Set a budget for your garden office project
When buying a garden office it is a good idea to set a budget early on in your planning process and stick to it! It can be very tempting to add extra features as you go along and for the price to spiral upwards.
Don’t be embarrassed when setting a budget, as no reputable supplier will force you to spend more than you are comfortable with. For a supplier, it’s actually quite useful to know a clients budget early on so you can suggest design features and the size tweaks that can maximise the budget available.
It’s not just the building you need to budget for
It's not just the building you need to budget for when buying a garden office
Remember, when setting the budget for your project to allow for extra costs such as Planning Permission and if needed Building Regulation fees, these can be a few hundred pounds.
Not all suppliers include the foundation in the price of the building and this will be a significant cost, depending on the size of the building and type of foundation specified this could be a thousand pounds plus.
The most common additional cost you need to budget for is the connection of the garden offices electrics to your house.
In most cases, the customer has the cost of connecting the garden offices electrics to the mains supply. This needs to be undertaken by a qualified electrician and can cost around a thousand pounds. A large part of this is made up by running an armoured cable from the office to the house, the further away from the house the office is the more it will cost. There are savings to be made if you were to dig the trench yourself, but it's worth discussing this with your electrician so you know how much you might save and the specification for the trench.
There are often additional costs when it comes to the warranty on the building. Most buildings come with warranties on the materials used. Some suppliers take this further and offer insurance backed warranties on their buildings - these policies cover you even if the supplier is no longer trading, but there is a premium to pay and this is often passed on to the customer.
Delivery costs are an extra you often find, with suppliers now offering UK wide delivery and installation, they pass these costs on to you, on top of the building price. Suppliers normally offer a free delivery radius from their base, often 100 miles and then charge per mile, we have seen £8 per mile quoted so this can obviously add up.