Looking for information on insulated garden offices in which you can work all year round? Well you’ve come to the right place!

Our experts have extensive industry knowledge, which we would like to share with you so that you find a garden office design that will work for you.

Garden offices are insulated, just like a house

Modern garden office designs are highly insulated structures, built using the same materials and building techniques as used in modern housebuilding. This high level of engineering ensures that a insulated garden office is a comfortable place to work on both the hottest and coldest days of the year.

The Building Regulations set out targets for the insulation used in new houses, to ensure they are as energy efficient as possible. Most garden office designers use these targets when specifying the insulation for their offices, in fact several firms see it as a challenge for their buildings to exceed the Building Regulation targets – this is good for you!

Lots of different types of insulation are used in garden office design

A wide range of insulation’s are used in garden office design, from the common fiberglass mats that you might have in the roof of your house, to foil backed rigid boards which offer a high level of insulation, but at the same time are relatively thin.

Many insulation types are man made such as fiberglass or the chemical foams used in rigid insulation, whilst others are more natural ranging from mats made from recycled glass bottles to sheep’s wool insulation.

Does more insulation mean its better performing?

As we say there are lots of different types of insulation used in garden office design, some are thicker than others. Some suppliers say they offer 200mm of insulation implying that this is better than another supplier who quotes 100mm of insulation – your first thought is that the 200mm will be better performing, right? Well, not necessarily so, the 100mm insulation could be better performing than the 200mm option.

Compare insulated garden offices by u-value

The unit for measuring the insulation value of a wall is u-value, this figure is made up not only of the insulation used, but also the other elements of the structure, such as the framework, external cladding, any airspace’s, the internal plasterboard etc. This is all added together to give you a figure in w/m2k, the lower the figure the better performing the building.

It is important when comparing insulated garden offices that you compare them by their u-value rather than the thickness of the insulation, as we say the lower the u-value the better performing.

Don’t forget the floor, roof and glazing

There’s a lot written about the insulation in the walls of a building, but its just as important in the floor and roof of the building. A lot of energy can also be lost through the glazing in the doors and windows, so its important to ensure that you check the u-values for these elements too.

Some garden offices don’t have insulated walls

Some log cabin style buildings sold as garden offices don’t have insulation in the walls of the building, this is because their design of interlocking timbers leaves no space for insulation, the argument is that wood is a good insulator itself, but in reality a lot of heat will pass out of the building, costing you money!

We have written in greater detail about choosing insulation for your garden office in the building section of this guide.