Rainwater guttering systems
Not the most appealing of design features to think about, a way of removing rainwater away from your garden office is an important design element, and you should check that your chosen design includes one.
It is incredible how much water runs off a garden office roof, even a small one, and it is essential to move this away from the structure of the building.
A garden offices guttering system often runs into a water butt discreetly hidden behind the building
A guttering system is just as important on a flat roof garden office as a pitched roof design.
In its simplest form, the garden office rainwater collection is a length of guttering at the bottom of the roof, connected to a downpipe which runs into a water-butt. This will collect the water from the roof and stop it moving into the structure of the building. Added bonus, you end up with a good supply of rainwater to use on your garden!
On larger garden office designs a water-butt may not be sufficient to manage the water. Some designers include larger or more than one water-butt to overcome this. There is another option, to run the pipework into a soak-away.
Your garden office may be sited close to the soakaway for your house. You could direct the rain from the building to this. If not your groundworkers should be able to dig a system for you. A soakaway is a hole filled with gravel and usually is sited a few meters away from the foundation of your building.
Garden office designers have designed their own guttering systems.
While plastic guttering systems like those used on modern houses are the most popular and cost-effective option. Some garden office designers feel they spoil the visual appearance of their buildings, so have designed their own systems.
Hidden guttering
Some suppliers have designed guttering systems on their flat roof designs that are invisible externally. They have hidden the downpipes within the wall structure of the garden office. The roof is sloped so that water is channelled into this hidden guttering which then runs down the pipe and exits into a soak away.
Custom channels
Other suppliers have created rainwater channels which are part of the roof covering and therefore invisible to the eye. With these systems, there are few gaps for the water to escape and enter the building.
Some of these designs run into traditional style downpipes, while other designers have created metal lined channels, recessed into the wall structure which not only directs the water away but is a design feature in itself.
It's nice to think that so much attention is paid to a relatively small element of the build, this bodes well for the level of attention that other aspects of garden design have!