Frequently Asked Questions

Many garden rooms are built under permitted development, which allows single-storey outbuildings within certain size, height and boundary limits without a full planning application. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions and larger or taller designs can change this. See our planning permission guide for your borough, and always confirm with your local planning authority before you start.

Permitted development (under the General Permitted Development Order, Part 1, Class E) is a set of national rules that let most homeowners add a single-storey outbuilding without applying for full planning permission, subject to limits on height, position relative to boundaries, and how much of the garden is built on. It is not a blanket exemption — it depends on your specific plot, property type and local designations. Check the guide for your borough on our planning permission pages and confirm with the council before ordering.

It depends on the specification. A lightweight summerhouse-style building is generally only comfortable in warmer months, while an all-year insulated garden room is built with a proper insulated frame, sealed double or triple glazing and provision for heating, so it stays usable through a Manchester winter. Tell us how you plan to use the room and we will recommend the right specification.

Planning permission and Building Regulations are separate regimes — clearing one does not clear the other. Exemption from Building Regulations depends mainly on floor area and use: a single-storey garden room of 15m² or less, with no sleeping accommodation, is generally exempt regardless of how close it sits to a boundary or what it's built from. Between 15m² and 30m², it can still be exempt, but only if it sits at least 1 metre from every boundary or is built substantially of non-combustible material — a timber-clad room within 1 metre of the boundary in that size range typically loses the exemption. Above 30m², or with any sleeping accommodation at any size, Building Regulations apply regardless of distance from the boundary or materials. Rules and thresholds can change, so always confirm the position for your specific project with your council or an approved building control body.

Not automatically. Building Regulations Part P covers electrical safety, and it applies to a garden room's electrical installation whenever the power is fed from your house's supply — which is how most garden rooms are wired — even where the building itself is fully exempt from the rest of the Building Regulations on floor area grounds. In practice, most garden rooms need Part P-compliant electrical work, carried out or certified by a competent person, regardless of whether the room itself needed a Building Regulations application. The same principle applies to plumbing where water is supplied from the house. Always confirm the position for your specific project with your council or an approved building control body.

Adding a shower room usually means connecting to mains drainage, a pumped waste system, and electrics in a wet area — all of which typically bring Building Regulations into play alongside planning considerations. It is very site-specific, depending on where your existing drainage runs and how far the room sits from the house, so this is one to talk through with us and confirm with your local authority before finalising a design.

The standard approach is a dedicated armoured cable run from your property's consumer unit out to the garden room, installed and certified by a qualified electrician, giving the room its own sockets, lighting and (where needed) heating circuit. The right cable route and consumer unit capacity depend on your existing electrics and the distance involved, so this is assessed on a site-by-site basis.

The right base depends on your ground conditions: a level, well-drained garden typically takes a concrete pad or raft base, while a sloping plot, one affected by nearby tree roots, or poor ground often calls for screw piles, which avoid a full concrete pour and are quicker to correct if the survey reveals a problem. See our bases, groundworks and installation page for more detail, or ask us to assess your specific garden.

Overlooking, boundary proximity and the outlook from neighbouring gardens can be a material consideration in some planning cases, even where a project otherwise falls under permitted development. It is good practice to talk to your neighbours before you start, and to check the specific rules that apply to your property with your local planning authority.

Costs vary depending on the size, specification, cladding, glazing and groundworks each project needs, so we don't publish a generic price list. Contact us for a free, no-obligation quote based on your garden and requirements.

Timescales depend on the design, groundworks required and the time of year, among other factors, so we don't quote a generic timeframe here. Get in touch for a free quote and we'll talk you through the process for your specific project.