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Mono pitched garden office offer more headroom

We talk about 2.5-meter high garden offices a lot on this site; they are after all the most popular option with garden office buyers, as they offer the most flexibility in positioning the building in your garden. Without the need for a Planning Permission application. There are however other options, of taller garden offices that can still be built without a Planning Application.

Under the Permitted Development rules, the rules you must follow if you are building your garden office without a Planning Application, you can build either a mono pitched or dual pitched roof garden office that is taller than 2.5 meters. The thing is when building a garden office taller than 2.5 meters high, it has to be positioned at least 2 meters from each boundary of your property.

A taller garden office means more internal headroom

One of the key benefits of building a taller garden office is that you create a room that has a higher ceiling height. With mono pitch designs, the style of office with a single sided sloping roof, you will normally find that the ceiling of the office slopes from front to back. This sloping ceiling offers some extra headroom in the office, creating a room with an airy feel.

As you can see from our mock-up, the mono pitch design offers a lot of extra headroom.

Mono pitched garden offices offer more headroom

Mono pitch garden offices can have a maximum height of 3 meters

The Permitted Development rules say that a mono pitched garden office can be no taller than 2.5m at the eaves – the bottom of the roof where it meets the wall. They also state that a mono pitch garden office can be no taller than 3m at the ridge – in the case of a single sloped roof, this is the highest point of the roof.

A mono pitched design can be 3m tall at the ridge sloping down to 2.5m

The rules also state that this style of garden office must be sited at least 2 meters from each boundary of your property, i.e., the fence or wall between you and your neighbours. This rule can be problematic in a small garden, hence the popularity of garden office designs that are no taller than 2.5 meters, as they can be positioned tight to a boundary.

A mono pitched garden office must be sited at least 2m from each boundary

Most bespoke garden office designers will offer a mono pitched design

Modular garden office designs tend to have an overall height of 2.5 meters to make them as flexible as possible for buyers. If you are looking to create a taller garden office, your best bet is to talk to a bespoke garden office designer who will design a building especially for you.

More articles looking at garden office heights:

 

Garden Office Planning Permission Video

In many cases a garden office can be built without the need to apply for Planning Permission. You do however need to follow the rules laid out by Permitted Development.

These rules state the distance different shape buildings should be positioned from the boundary. They also set the maximum heights of pitched roof garden offices.

With this video we have been able to show these different rules in relation to different shape garden offices in a 3D context.

httpss://youtu.be/6chmdVkkuuc

This video is designed as a useful visual guide. It is not intended as a definitive source you will find that on the Planning Portal.

The type of work you plan to undertake in your garden office may mean that full Planning Permission is required. Talk to your garden office supplier or your local Planning Department for clarification on your personal circumstances.

Telling people you are working from a garden office

There’s nothing wrong with working or running a business from a garden office, in fact its a great option, but there are a few people who will need to know:

Do you need tell people you're working from a garden office?
Do you need tell people you’re working from a garden office?

Planning Permission

You may need to apply for Planning Permission if you are working from a garden office, whether on not you need to apply will depend on the type of work / business you will be conducting.

Whilst garden buildings such as garden offices can be built under Permitted Development rules, and therefore can be built without the need for full Planning Permission, the Permitted Development rules state that the use of the building should be incidental to the use of the main house, and not all work / business activities can be classed as incidental to the occupancy of the main house.

We look at this subject in more detail in our Garden Office Planning Permission Guide.

Mortgage Company

If you have a mortgage on your house you will need to read your contract to check there are no exclusions to working from home, not all mortgage companies allow it. At the very least your contract probably says you must inform them if you plan to work or run a business from home.

Household & Buildings Insurer

You will undoubtedly have insurance polices that cover the contents and structure of your house, if you decide to work from a garden office you should ensure that you tell these insurers that you are now working from home, as not telling them can invalidate your policies!

Health & Safety

If you have staff or clients, working or visiting your garden office, you should check with your Local Authorities Health & Safety department to see if there are any potential risks to health or safety that you need to comply with.

Council Tax

In some cases working or running a business from home can effect your Council Tax, with the room/s being used for commercial operations becoming liable for Business Rates whilst the rest of the house remains a domestic property.

Whether your use of a garden office will effect your Council Tax is judged on a case by case basis, read this page on the Gov.uk website for more information on the subject.

Your Accountant

There are many financial benefits to working or running a business from a garden office, and you should talk with your accountant during the planning stage so as to take full benefit of these.

Some garden office designs e.g. those that are considered portable are more tax efficient than others. If you are VAT registered you may be able to reclaim the VAT on the garden office purchase.

Your accountant will also be able to advise you on Capital Gains Tax, as having worked from a garden office can make it liable for Capital Gains Tax when you come to sell your house.

We don’t profess to be tax experts, so please do talk to your accountant so you make the best financial decision when buying your building.

Your Neighbours

If you are a lone homeworker working from a garden office will have little impact on your neighbours, but in situations where you employ staff to work with you or if you have clients visiting, it is probably wise to talk to your neighbours and explain what your activities will entail and how they will impact on them.

Neighbours can be funny things, and often small misunderstandings or lack of communication can cause big problems. Our experience has told us that neighbours are normally worried about noise from the building, if it will overlook their garden and if its going to create increased traffic / parking in the neighbourhood, one quick conversation could reassure them on all of this!

A garden office makes good business sense

There are several benefits to buying a garden office for work use, such as Tax Breaks and if you are VAT Registered, offsetting the VAT, so if you are self employed or a business owner talk to your accountant early on in the buying process so that you can optimise these benefits.

Talk to your accountant if buying a garden office use for business so you make full use of any tax breaks
Talk to your accountant if buying a garden office use for business so you make full use of any tax breaks

It’s important to be clear with your accountant about the type of garden office you are choosing, so they can help advise you, for instance a portable garden office is more tax efficient than a permanent e.g fully plastered one, so find out where you stand early on.

Your accountant will also advise you on who you have to inform that you’re working at home, on many mortgages it’s stated that you must inform them if you run a business from home.

Will a garden office work for you?

Are you looking for a designated workspace away from the distractions of the main house, but with a short commute? Well, a garden office will fit the bill perfectly.

Garden offices are designed and built like houses, so will be comfortable to use all year round, they are also safe and secure for all your valuable office equipment and furniture.

The smallest garden offices are big enough for one worker, but the flexibility of their design means that large offices for multiple workers can easily be created, as can multi room units with toilets, kitchens and shower rooms.

Garden offices are great, but is it the right work environment for you
Garden offices are great, but is it the right work environment for you

Garden offices are a quick way to gain extra workspace, standard designs are generally available off the shelf, and if Planning Permission is not required it can be installed within  few weeks of order. Bespoke, one off designs take a little longer – around 12 weeks would be a typical time frame.  Garden offices are normally built off site in factory conditions, this means that the onsite assembly period is short, some designs can be built in just a day whilst other designs take a couple of weeks to build.

Buying a garden office is very cost effective compared to other types of home extension or renting a commercial property, prices for a small 2.1m x 2.1m office suitable for one worker start around £5,000, prices go upwards from there, but budgets of £12,000 to £20,000 will buy you a good size building with lots of features.

It is widely agreed that a quality garden office will add value to your house, recent research has shown that a garden office could add 5 to 15% to the value of your house!

With short commutes down the garden path, people who work from garden offices report an improved work / life balance, are you ready to improve yours?

 

 

Add value to your house with a garden office

It is widely agreed that a quality garden office will add value to your house, research has suggested that a garden office building can add between 5 and 15% to the value of your property.

In many cases percentage gains such as these will cover your financial outlay and maybe exceed the price you pay for a garden office.

We have spoken before that garden offices come in different qualities, and a good quality garden building built using house quality materials and building systems is more likely to give you a good return when you come to sell, than a cheap log cabin style building.

Its widely agreed that a quality garden office will add value to your house
Its widely agreed that a quality garden office will add value to your house

By buying a garden office that is a good size, and has desirable features like big windows which connect the space to the garden, you will create a building that has mass market appeal. If you go a step further and include features such as toilets, a kitchen area or maybe a shower room, you are creating a building that has many potential uses, a space you may use as a garden office might well work for someone else as a granny annexe.

Lets look at some figures:

An average price garden office with a good specification, and several designer features could cost you £20,000.

A average family house could be valued at £250,000 – this will obviously vary due to the part of the UK you live in.

If you take a middle line on the the valuation the research states a garden office could add to your property, of 10%

10% of £250,000 = £25,000

So, you could potentially more than make your money back.

[warning]Obviously these figures are just an example, and you should take professional advice on whether a garden office will add value to your house, and how much it might add in your area of the UK.[/warning]

Garden office aftercare

Just like a house a garden office will require some aftercare, its a significant investment so you will want to look after it, right? But what is typically involved.

How much aftercare is needed?

The answer to this question depends on the style of garden office you buy, some designs will require more ongoing maintenance than others. Painted garden offices will need repainting where as cedar clad design will need little ongoing care – unless you want to preserve its original colour!

But some garden offices are sold as maintenance free

Cedar cladding is a low maintenance option - unless you want to preserve its colour
Cedar cladding is a low maintenance option – unless you want to preserve its colour

It’s true that a few garden office designers have chosen materials for the exterior of the building that need little aftercare, typical finishes would be PVCu and powder coated metals.

Whilst these materials don’t rot and hold their colour without repainting, you will need to keep an eye on them and keep them clean so that they stay in good condition, so there is a degree of aftercare involved.

Cedar clad garden offices are also often sold as low maintenance options. Cedar has a natural resistance to rot and fungal attack which makes it a durable exterior cladding option. A newly clad cedar garden office has a distinctive red/brown colouring but this will weather to a silver grey changing the look of the building, how quickly this happens will depend on the buildings exposure to UV light, over on our sister site The Garden Room Guide we showed the ageing of cedar cladding over a three and a half year period.

Aged cedar clad offices still look great, but they are a significantly different colour from when they were new. If you want to preserve the original colour you need to specify this at the time of order so that the boards can be protected with a sealant which protects from the effects of UV light, you will need to reapply this sealant over the years.

Painted garden offices need the most aftercare

Painted garden offices need on going care to keep them looking good and protected
Painted garden offices need on going care to keep them looking good and protected

Painted garden offices are very popular and look great in a garden offsetting the natural textures and colours, but they do require a aftercare commitment to keep them looking good and protected.

The suppliers who sell painted garden offices have spent a great deal of time researching the finishes they use so that they offer maximum protection with long maintenance free intervals. Paints have been chosen to biodegrade rather than flake and look unsightly.

Re-painting schedules differ from supplier to supplier but typical timescales are every 5 to 10 years which isn’t too much of a commitment. In fact many suppliers will offer a repainting service which will save you a job and re-assure you that its done by people who know about garden offices.

Maintaining doors and windows

Because in most instances the doors and windows used on a garden office are PVCu or aluminum clad they need nothing more than a wipe down with a soapy cloth.

The glazier who installed the windows here at Garden Office HQ recommends that we lubricate the hinges and locks once a year on the doors and windows – this requires little more than opening the window, spraying WD40 and testing the lock – a very quick job!

Garden offices with living roofs may need a weed

A living roof is both a desirable and beneficial addition to a garden office, and whilst most designs are designed to be low maintenance you will find that you need to climb up and check the roof every year. Natures own gardeners the birds have a habit of dropping the odd weed into the mix, and some plants may need replacing, so you need to ensure that you can access you living roof.

Log cabins aren’t always good garden offices

Many of the cheaper garden offices on the market today are log cabin style buildings. They are made from lengths of machined wood that interlocks to create the framework of the building.

These can be attractive buildings and the price point is certainly attractive, but log cabins come in very varying qualities, and whilst wood has good thermal properties log cabins are significantly less well insulated than a garden office that is built using house quality materials.

You want your garden office to be comfortable to use all year round, so it needs to be fully insulated and double glazed
You want your garden office to be comfortable to use all year round, so it needs to be fully insulated and double glazed

If you do decide that a log cabin is the type of garden office that you want, opt for one that has thicker timbers, also make sure the building has insulation in the floor, walls and roof – it may seem obvious but many log cabins don’t have insulation in the walls so all your heat is being pumped out through the structure.

Also, make sure your cabin has double glazed doors and windows. Many log cabin office suppliers still offer only single glazing, and specifying good insulation is not worth much if you don’t have double glazing!

Because the structure of a log cabin also forms its outer skin, you will find it will need considerable ongoing maintenance, less durable timbers are often used on cheaper models and this needs regular preserving.

Whether a log cabin is the right for you, is of course your choice, but in many cases they are just ‘posh sheds’ and not comparable to garden offices that are built using house quality materials and building techniques, which are built to last a life time.

 

Aren’t garden offices, studios & rooms the same thing?

Fully insulated garden buildings designed for year round use have many names, you’ll hear garden offices, garden rooms, garden studios, office pods, huts, shed office and dens commonly used within the market, and yes they are generally the same thing.

In principle any of these buildings if fully insulated and electrically wired could be used as a garden office, but…

And its a big but

Garden offices are designed to be functional workspaces
Garden offices are designed to be functional workspaces

Buildings designed specifically as garden offices have often had a great deal of thought put into them as to how they will work as a office. Their main design criteria is for the building to be a professional office space, so particular attention is paid to the working positions and the technology incorporated into the structure.

So, if you are looking for a well thought out office space take a look at the specialist garden office suppliers.

It’s because garden offices are different that we have created this guide

The suppliers we feature on this site are specialists in creating dedicated office spaces, and will work closely with you to create your perfect office set up.

A garden office is a cost effective way to create a designated work space

If you are looking to create a designated home office and you don’t have a spare bedroom or dining room, then building a garden office is probably your most cost effective way of gaining extra space..

When you compare the cost of a garden office with other types of extension, such as a loft conversion or traditional extension you can gain much more space and features for your money.

Not only do garden offices workout cheaper but they are also much quicker to create, there is less red tape involved and it is a much less invasive form of building than either a loft conversion or traditional extension, meaning there is little if any disruption to your living whilst it is being built.

Garden office pods are modern spaces where you can comfortably work all year round
Garden office pods are modern spaces where you can comfortably work all year round

 

Designed for your round use

Modern garden offices are designed for year round use. If you buy a quality building you can reasonably expect to be able to work in it every day of the year – no matter how hot or cold it gets.

Although often referred to as posh sheds, a modern garden office is built like a house and many suppliers try to exceed the insulation values set out for new housing, meaning garden offices are a comfortable place on both the hottest and coldest days of the year.

Although some suppliers state that their rooms don’t require any source of heating because they are so well insulated, it is always a good backup for the coldest days of the year in our personal experience.

Like cars there are different marques of garden office

Just as when buying a car you know there are Fiats and Ferrari’s and everything in-between, there are different marques of garden office on the market.

There are basic models with all of the essential elements, but perhaps lacking a little styling of the more expensive designs.

There are racy little numbers which are full of features but with little room to grow.

The classic designs which have stood the test of time appearance wise, but don’t include the latest features or performance.

The middle of the road family models which combine popular features with room to grow.

And then there are the high spec, cutting edge designs that only a few can afford!

 

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