The garden room company that designs, manufactures and installs every building itself

Usually not. Most garden rooms are built under permitted development, which means no application is needed provided the building stays inside a few limits.

Height is the one that catches people out. Within two metres of a boundary, the whole building can be no more than 2.5 metres tall, and that is the roof, not just the walls. Site it further than two metres from every boundary and you get more headroom: up to 4 metres to the ridge for a dual-pitched roof, or 3 metres for anything else. The building must also not cover more than half the garden around your original house, cannot sit forward of the front elevation, and cannot be used as self-contained sleeping accommodation.

Building regulations are separate from planning and usually do not apply either. A building under 15 square metres with no sleeping accommodation is generally exempt. Between 15 and 30 square metres it is normally still exempt provided it sits at least a metre from any boundary or is built from substantially non-combustible materials.

Conservation areas, listed buildings and National Parks need particular care. For domestic annexe accommodation, our planning partner checks the design, site and intended use to confirm the appropriate route and approvals.

Rules vary between councils, so confirm with your local planning authority before ordering. This is guidance, not planning advice.

Read more about planning permission for a garden room

Four things drive the price: the range, the footprint, the specification and the groundworks.

Range sets the starting point. Garden Buildings start at £3,406 and Pods at £6,976. Garden Rooms are the core range from £14,098, and Signature is the top of what we build from £21,894, with the foundation and a full turnkey service included.

Footprint is the biggest lever after that, but not in the way most people expect. A bigger building costs less per square metre, and a squarer plan costs less than a long, narrow one of the same floor area, because there is less wall. If you are choosing between two sizes, the larger one usually buys more usable space per pound.

Specification moves the number next. Cladding, doors and windows, a pitched or L-shaped roof, decking and acoustic panels all add, and the configurator prices each one as you choose it. Heating and air conditioning are quoted on the call.

The honest surprise is the base. A level, load-bearing base is not optional, and on a sloping or soft garden it can be a meaningful share of the total. It is also the item most often left out of a comparison quote, so check whether a rival price includes it.

Rather than a guessed figure, use the configurator: every option shows its price as you choose it. Flexible finance over 10, 12 and 24 months is available if you would rather spread it.

Read more about garden room prices

Yes, provided it is insulated properly. This is the question most worth settling before you buy, because it is where the cheap end of the market catches people out.

An uninsulated building is a summer building. It will be cold in January and uncomfortable in July, and heating cannot fix a shell that loses warmth as fast as you add it. That is why a Garden Building is described as seasonal and practical: the right answer for a workshop or storage, the wrong one for an office you sit in through winter.

Every Pod, Garden Room, Signature and Granny Annexe is insulated in the walls, roof and floor, and the level rises as you move up the range. Pods use a foil system. Garden Rooms step up to a fuller specification. Signature uses structural insulated panels that target the sort of thermal performance you would expect from a new-build home.

The practical test is running cost. A well-insulated room reaches temperature quickly and holds it, so heating it is cheap. A poorly insulated one costs you every month you own it.

Decide early. Retro-fitting insulation to a building that was not designed for it is expensive, disruptive, and never as good as building it in.

Read more about garden room insulation

It depends on the range, and it is worth knowing before you compare prices.

Garden Rooms and Signature include white 16A electrics with two double sockets and four spotlights. Granny Annexes include a white 32A ring main with four double sockets and six spotlights. Both include a switch and fuseboard, wired and tested inside the building. Electrics are an upgrade on Garden Pods, so compare their price with that addition when you need power and lighting.

The connection to your main property electrical supply is arranged by you or separately quoted by Noah, subject to a site survey and the requirements of our electrical contractor. It is included only where expressly stated in the quotation.

If you are planning a golf simulator, heavy gym equipment, air conditioning, a hot tub or a workshop full of power tools, say so at design stage. Those loads change the cable specification and sometimes the supply itself, and building the right one in costs far less than upgrading it later.

Read more about garden room electrics

On Granny Annexes, kitchens and bathrooms are optional upgrades, with every layout quoted separately including internal plumbing. The configurator layouts are inspiration for your quotation. They are not offered on Garden Buildings, Pods, Garden Rooms or Signature.

The building side is straightforward. The drainage is what needs planning. A toilet needs a route to a foul drain, which usually means connecting into your existing soil stack or fitting a pump system to reach it. Which one suits depends on where the building sits relative to your drains and the levels between them, so raise it on the first call rather than after the design is fixed.

External mains water, waste and electrical connections are arranged by you or separately quoted by Noah. Groundwork, service routes and any applicable approvals are confirmed for your site before ordering.

It also changes the layout more than people expect. A WC and basin take roughly a square metre of floor plus the door swing, so on a small footprint it is usually better to step up one size than lose a corner of the room you actually wanted. A shower needs more space again, plus mechanical ventilation.

Tell us at design stage whether a toilet is likely, even if you are undecided. Building in the provision costs very little. Adding it afterwards costs a great deal.

Read more about a garden room with a toilet

Every garden room needs a level, load-bearing base, and there are two routes.

Ground screws are steel piles driven into the ground to carry the building on a frame. They suit most gardens, go in within a day, need no concrete and no curing time, and cope well with slopes and soft ground. They also leave the ground largely intact, which matters if the building might move or be removed later. For most projects this is what we recommend.

A concrete base is the traditional alternative and still the right answer in some situations: very poor ground, very heavy loads, or where a solid slab is wanted anyway. It costs more and takes longer, because concrete has to be poured and then cured before anything is built on it.

Two things are worth knowing. The base is the most common cause of delay on a garden building project: if the ground turns out to be uneven or unable to take the load, that work has to finish before installation can start. And it is the item most often left out of comparison quotes, which is how two prices that look similar turn out not to be.

We survey the ground before quoting, so the base is priced on your garden rather than an average.

Read more about ground screws for a garden room

Longer than most people assume. A well-built, properly insulated garden room is a permanent structure in everything but planning terms, and there is no reason one should not still be in use in twenty or thirty years.

What determines lifespan is cladding and upkeep. Composite cladding is effectively maintenance-free: it needs no treating and holds its colour. Cedar silvers to grey unless you oil it once a year, and ordinary timber wants a waterproofing paint soon after installation, kept up yearly. Neither is better than the other; they just ask for different things.

The jobs that genuinely shorten a building's life are small and avoidable. Blocked gutters are the main one, followed by damaged cladding left unrepaired and fixings that go unchecked after high winds. Half an hour twice a year is realistically all it takes.

Every Noah building carries a ten-year structural guarantee against rot, decay and structural failure, the parts you cannot inspect yourself and cannot easily put right.

The other half of longevity is who you bought from. Because we design, manufacture and install every building ourselves, a problem in year seven is a phone call to the people who built it rather than a hunt for a subcontractor who has moved on.

Read more about the garden room warranty

They solve different problems, and the answer depends on whether the space needs to be connected to the house.

If you need a bigger kitchen or another bedroom off the landing, an extension is the answer and a garden room is not. If you need a room to work, train, host or retreat in, where being slightly separate from the house is a feature rather than a compromise, a garden room wins on most measures.

Cost is the obvious one: a garden room is typically a fraction of a comparable extension. Time is the bigger difference in practice. Four to eight weeks, with installation usually finished inside a week, against months for an extension. And you carry on living normally throughout, because nothing is happening inside your house. No dust, no scaffolding, no kitchen you cannot use.

Permissions differ too. Most garden rooms need no planning application and, without a toilet or sleeping accommodation, generally sit outside building regulations. Most extensions need both.

On value, treat precise percentages with caution. A well-built, insulated room with power adds genuine usable space and shows well to buyers. A cheap uninsulated shell does not. What is certain is that a garden room is the faster, less disruptive route to the space, and unlike an extension it can be relocated or removed.

Read more about garden room vs extension