How Much Do Garden Offices Cost?
We expect that asking how much a garden office costs is one of your first questions on the journey towards your new outdoor office space.
Some garden office companies clearly list their prices on their website, while others invite you to contact them for a price guide or ask for your contact details to download their price list.
We’ve been writing about the garden office industry since 2009, so we have a full contact book of who to ask about prices. We have used this to research the current price range for different-sized garden office buildings.
When researching current garden office prices, we have tried to compare specifications that include the foundation, installation, and VAT. We have explored multi-layer garden room specifications designed to be comfortably used all year round and to offer a decades-long lifespan, rather than the cheaper log cabin-style buildings marketed as garden rooms.
You would need to budget for any delivery cost, typically based on your distance from the company’s factory, and the final electrical connection between your house and the new office building.
To give you an idea of cost, we have researched the prices of popular-sized garden offices.
Garden Office Price Guide 2024
The prices we found were for the standard specification and configuration of doors and windows. The more you start personalising the standard spec by changing or adding doors and windows, enhancing the electrical specification, and choosing different finishes, the more the price will increase.
Why Are Small Garden Office Pods So Expensive?
If you compare all the building sizes, you will see that the smaller the garden office footprint, the proportionally more expensive it is. Larger outdoor offices have a lower price per square metre.
This is because, despite their small size, these small office pods still feature all the expensive components of the specification, such as doors and windows, electrics, and delivery and installation costs.
How Much Do Bespoke Garden Offices Cost?
Bespoke garden offices are often quoted by the square metre of building footprint space. For example, a 5m x 3m building has a footprint of 15 square metres.
The price per square metre is normally given as a range, as the level of specification determines the price. So, when asking for a price guide from a bespoke designer, you might expect the lower figure to be their basic specification and the higher figure to be the all-singing, all-dancing specification.
Our research found prices ranging from £1,000 per square metre to £4,500 per square metre, including VAT.
Prices Depend on the Specification
When comparing garden office prices, you need to consider that different specifications are used within the industry. When comparing photos of garden offices from different companies, many designs look and sound similar but have very different price points. This is because, beneath the interior and exterior finishes, lies a very different core structure.
Many garden office designers have adopted the same materials and building techniques used in modern timber frame housebuilding. They utilise the same dimension insulated timber frame systems or Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs). Their build-ups are multi-layer structures, with each layer playing a role in insulating the building, keeping it weather-tight, and enhancing the structural integrity of the building. This level of specification would be at the more expensive end of the price range.
Other designers have taken these traditional techniques and put their own twist on the specification to create a more cost-effective build-up and streamline the installation process. This can involve omitting layers and designing and manufacturing their own SIPs.
Expect Building Regulation-Compliant Garden Offices to Cost More
Many people choose to use their garden office as an occasional guest room, putting a sofa bed in the room to make it a versatile space. Any garden office that is used as sleeping accommodation, even only occasionally, needs to comply with Building Regulations.
If your garden office has a footprint of between 15 and 30 square metres and is positioned within 1 metre of a boundary, it needs to be constructed substantially of non-combustible materials. Buildings over 30 square metres in footprint size need to fully comply with Building Regulations.
Building Regulation-compliant garden office specifications cost more than standard garden room specifications because different materials need to be used. There are also costs associated with the Building Control department signing off the work.
The flip side of the extra build costs is that because the building is Building Regulation compliant, it increases the versatility of the space in the future and can enhance the value it adds to your house.