Budget Garden Office

A question about : Budget Garden Office

Hi all,

Have searched for something on this topic but found nothing as yet - I'm sure I may have missed it so feel free to link.

My boyfriend and I are moving to a new flat in a couple of weeks with a generous back garden (and a front one too!) that is private. He's a journalist and I am a researcher, so we both work from home quite a bit. We're also very seriously considering a lodger in our spare bedroom for a bit of extra moving-in moolah.

I think an ideal solution to this lack of space (we're in London) would be a garden office. I don't want to (and can't!) fork out 10k for one of the top-of-the-range things - we're happy to run the electricity and the fire cable for the internet out ourselves (got a friend who has done this before). We're all for DIYing as much of it as possible (draftproofing windows, assembly, insulating, etc). What we don't have is the skills to make one from scratch.

Has anyone bought a reasonably-sized garden shed before, and turned it into an occasional work/ craft/ leave-me-alone-I-want-to-read-my-book space? Any tips on cheap-but-reasonable shed dealers? I'd be grateful for any pointers you have!

Laura

Best answers:

• Reasonable sheds are never cheap and locally sourced is usually better, because you can examine what, exactly you'll be getting. You should get a good 12x 9 shed for around Ј1k.
  Don't do what the idiot who owned my shed did, and stuff fibre insulation between the outer wall and an inner one, as this will just hold penetrating damp and cause rot. If you must insulate, use polystyrene, which doesn't trap moisture.
  But before you do these things, make sure that any electricity you install comes via a 30 milliamp trip....and if you don't know what that means, get someone who does to do it!