When making any significant changes to your home or garden, it’s crucial you obtain the necessary permissions to ensure you won’t be forced to remove (or alter) the development post-construction at your own expense!

Below, we explore the considerations you should bear in mind before building a garden office – including whether you should seek planning permission from a local authority.

What to consider when building a garden office

When building a garden office, there are some basic elements you should consider and include in your construction budget such as heating, insulation, and electrics. These core elements are essential for ensuring your garden office meets your work space needs and can be used comfortably all year-round.

You should also consider installing high-quality windows and doors as this will help to regulate the garden office temperature as well as improve security. Security and temperature regulation is especially important if your garden office is likely to contain expensive electrical equipment that may become a target for thieves or become inoperative in particularly hot or cold temperatures.

Alongside considering the comfort, security, and functionality of your garden office, you should also check the legality of your proposed construction project. To help you determine whether your desired development is safe to start construction, we explore whether garden offices require planning permission in more detail below!

Is planning permission required when building a garden office?

In many cases, planning permission won’t be required to build a garden office in Bristol or any other UK location. This is because garden rooms are typically classed as outbuildings which are covered by permitted development rights in the UK.

These rights allow you to extend or renovate your home (to a certain extent) without having to submit a planning application, saving you weeks or months of waiting.

However, in order for your outbuilding project to be covered by permitted development rights, it must meet a long list of conditions including being single storey and outside the grounds of a listed building.

If your proposed garden office development doesn’t meet these conditions, you will need to apply for planning permission.

Attempting to build a garden office in Bristol?

If you want to build a garden office in Bristol, but aren’t sure where to start or require professional support, feel free to contact our expert team today.

We offer our customers a wide range of garden office rooms that can be specially designed to suit your specific requirements.

As well as having the choice of garden office size and shape, these bespoke creations can feature everything from underfloor heating to floor-to-ceiling glazing and low-energy LED spotlights.

Regardless of which fixtures and finishes you choose, you can rest assured that you’ll receive a high-quality space.

Each one of our bespoke garden offices are constructed using solid engineered structural FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) timber and steel. The result is a durable and long-lasting garden office that looks fantastic and lasts for years!

To learn more about how we build our contemporary and reliable garden office rooms, please feel free to get in touch.

To contact our team email us at enquiries@vividpods.co.uk, or use our online contact form to reach out.