Frequently Asked Questions

Most garden rooms do not need planning permission as they fall into the 'outbuildings' category. There are certain rules you will need to comply with which include the overall size and height of your building. The majority of homes have permitted development rights for their land but it is worthwhile checking for your home and area.

Within permitted development the key rules are as follows:

• Garden Rooms must be a single story building
• The building cannot exceed more than 50% of your garden. When calculating the 50% overall you must take into consideration all outbuildings including sheds, and extensions to the original home.
• It should not be sited on land forward of a wall forming the 'principal elevation' (that means not in front of the house).
• If the garden building is within 2m of the property boundary the whole building should not be higher than 2.5m

The general rules on garden room size are as follows:

• Up to 15m² floor space internally should not normally be required to comply with Building Regulations
• 15m² - 30m² floor space internally should not normally be required to comply with Building Regulations unless it is situated less than 1m away from your property boundary
• 30m²+ floor space internally should require Building Regulations approval. This is something Cabin Master can provide guidance and assistance on.
• The rules in your particular area can be found on your local planning portal website
• Click here to find out more.

We supply many camping and glamping sites with cabins that people stay in for 2 or 3 nights at a time. These cabins are made to exactly the same specification as the cabins we supply to our domestic customers. We can also supply Building Regs structures to enable you to use for sleeping in all-year-round.

It depends on the quality you are looking for. Summerhouses and flat pack Garden Rooms can be quite cheap but these are often little more than glorified sheds. Instead, we specialise in buildings that you can use all year round, fully insulated, double glazed and that will last for years to come. When weighing the purchase price of a cabin against the lifespan of the cabin most people find that our buildings are incredible value for money.

Garden rooms are the perfect way to add space to your home without the expense, disruption and lengthy installation time of loft conversions and traditional extensions.

Most people find that the separation from the house is also a benefit for work purposes, as well as being away from the noise and disruption that most busy families experience. So if you are looking for a Garden Office to work from home then a luxury garden room is the answer!

You would normally need planning permission to have water and waste to your building. Talk to us about how Buildings Regs can be applied to allow for you to add water and waste to your new garden building and also use the space as a 'liviable structure'. Contact our team to find out more.

This depends on the size of the garden building, but in many cases this can be done.

Most small to medium sized garden rooms can be situated less than 1m from the boundary with any neighbours under Permitted Development rules when the overall height does not exceed 2.5m

Garden rooms are one of the most sought after features that home buyers are looking for.

The addition of a garden room creates an attractive feature that allows you to achieve the best asking price when you come to sell your home. Most estate agents agree that a garden room adds to the value of the property. See the latest stats on Rightmove.

All Garden Room companies should give a comprehensive guarantee for the garden building they provide. This can generally range from 2yrs to 10+ years. Here at Cabin Master we provide a 10 year comprehensive guarantee which covers different parts of the main structure. There are also extensions to this as listed below:

• EPDM Rubber Roofing comes with a 25 year guarantee
• Cedral Click Marley Board panels come with a 25 year guarantee

It is possible to have your garden room moved but we do not advise it. This is due to the amount of damage to the building because of perminant fixings. Also the costs incurred for rectifying this damage when the garden building is re-installed. You also have to take into consideration the addition and cost of a full new garden room foundation (base) for the building at the new property.

We ask all customers to provide a cleared level area for our teams to come and install the new garden building. The ground must be compact and not be newly laid soil as this will move over the course of the 'settling' period which will in turn make the cabin foundations become unstable.

If you are having the garden landscaped we can chat to your contractors / landscape gardeners and advise them on the ground preparation.

All garden rooms should have foundations. Whether your garden building is a contemporary styled structure or a luxury bespoke garden room, foundations are needed. The foundations (or base) of the garden room ensure the stability of the structure and the overall lifespan of the garden building.

• The most popular cabin foundation we install are our composite pegged base system.
• We can also provide a concrete base or a local company can provide this for you. Our team will be able to advise your builders on the sizing and depth.

An armoured cable needs to be taken from your main home supply out to where the Garden Room will sit. It is best to ask a local electrician to do this for you at least 2 weeks before the date of installation (in case of any delays). At Cabin Master our trained Part P Electrician will come and do the 1st fix & 2nd fix and test within the time stated on the table below in 'How long will it take to build a Garden Room?'

All Cabin Master garden buildings are fully insulated to ensure all-round-use. This includes rigid PIR, moisture resistant boarding & BBA Certified breathable membrane.

If you choose a Garden Building from another company be sure to check the insulation to avoid high electricity bills when heating and cooling the building throughout the year.

We use double glazed windows and doors in all our Garden Rooms. Mostly they are UPVC framed units but some are Aluminium on request. Double glazed units ensure great insulation for retaining heat within the building.

From an external cladding point of view there are 3 main options at Cabin Master - Cedar & Redwood timber which will need to be weatherproofed if you choose not to let them go naturally silver/grey over time. Or our zero-maintenance Cedral Click Marley Board.

As we employ all our installation teams we all run to a highly efficient build process. See our table below for a guideline to our Cabin Master Garden Room installation times

• Day 1 - Base installation
• Day 3 - 5 Building Installation. This is dependant on the cabin size but generally a 1, 2 or 3 day build. 1st fix & 2nd fix electrics would also be done in this time
• Day 6 - Painter to arrive to paint your new building internally

Most garden buildings these days are made with a timber frame. Although some can be steel or brick. Insulation can be applyed between the inner and outer wall cladding to ensure the building retains the heat. Please note ALL Cabin Master garden buildings are fully insulated.

A Garden room should be a single story building with a maximum eave height of 2.5m and maximum overall height of 4m with a dual pitch roof, or 3m in any other case