Garden Rooms

Garden Rooms in the UK

For those who do have an idea how much space they are looking for, we have divided  our garden rooms into three size categories. If you are looking for a small garden shed to store your garden tools or a tiny place for relaxing, then you can pick S category. These are our small garden rooms (4m² – 7 m²). The most popular medium-sized garden rooms can be found from category M. Large log cabins (21m²-40m²) are listed in L category.

8-Minute Video with Useful Tips

If you are thinking of buying a garden room and need a little help deciding, here’s our 8-minute video with useful tips to help you in choosing the right garden building for you. We will explain some important features such as wall thickness, glazing in windows, assembly and a few other things that matter. In this 8-minute video we will explain some important features such as wall thickness, glazing in windows, assembly and a few other things that matter. Watch and enjoy!

Garden Rooms

Timeless classic and beauty for your garden can be found from in the hexagonal and octagonal garden room categories. Hexagonal and octagonal garden rooms add so much elegance to your backyard. What better place to relax or gather with your friends and family for a fine dinner?

All garden rooms under 2,5m high can be placed as close as you want to a boundary such as a fence line without planning permission. Log cabins and other garden buildings that are over 2,5m high, however, must be placed over 2m away from any boundary. With these taller garden buildings, you end up with a lot of space behind them.

A garden room with veranda is a wise choice. You can  enjoy simple things such as: warm summer mornings with breakfast and a cup of coffee in the fresh air, great barbeques with friends and family, and sunsets with a glass of wine. A spacious veranda is such a useful addition to your garden room. It creates extra space and makes summer days that much more enjoyable.

8 Tips for Garden Room Buyer

1. How to buy the best Garden Room for each family member?

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. Therefore, when choosing which building 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 how large and what type of cabin would be best to make all family members happy. Since we have nearly 200 garden log cabins to choose from, this for sure will make decision making fun and exciting!

2. What is the right wall thickness for my garden room?

How you will use the cabin, space available in your garden and budget are usually the three main factors that make out the final size of a garden room. The larger your cabin is, the thicker the walls need to be to ensure that the building 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 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 in 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 snooker room, garden table tennis 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 wall boards, our best weather proof 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.

3. Will I use my garden room for the summer season only or a longer period?

A garden room can be a nice asset for enjoying summers in your garden, but it can also be a useful space for year round use for your hobbies, games or ancillary accommodation. This is also good to consider before you buy.

Any cabin is 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 in to 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. For insulation 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 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.

4. Style of my garden room?

There are mostly two approaches to the style of garden buildings. Some people are looking for a cabin 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 the wooden building will be a contrast in your garden anyway, we think that both options can work out fine in your garden.

5. Can I buy 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 cabin you like, changing single glazing to double glazing, you’d prefer more or fewer windows than the standard garden house has, different style doors or windows, increased wall thickness, larger terrace or other changes to your garden room are all 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 other hand, you will get a garden room with your own size and your own look.

6. Peculiarities of wooden buildings. How to take proper care of your garden room?

Our garden rooms are made of slow grown Nordic spruce, which is one of the best timbers to build. Since the wood is purely natural material there are certain things that you should know.

Small cracks and knots are common in wooden buildings, and it is good to know that all the wooden components settle and adapt during the first year after assembly. Therefore you may need to adjust the doors and windows of your garden room after the first year to ensure they work and fit correctly.

Moisture is the worst enemy of wood. To protect your log cabin from mould and rot there are 4 very simple things to do:

• Build your garden room on a proper base and lift the foundation planks a few cm from the ground by placing bitumen sheets between the foundation planks and foundation. This will ensure good ventilation beneath the cabin and avoid contact with grass and ground.
• Drill one lower and one upper hole in to wall planks for proper ventilation and cover them with plastic or metal grates. This will keep extra humidity out of your garden room.
• Cover the roof with roofing felt (comes with all our cabins) and preferably additional roofing shingles or roofing felt for the proper protection of the roof.
• Coat your garden room with paint or wood preservative as soon as you have installed it. High quality wood preservatives does not require retreatment before 5-6 years.

7. Build your garden room yourself or hire professionals?

We call our cabins DIY self build garden rooms. People with previous DIY experience of putting together home furniture or building garden structures can easily get their cabin built within 2-4 days. For installing your cabin you need two adults and the following tools: 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 involving at least one person with previous experience and skills. Installing a log 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 in a professional installation team, we have a very detailed 20 minute video showing all stages of installing a garden room.

8. Why buy my garden room from Summer House 24?

Summer House 24 is a pure log cabin company and this is what we do day in and day out. We design, manufacture and retail all cabins ourselves and we don’t sell any third party garden rooms. This enables us to control all stages from development to delivery and offer you premium quality garden rooms at great prices.