In an ideal world, every garden where a garden office was to be built would have easy access and be perfectly level. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. Luckily though garden office designers have a toolbox full of tricks to overcome the most tricky of sites. A good example of this is a recent project by SIPS Garden Rooms which they affectionally refer to as a ‘box within a box’.
SIPS Garden Rooms client wanted to create a self-contained garden office with shower room in their small garden. So far nothing too unusual here. The thing is that the design had to fit within a site surrounded by four walls, owned by two different properties one of which is a school- tricky! In addition to the confines of the four walls, the drainage and water supplies were located under the actual site of the building!
The building has been positioned 450mm from each wall, so it is totally free standing, this also leaves room for future maintenance and for the water, sewage and drainage systems of the building to be incorporated.
The deliveries of materials had to be timed so as not to block the narrow lane leading to the site and disturbing the school. Also, space within site was tight for storing materials before they were needed.
As their name suggests, SIPS Garden Rooms build their buildings on a house quality structural insulated panel core. The exterior of this building has been classed in a pre-painted black weatherboard cladding. Weatherboard cladding gives the exterior of an office a substantial feel; it has mixed well here with the frames of the doors & windows.
A standing seam mono pitch roof has been used on this project. We don’t often see this system used in garden office design. It was chosen here because of its durability should a tile from one of the surrounding properties ever fall on the building.
Internally the main room has a light and airy feel thanks to the sloping roof and the plastered and decorated walls and ceiling; this has been mixed with a wooden floor creating a very modern room. The whole building has underfloor heating fitted which can easily be controlled with the touch screen controls.
A fully equipped shower room leads off the main room, the SIPS Garden Rooms team connected the facilities to the mains supplies. From start to finish this 5 meter x 3-meter building was completed in 12 days.
This is a clever example of designing a substantial size garden office in a confined plot. To learn more about how SIPS Garden Rooms can maximise your site give them a call on 01865 600 697 or visit their website to learn more about their work.