It’s raining heavily as I write this post, and it makes me think that the water butts which sit at the rear of Garden Office HQ will be filling up.
While a rainwater system is not the sexiest design feature you’ll find in a garden office, it is an important design element, and one you should ensure is part of your specification. We say you should ensure its there on your specification because not all garden office designs include one.
It always amazes us how much water runs off the roof of Garden Office HQ in a year. So much in fact, that there have been times we have had to drain our water butt because we have collected more water than we can use at the time in the garden.
A garden offices rainwater system is quite simple. Guttering like that used on a house is run along the rear edge of a mono pitched roof or along both eaves of a dual pitched design.
This guttering typically runs into a water butt, collecting the runoff from the roof for use in the garden. This is the most cost effective solution.
Another option which involves more work and in turn cost is to create a soakaway in your garden away from the office building. With this system, the downpipes direct water to a pit that is filled with stone. The water permeates through this pit into the ground.
Designer systems
Some garden office designers have seen guttering as a design challenge and have designed systems that are more discreet or aesthetically pleasing than the standard black plastic systems. Some suppliers have created hidden systems whereby the water is diverted through hidden pipework within the structure of the building – check out the work of Booths Garden Studios who have created a clever system based on this principle.
Others have had custom channels made which have been designed to make a feature of a rainwater system while being totally functional.
Not having a rainwater system can affect the durability of a garden office
As we say, we have seen garden office specifications that make no allowance for dealing with rainwater. Not having a system in place can affect the long term durability of your building. After all, where will all that water go? It will run down the walls of your office. This could at worst seriously affect the lifespan and performance of your cladding and increase the risk of water getting into your core structure. At best it could cause uneven weathering / staining of your cladding if rain continually drips off the roof onto the cladding.
So, for the long term durability of your office ensure a rainwater guttering system is in the specification. These garden office suppliers will be more than happy to talk to you about how they incorporate a rainwater system into their designs.