Choosing the perfect garden room for your family
People buy garden rooms for all sorts of reasons, it may be to enjoy spending more time immersed in your garden, to create extra space for hobbies and family leisure, hosting garden parties, cooking and dining in the garden, playing billiards or other games to name just a few reasons. All of these activities help you and other family members get out of the daily home routine and make evenings and weekends more special and enjoyable.
Many of our clients ask us ‘What is a good size for a garden room’. When choosing what type of prefab garden room to buy, it makes sense to gather all the family members together and ask what each person would like to get out of the new garden room. This will then help you better understand whether you should opt for a small garden room, a medium garden room, or a large garden room. Since we have many different styles of garden pods and bespoke garden rooms to choose from, this for sure will make decision making fun and exciting!
Understanding the importance of garden room wall thickness
Wall thickness is a very important aspect when it comes to choosing a high-quality prefab garden room. A general rule is that the larger your garden pod is, the thicker the walls need to be. Thicker walls ensure that your garden room is sturdy, safe, and stable. The most common wall thicknesses available for garden rooms are 44mm, 58mm and 70mm – 92mm.
Our favorite wall thickness for smaller and medium-sized seasonal garden rooms is 44mm. 44mm wall planks have a double tongue and grooved interlocking wall planks, strengthening metal rods in some wall parts and metal wind braces inserted throughout the entire wall in all four corners. Buying a 44mm 3x3m, 3x4m or 3x5m (8-15m²) garden room for seasonal use; you can be sure of its stability, strength and longevity.
Our 44mm and 58mm garden rooms are the best value for your money garden buildings. These 10-25m² garden houses are not only superb quality wooden structures with extra strength and a long life span, but all of these cabins have double glazed windows and doors included in the standard kit. If you are looking to buy a 3x4m, 4x4m, 4x5m or even a 5x5m garden room for years and years to come, these 44 and 58mm cabins are the best ones to consider.
Extra-large garden rooms demand extra thick and sturdy walls. With 70mm wall thickness, you can go for 5x6m, 6x6m, 5x7m, 5x8m or an even larger garden room. If you are looking for a full-sized garden studio, a garden snooker room, garden table tennis room, garden gym room, or a large garden house for any other use, these are the best cabins to consider. Our 70mm – 92mm garden rooms have thick 28mm floorboards, our best weatherproof double glazed windows and doors as well as 92mm foundation planks included in the standard price.
Wall thickness has a very big impact on the strength, longevity, resistance to outside temperature and safety of your garden building, therefore it deserves good attention. On the other hand, wall thickness is one of the biggest price factors too. Cheap garden rooms will usually have thinner walls, so make sure you always check wall thickness before purchasing a product.
Deciding whether you wish to use your garden room for the summer season only or a longer period
Garden rooms, studio garden sheds, and other timber outbuildings can be a nice asset for enjoying summers in your garden, but these versatile structures can also be useful spaces for year-round use for your hobbies, games or ancillary accommodation. Therefore, it is important to take a moment to analyze your needs before buying.
All of our prefab garden rooms are good for summer use only, but building a garden room for all year round use requires thicker walls, double glazed windows and doors as well as insulation and some heating.
All our cabins with 44mm or thicker walls have double glazed windows and doors. All of them can be fitted into all year round use garden rooms.
In our experience, in most parts of the UK, floor and roof insulation is quite sufficient. The floor and roof are the most important areas to insulate because this is where the cold enters and warmth exits. For the colder months, you need a radiator or other small heating system. When you install a heating system you must have at least one lower and one upper ventilation hole to let out humidity. When it comes to insulated garden rooms, we recommend mineral wool in rolls or slabs as well as additional textiles or polyamide films for proper wind protection.
It is good to know, that garden room insulation and heating can be added for a very reasonable cost, but what you achieve is pretty remarkable. Instead of 5-6 months of use, you can have a full year-round garden room.
Choosing the style of your garden room
There are usually two different approaches to the style of garden buildings. Some people are looking for a garden room that corresponds to the style of their home and the other half are looking for the one they like the most, no matter what the main building looks like. Since a wooden building will be a contrast in your garden anyway, we think that both options can work out fine in any garden. We offer contemporary garden rooms and traditional garden rooms, so you will surely find a product to fit your preferences.
You can opt for a bespoke garden room
We have nearly 200 garden rooms to choose from and therefore there is a good chance that one of our standard cabins will be just perfect for you. If this is not the case and you would like one of our standard cabins but with some changes to make it perfect for you, then it is good to know that we design bespoke garden rooms accordingly to our customers’ wishes. Increasing or decreasing outer dimensions of a standard garden pod you like, changing single glazing to double glazing, increasing or reducing the number of windows, changing the style of doors or windows, increasing wall thickness, enlarging the terrace, rest assured that any changes to your garden room are achievable.
Bespoke garden rooms are usually 10-20% more expensive than similar standard models because they demand additional drawings and only one unit will be produced. Delivery time is 2-3 weeks longer compared to a standard cabin.
On the plus side, you will get a garden room with your size and your look.
Decide if you want to build your garden room yourself or hire professionals
Our cabins are often referred to as DIY garden rooms or self-build garden rooms. People with previous DIY experience in putting together home furniture or building garden structures can easily install a DIY garden room within 2-4 days. For installing one of our DIY garden rooms you need two adults and the following tools: a handsaw, screwdriver, rubber mallet, hammer, level, tape measure, drill, knife, a pair of pliers and a ladder. All necessary components, detailed cabin plans, as well as handy assembly instructions are all included in the cabin’s kit.
Otherwise, we recommend our installation services or hiring at least one person with previous experience and skills. Installing a DIY garden cabin involves a good overall understanding of what you are doing, putting in hundreds of nails and screws, levelling, sawing some components to size and some other activities.
For an easy decision whether you should build it yourself or hire a professional installation team, we have a very detailed 20-minute video showing all stages of installing a garden room.
