FAQs - Groovy Garden Rooms
We offer 2 main styles of Groovy Garden Rooms. They are bespoke. You tell us what you want and we then design, build and then install them for you. So you can adapt, as you wish, our 2 main styles (we wanted to make the process as simple as possible for you)…
✓ Contemporary design (square or rectangular)
✓ No roof canopy
✓ Back sloping room
✓ Contemporary design (square or rectangular)
✓ Front (100cm) roof overhang canopy
✓ Back sloping room
The proportions & sizes vary depending on what space you have available.
Anything over 30m² of internal space means that, at present in the UK, it needs planning permission. See our Planning Rules & Building Regulations page or more information.
Our award-winning Groovy Garden Rooms come in various size combinations - with a maximum height of 2.5m due to UK planning regulations - in both rectangular and square forms.
Please check our Groovy Garden Room Size Chart.
Now, at present, UK planning laws allow you to build your garden room under the Permitted Development rules - as long as your project fulfills various criteria.
To help you further, we've put together a Planning Rules & Building Regulations page that tells you everything you need to know.
In short - a LOT! Because, in effect, you benefit from a fully turnkey garden room from us. You don't have to do anything as we do it all for you - including the foundations.
See all the spec you get because it's included in our Standard Specification for our Groovy Garden Rooms…
A good question that we get asked a lot. The good news is that we do it ALL for you.
Once you've approved the design and any additional specification, we build most of it off site at our base in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
This is done so we spend as little time as possible at your home assembling on site (at your home) as we want the process to cause you only the most minimal disruption. And this is why the on site assembly process takes only about 8-10 days spread over approximately 4-5 weeks (depending on the vagaries of the British weather!).
Good question! And the answer is…NONE with our award-winning ZERO maintenance Groovy Garden Rooms.
This is becasue we use plastic coated galvanised steel exterior cladding on the walls and also the roof.
However, if you opt for any timber cladding, then you have two choices:
1. Leave it untreated so that it turns into a distinguished looking silvery grey colour. This means you won't need to do any maintenance as the FSC approved pressure treated wood is guaranteed for 25 years.
2. Treat it with an oil-based stain to maintain the colour and durability of the wood when it was added to your garden room. One thing to consider though - and this is why we offer zero maintenance garden rooms - is that wood treatments contain chemicals that may be good for the wood, but not quite so good for the environment. Also, the treatments are going to cost you in terms of time and money and, dare we say it, even your environmental conscience!
Whereas we've designed our Groovy Garden Rooms very carefully so they not only last many, many years while also looking great, but that they are also zero maintenance, as well as portable, durable and most certainly also lovable! So, what's not to like!
The great and cost saving answer for you is that ALL of our Groovy Garden Rooms are portable!
We want to make sure we give you a great life-enhancing investment you can take with you, thereby increasing its lifetime value for you. Nearly all our competitors produce garden rooms that are fixed.
We use concrete pile foundations or ground screws that go down into the ground to provide strong foundations for your garden room. This is much more environmentally friendly and less costly than building a large solid and more polluting concrete base.
Then we build the sturdy heavy weight-bearing frame on top of these foundations and then put your Garden Room on top of that. And this is why our Garden Rooms are portable.
Now, if you do move house or decide to move your Groovy Garden Room to another part of your garden or elsewhere, then we can do that for you. Understandably, there will be a cost to this depending on where you're moving it to.
And if we do move it for you we'll make sure it's as well put together as it was the first time! Why? Because we care about you long after you've bought from us. We want our Garden Rooms to be a truly great legacy for you, as well as the way we work with you for the many years after we build your Groovy Garden Room.
In terms of how much moving your Garden Room could cost you…
It will cost you about £3,000 or more, depending on where you want it to go geographically. Please just email us at support@groovytimber.com saying where it's based now and where you want it to go to, as well as its dimensions…and we'll give you a fair and understandable quote.
In this scenario, one thing you need to bear in mind is that if your Groovy Garden Room, for instance, cost £20,000 and you spent, say, £4,000 on moving it, then you'd save yourself the cost of buying another new Garden Room and a shed load of time and effort too. In other words, in this scenario, you'd save yourself £16,000!
We're a multi-award-winning business with award-winning products, like our Groovy Garden Rooms. And this reflects the quality of our products and, just as importantly, our customer service too.
Not only that but...
We are VERY picky about who we work with to produce and assemble our garden rooms or any of our products. They've not only got to be great at what they do professionally, but they've also got to be great to work with on a personal level - for both you and us.
This is why we've partnered with a family run construction firm that's been in business since 1969. They're affiliated with and accountable to all the main trade bodies, as you can see below.
As well as designing & building garden rooms and doing other internal and external work for homeowners, they also get asked to do internal and external works for well known private and public sections organisations like the NHS, Lloyds Banking Group, NPower, Capita, MITIE, Interserve and many more.
Also, they're accredited to and monitored by the Federation of Master Builders, The Guild of Master Craftsmen and the UK government's TrustMark scheme.
So, your Garden Room project is in very safe, very experienced and very competent hands, as well as being covered by our Guarantees.
Great question! You benefit in THREE key ways...
✓ Increased value of your home & huge cost saving on an equivalent home extension
A single storey extension can cost you from about £2,000 per sq m and even a conservatory can cost you from about £1,200 per sq m...
Whereas, for the same look and feel, a Groovy Garden Room costs you from £665 per sq m.
And...a quality garden room can also increase the value of your home by 8%-10%. So, what's not to like!
✓ Zero commuting costs & stress
It costs the average UK worker commuting by car about £5,000 per year and the those commuting by train about £2,500 per year, with the average commute duration in the UK being 62 minutes per day...
Whereas, with your own garden office, your commuting costs are £0 and your commuting time is probably less than 30 seconds!
✓ Improved psychological health
Commuting is stressful and often unproductive; working from inside your home with other people there can be stressful as well as distracting and often less productive; and not being able to separate your work from your home life can also be stressful...
Whereas having a physically and therefore psychologically separate space for working, keeping fit, chilling out and even sleeping, is certainly psychologically as well as practically beneficial and life enhancing.
Electricity: All of our Groovy Garden Rooms come ready to connect to your home's mains connections. We attach a weather-proof, lockable commando socket to your garden room and supply 25m of steel wire armoured cable so you can connect it to your home. But we don't install the commando socket at the other end.
So it's best that you use your own local electrician who, if you haven't already got the correct power connection outside your house, will need to install a 16A CEE flush mounted socket IP44 box with integrated lockable switch. This is connected by an armour plated cable to your garden room electricity connection point that comes pre-installed in your Groovy Garden Room.
This would enable you to get power to your garden room directly from your house in a compliant, safe and effective way. Also, this work would need to be arranged by you to be completed before we come to assemble your garden room on site (your garden).
The majority of mains electricity connections can be run over the ground in the most discreet of ways using an armoured cable and includes P certification. Just ask your electrician. But, if a shallow trench is required, this must be arranged before we come to install your new Groovy Garden Room so the connection is ready to be made.
Water & Waste: Logistically, practically and financially, the best and most effective option would be to go for a good grade Saniflow toilet system with a macerator.
The best pipe option (for the latter) would be a 32mm one that can pump waste and other water up to 50 metres horizontally (on or under fairly level ground) and up to 5 metres vertically. This connects to your house's main soil drainpipe.
Also, with this system, you can use the same pipe for any shower, basin and toilet waste, if you have any or all of these installed, meaning you don't need a separate pipe going from your garden room.
Also...
There are some exciting alternatives for these types of connections!
This comes with our Groovy Green Additional Specification options where we can make your Groovy Garden Room self-sufficient so it uses and renewable energy sources so you're able to enjoy access to…
✓ Electricity, lighting and heating powered by solar and/or wind energy
✓ Hot & cold (drinking) water without needing any water pipes
✓ Toilets that function without being connected to your home's waste pipe
✓ Internet access that doesn't rely on cables to and from your home
Check out your Groovy Green add-on options here.
You can have whatever window configuration you want!
This is something we will discuss with you when designing the right type of garden room for you.
To see what types of windows we install, check out our Additional Specification.
We want you to feel completely reassured about the quality of the construction and labour as well as the parts we use to build your Groovy Garden Room. So we have the following main guarantees...
✓ External cladding (plastic coated galvanised steel): 30 years (inland) and 25 years (coastal)
✓ Timber (pressure treated) products: 25 years
✓ uPVC double glazed windows & doors: 10 years (profile & frame), 5 years (outer coating & colour foiling) & 5 years (glass)
✓ Electrics: 5 years (certification on the fixed internal system) & 1 year external fittings (switches & sockets)
We can discuss these with you when you're deciding what type of style and specification you want.
Also...
Because of the way we design and build our garden rooms, as well as our use of the plastic coated galvanised steel, it enables us to give you up to a 30 year guarantee for the main structure. No other company we've heard of offers this length of guarantee.
So, what's not to like!
The short answer is - yes! It's just a matter of choosing which options you want so we can factor that into the design for you.
Remember, you have two sets of additional options to help you get just what you want…
Again, we'll enjoy discussing this together and guide you to get exactly what you want built into your Groovy Garden Room.
Although our Groovy Garden Rooms are insulated with 80mm of Kingspan sealed panels (a lot of other companies use only 75mm or even less) on the walls and in the floor, as well as 100mm in the ceiling, we also offer an programmable electric wall panel heater as part of our Standard Specification.
And, based on their environmentally friendly and usability and effectiveness, we recommend the following…
✓ All-in-one DC inverter air conditioners & heat pumps
You can find out more on our Groovy Garden Rooms - Additional Specification page.
And this is why we don't offer underfloor heating. We don't need to because of the way our Garden Rooms are built in terms of their strength, their durability and their insulation.
Yes, very much so. In fact this is a CRUCIAL part of the whole process...because it's vital to discover everything we can about the location of your planned garden room.
So, this is why we help you do a site survey that gives us - and you - the information we both need.
This includes the ground and soil type; how far down we need to go to hit hard ground for the foundations (whether ground screws or concrete pile foundations); to see if there any concealed cables & pipes; to check for tree roots; to check on the access points so we can work out how we get your garden room parts (we make them in modular form) and equipment through to your garden room location; and to understand the parking for our vehicles.
Also, very importantly...
You will need to make sure your site is clear of bushes, trees, rubbish and any machine gun nests or buried treasure that might also be lurking on the site we're going to build on.
Now, if there's a slope, then no problem. We can accommodate a 1 metre difference from one end and/or corner to the other on the Groovy Garden Room footprint.
You can find out more on our Preparing For Your Installation page.
Of course, as this formalises everything we're doing for you...and gives both you and we the legal certainties we both need for a project like this.
Once you've decided exactly how you want your Groovy Garden Room to be, we detail everything for you in a Customer Order Confirmation (see a sample one here). This is linked to our legally binding Terms and Conditions of Business.
But, before we do this, we do a (soft) credit check on you (so it doesn't affect your credit rating) to confirm that you can cover the costs! If you don't want us to do this, then alas we can't proceed with building your garden room.
We get the results straight away...and, depending on what they are, these are our payment terms. These are also included in your Customer Order Confirmation form.
Then both you and we then sign it securely online and you receive an electronic copy of this.
Yes, this is, in effect, what we do. Although we have 2 main styles of Groovy Garden Room, everyone's tastes and needs vary. So, we simply add to and amend the template for you, in terms of size, shape and specification.
And if you want something that's not available in either the Additional Specification then, as long as it doesn't upset the UN or NATO or Mrs Miggins, or break any useful laws, then we'll get it sorted for you!
FAQs - Groovy Garden Rooms
In the main - no.
The vast majority of the time, garden rooms do not usually require a planning permission as they fall within "Permitted Development" rules. This is pre-approved planning permission - as long as your garden room is built subject to a number of limits and conditions.
Check out our Planning Rules & Building Regulations page. It gives you all the details you need to know.
You can also check the latest UK government regulations which, if updated, will be viewable on this link.
We use concrete pile foundations and, sometimes, concrete strip and raft foundations. But this depends entirely on the site where you want your Groovy Garden Room...as we use the best foundation for the ground you want your garden room built on.
We do NOT use concrete feet/pads or ground screws.
This is because although they're relatively easy and quick to install, they are always at the mercy of changing ground conditions.
For instance, if these were used as the foundations for your garden room and there was a flood or, because of the ground type, the ground shifted, even in a small way, with that much weight on them, you could find your garden room moving. And even if this was only a little, such settlement could well cause cracks and other issues in the structure of your garden room.
In short, you cannot beat having properly strong and solid foundations. The way we do it can take a little longer (not much, though), BUT your Groovy Garden Room will not budge! Simple as that.
In short, we do everything we can to be environmentally responsible as possible.
That said, in reality it's going to be very hard to build a garden room of any kind that's truly 100% green and that doesn't use any materials that are not as green as we would like them to be.
All the wood we use is FSC approved. In other words, it comes from responsible sources.
The plastic coated galvanised steel, used to protect and insulate the exterior of our Groovy Garden Rooms, saves you from having to use less than environmentally friendly chemical treatments on any timber cladding to preserve its colour and resistance to rot, mould and fungus and general deterioration.
And our uPVC windows and doors use recycled uPVC that's made from melted down off-cuts. These can be re-used without losing any of their strength and insulating capacity. In fact, uPVC windows like this have been proven to be one of the most environmentally friendly glazing products available.
We use concrete piles foundations which are much more environmentally friendly and use much less concrete than in a large concrete bed foundation.
Of course, we always trive to do better - we're not perfect - and are always open to new and better ways of producing our products in as an effective and environmentally friendly way.
Normally, we can have your Groovy Garden Room installed in about 8-10 weeks after you put down your deposit.
So…
From paying your deposit to having a gleaming new Groovy Garden Room in your garden (or wherever else you want it), it's going to take about 8-10 weeks (from deposit to completion).
The plastic coated galvanised steel we use to clad our garden rooms is a non-combustible material. And any insulation inside is also sealed and protected by non-combustible materials.
Yes we can build your Groovy Garden Room on a slope with up to a 1m difference between the high and low point.
That said...
If it's more than that, then we can recommend some very helpful alternative options that still enable us to build your garden room where you want it. Just contact us for more clarification.
In short - no. And there's a good reason for this that could save you practical, financial and emotional hassle further down the road.
The reason is that although our Groovy Garden Rooms are designed and built to be structurally sound and strong, bi-fold doors can potentially create problems in the future in a single storey structure like a garden room.
For instance, if there are significant changes in temperature, then this can expand the doors which makes closing and even locking them difficult. It's known as "racking."
Whereas, when bi-fold doors are put into a building on the ground floor of a house, there's a mass of structure around them, on the sides and above them. In this situation, they work much better.
Now, you might recall seeing some garden rooms with bi-fold doors. And they look great. And we also love them. But they can potentially present a problem for a single story structure like this - even though ours are built to be very strong and durable. So this is why, for our Garden Rooms, we don't install them...as this will save you hassle and cost further down the road.
We just want to be honest with you and paint a helpfully realistic picture for you so you make the right decision when it comes to ordering and having your garden room built…so that it lasts a very long time and works as it's designed to for many years to come.
That said, if you really want them, then this can be done. But it involves a lot of additional steel structure which adds to the cost somewhat.
Fair question! Our main driving force when designing our Groovy Garden Room range was to produce ones that are zero maintenance, as well as portable. And this is where the plastic coated galvanised steel option comes in.
But we accept that many of you also like timber cladding. We get it...and we also love timber clad garden rooms. But they're low maintenance rather than zero maintenance.
In effect, what we do, to reinforce our garden rooms's strength and durability, as well as their ability to fend off what the weather and other elements can throw at them, we build them in plastic coated galvanised steel. And then, if you want timber cladding, we install the latter on top of the former.
Now, to give you an idea of the sort of price of having the more expensive type of timber cladding (e.g. red cedar)...
This is most probably going to cost you, at most, in the hundreds rather than the thousands to kit out your new Groovy Garden Room with timber cladding. Obviously this is affected by the size of your garden room as well as how many windows you have and how much timber cladding you want.
Also, timber prices vary all the time. So this also has an effect, albeit a small one on the price.
Our garden rooms are not only durable, but also ZERO maintenance. And we use plastic coated galvanised steel not just on the exterior walls, but also on the roofs too. And this, as well as the way we design and build them, enables us to give you...
A 30 year guarantee (inland) and a 25 year guarantee (coastal) for the exterior cladding of your Groovy Garden Rooms. That's how much we believe in our product.
No other company we've heard of offers this length of guarantee.
So, what's not to like!
Some companies, for instance, use EPDM, a rubber roof covering. That's fine until, for instance, a bird pecks open a hole or an object or even a person creates a small cut (which can be easily done). Then it's not properly waterproof anymore and this in turn starts to adversely affect and undermine the roof structure too. Not good! And then there's also the fact that this material can somtimes and even often start to break down after about 10 years.
Our garden rooms are designed so that rainwater is directed to the back of the roof where there's a hidden gutter and down pipe which takes the water away from your garden room.
We understand that, even though this is going to be a great investment that will pay you a return in numerous ways over years (see how here), it can be a noticeable sum.
This is a bespoke build for you. And so we make sure you're given all the facts you need about every aspect of the project, from parts and pricing to timings and team members.
So, before we sign your legally binding Customer Order Confirmation form, we do a (soft) credit check on you (so it doesn't affect your credit rating) to confirm that you can cover the costs! If you don't want us to do this, then alas we can't proceed with building your garden room.
We get the results straight away...and, depending on what they are, these are our payment terms. These are also included in your Customer Order Confirmation form.
Then both you and we then sign it securely online and you receive an electronic copy of this.
Not at the moment, as we're not authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
That said, we can help you by highlighting the right type of credit brokers to approach.
Depending on the proportions of your Groovy Garden Room, their weight can range from about 1.5 tons - 4.0 tons.
We like to use responsibly sourced wood. So any wood that is approved by The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is your assurance that it’s made with, or contains, wood that comes from FSC certified forests or from post-consumer waste.
In other words, it’s wood that’s sourced from responsibly managed forests. No irresponsible sawing or environmentally harmful hacking down of perfectly lovely trees in bucolic settings, scarring the otherwise lovely landscape. Not our thing…and we’re sure it's not yours either