UK Log Cabin or similar for garden sim-room/home office

[Skybaba]

I'm in the process of moving to a new house in Milton Keynes, UK.
The house I originally wanted had a detached garage; however, the Mrs preferred another house with an integral garage.........so guess which one we got! :-)

The builder sent me the measurement for the garage height and it's only 8 feet (2.4 metres)!
I'm 5 ft 11 inches, and when I swing my 60 deg wedge in my current house with the ceiling being 7 feet 6 inches (2.28 metres) I hit the ceiling!!

I've considered digging up the garage to get a little bit more height, but the builder has stated that this would invalidate the NHBC new home warranty, which is why I'm now considering an outbuilding in the garden.

Any UK folks done something similar? Could you kindly share your experience especially with the whole planning permission jargon.

Cheers!

[simmb]

Doing something similar in my garden, a lot depends on how much space you have. You might be able to do something without planning under permitted development.
If you have a large garden and can keep the building 2 metres away from the garden boundaries you have better options including a higher roof.

If you are within 2 metres roof height will probably limit your options as you have a max height of 2.5 meters, you can however dig down if needed but that is a big job. If you do have the 2 metre boundary space you can have a 3 metre flat roof or a 4 metre apex on a pitched roof. If none of them work with your space then planning is the way to go but be careful on how you word the application as neighbours may object with noise concerns.

As for the building itself are you planning on building it yourself? There are lots of places in the UK selling ready made log cabins but most of the ones I looked at were too small height wise, the closest ones I could see that fitted the size requirements were bespoke options from Keops http://logcabins.co.uk/
They are not cheap though so we went down the self build option to save some cash.

Another UK forum member is doing something similar at the moment :

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/140425-new-uk-build-winter-2018

[MartinGoodliffe]

Skybaba That build that Simmb references is mine. I tried to do the same as you with a garage in a new build, but it just wouldn't work, so we ended up moving and I've built a shed in the garden instead.

any questions/advice you have or want let me know and I'll help as much as I can. I'm in Peterborough so not a million miles away

martin

[DannyMRICS]

What simmb said.

You’d better check that permitted development rights haven’t been removed though (being a new house).

Dan.

[MartinGoodliffe]

Yep

echo the above, with new houses the older normally removes the right for permitted development or they put covenants in the deed that you have to ask their permission (and it normally costs a fee as well) - when I enquirer with persimmon it was a £150 free for them to write a letter saying I could put a consveratory on

martin

[Skybaba]

Doing something similar in my garden, a lot depends on how much space you have. You might be able to do something without planning under permitted development.
If you have a large garden and can keep the building 2 metres away from the garden boundaries you have better options including a higher roof.

If you are within 2 metres roof height will probably limit your options as you have a max height of 2.5 meters, you can however dig down if needed but that is a big job. If you do have the 2 metre boundary space you can have a 3 metre flat roof or a 4 metre apex on a pitched roof. If none of them work with your space then planning is the way to go but be careful on how you word the application as neighbours may object with noise concerns.

As for the building itself are you planning on building it yourself? There are lots of places in the UK selling ready made log cabins but most of the ones I looked at were too small height wise, the closest ones I could see that fitted the size requirements were bespoke options from Keops http://logcabins.co.uk/
They are not cheap though so we went down the self build option to save some cash.

Another UK forum member is doing something similar at the moment :

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/140425-new-uk-build-winter-2018

Thanks for the comments and the link.....very interesting!
Ideally, I would like more than 2.5 metres which would mean I'll need to be at least 2 metres away from the boundaries.

I've done a sketch and it's going to eat up most of the garden :-(

[Skybaba]

Skybaba That build that Simmb references is mine. I tried to do the same as you with a garage in a new build, but it just wouldn't work, so we ended up moving and I've built a shed in the garden instead.

any questions/advice you have or want let me know and I'll help as much as I can. I'm in Peterborough so not a million miles away

martin

Great thread you've got going there sir! All coming together! Will definitely hit you up.

[Skybaba]

What simmb said.

You’d better check that permitted development rights haven’t been removed though (being a new house).

Dan.

Cheers, I'll hit Barratt Homes up to find out.

[Skybaba]

Here's my little sketch.......there won't be a lot of garden left for the kids! LOL. Good thing is that the Mrs doesn't mind.

[MartinGoodliffe]

Looks good

in case you didn't know you can go 2.5m in the eaves and 4m in the apex under permitted development. Get as much height as you can, as the trusses in the roof for strength will take some of the headroom

[legendsfan]

Looks good except I'd want more height if possible. Have you thought about an almost flat roof? I made my structure 12' feet tall which is max allowed. Then used 2" x 8" for trusses offset 16" to allow for a longer span. I've got just under 11' at back of shed and 10' at front. In middle where standing there is 10' 6" with no worries of hitting anything.

[simmb]

Looks really good I wish my Mrs. would have given up that much garden to me. Are you 100% not going down the planning permission route? If you could stick it in the back corner of the plot that would leave a nice little bit of garden in front and to the side.

[MartinGoodliffe]

Looks good except I'd want more height if possible. Have you thought about an almost flat roof? I made my structure 12' feet tall which is max allowed. Then used 2" x 8" for trusses offset 16" to allow for a longer span. I've got just under 11' at back of shed and 10' at front. In middle where standing there is 10' 6" with no worries of hitting anything.

you have to be careful with this as I wanted to do the same, if it’s not a dual pitch (apex) roof you are only allowed 3m total height under permitted development. I nearly fell foul of this and had to change the roof design of mine

[legendsfan]

That's an interesting building code. I'd suggest putting a slight slope and with a dual pitch to meet code. I went through similar design challenges. For mine I couldn't go higher than 12 feet and I was also limited to 200 sq feet interior usable space. In my case I built a pop out that if removed put me at 200 sq feet approximately. I received no complaints from neighbors so of course I'm wishing I built the pop out at same width as main structure.

[MartinGoodliffe]

Here's the link to the uk planning portal guidelines in case you hadn't come across it. To be classes as an apex roof, the pitch on both sides has to be indentical, i wanted a bigger slope on one side than the other but couldn't as the height limit was 3m.

https://ecab.planningportal.co.uk/uploads/miniguides/outbuildings/Outbuildings.pdf