produce we write up a material estimate. In this document, we estimate the quantities of each material you’ll need to build the room. The prices we have gathered are probably high When quantifying the materials, we head to the internet to cost out each element. Now, we know…
Read MoreBuilding a garden room higher than 2.5m
Self-builder Glandwr emailed to ask about the options if you want to build a garden room that’s higher than 2.5m. He wondered if the only option was to apply for Planning Permission. You can build garden rooms taller than 2.5m under Permitted Development You can build a garden room that’s taller than 2.5m under Permitted Development;…
Read MoreHow your timber cladding choice will affect your budget
One of the most significant costs in a garden room build is the external cladding. Timber claddings are by far the most popular option for the exterior of a garden room, because of their aesthetic appeal, the layer of thermal insulation they add to the build-up and the ease of installation. You need to invest in…
Read MoreBuilding a garden room tight to a fence
Many garden rooms are built tight to the fence to maximise space. This is possible under Permitted Development if your room is no higher than 2.5m. The thing is that building tight to a fence leaves little room for fixing the external cladding. Modular garden rooms that are built off-site will come in small panels (max…
Read MoreNarrower cladding can save you money
When it comes to the timber cladding for the exterior of your garden room, you’ll have choices when it comes to the width of the board. Narrower boards tend to be used by designers who are looking for a more modern look, yet wider boards reduce the number of lines the wall will have where…
Read MoreA basic sketch can save a lot of time
We have been designing the frameworks for garden room buildings for years, and have had several different workflows for doing this. With experience, though, we have found that making a basic sketch can save a huge amount of time when we start modelling a frame in SketchUp. Like many people, we are keen to start seeing…
Read MoreScrew foundations in action
Screw foundations are being used by several garden room companies. They are overcoming tricky site conditions and uneven ground which speeds up the construction process no end. We spotted a good example of screw foundations in action on Twitter last week. eDEN Garden Rooms shared some photos of a build that is making use of this…
Read MoreRing beam foundations
The traditional option when building a garden room is to use a concrete slab foundation. A twist on this that is used by some professional garden room designers is a concrete ring beam foundation. With this type of foundation, a concrete slab is run around the circumference of the building. This supports the weight of the…
Read MoreFence post foundations are not up to the job
There are several types of foundation used in garden room design from the traditional concrete slab to plinth foundations made from recycled materials, but the one system that is not used by the professionals is metal spiked fence post foundations. Believe it or not, this is what one general builder was suggesting to their client,…
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