I need somewhere to work at home, away from kids, chickens, greyhounds and The Wife. We’ve a 3-bed house, with all the bedrooms taken, and the downstairs is all open plan(ish) so there’s nowhere suitable downstairs.

Obvious solution: a shed office!

Needs to be relatively cheap, small is ok.

Currently thinking of something like a 7×5 shed, lined and insulated, with a desk across the back wall made from a sheet of ply. Would get an electrician in to fit lights and sockets and wire it up to the house (data cable too). I’d keep my laptop and stuff in the house, and just take it out when I was going to start working, so security isn’t a worry.

Show me yours, comments, suggestions, etc.

You can get around the “datacable” problem by using a homeplug network thing, that sends ethernet down the power lines (no idea how, it’s very clever).

loft ?

You can get around the “datacable” problem by using a homeplug network thing, that sends ethernet down the power lines (no idea how, it’s very clever).

Didn’t think of that; good suggestion.

It will be cold too. Make sure you have enough electric rating thing for a fan heater.

loft = too much cash

I know these won’t fit the relatively cheap option but I like these as an outdoor office solutions, I had a look the Malvern ones at the Ideal Home this year, nicely put together and nice company.

Malvern

Garden Lodges

Rooms Outdoor

Reconditioned site office.

I got a 16×8 for £650. Insulated, electric points and lighting inc.

Crikey – Garden Lodges are not cheap – £15-20k for an insulated shed with double glazing!

yes some of them are damn expensive I think the Malvern ones were cheaper, but still alot for a posh shed.

My first quick Google found some really nice looking ones. Their smallest ‘pods’ were as cheap as £20k!

Windows? Yay or nay?

Pro: lighter
Con: colder

artical in todays guardian work supplement on this very subject today.
go forth and purchase.

Might just go and buy one now, been thinking about a garden workshop for some time….

Mind you, at those prices at Attic conversion seems about the same cost and I’d get 2 rooms and a bathroom rather than just one shed.

20k build a nice extension for that surely, the pods are expensive

@mike

are u Bristol based ???

If so talk to

Alan Coward Transport
Tel: 01454-633731

He’ll sort you a cabin.

Why do you need a data cable? go wireless?

I bought an OWL power meter a while back and found that my WiFi network cost about £100 a year to run in electricity. Given CAT-5 is about 5 cents a metre, seems the cost efficient/environmental way to go….

see if you have any local shed/garden building manufacturers locally so you can actually see what you are getting for your cash, internet sites are cheap but can be utter cr”p (as i found out).

i’ve been looking myself, we have 2 manufacturers locally and there is a huge quality difference between them yet their prices are the same. from the better one a very nice 8 x 10ft summerhouse, easily big enough to work in, is 1200quid.

i do heartily second the heating comments though, i work from home and there is nothing more miserable than having to work on your own in a freezing outbuilding.

Some cheapo ones here 🙂

Best pic i have, 9 by 5 ft loads of room for 2 people to work in. I didn’t insulate just use a 2 Kw fan heater take two minuets to worm up. Cost £900

I bought a standard 14×8′ shed, but asked for it to be 18″ taller (on cost of £50) to give plenty of headroom. Lined it with polystyrene and then cladding over that; stupidly didn’t insulate the floor but just laid wood finish on it (gets a bit cold on the toes!). Decent coating of varinsh stuff. Wired it myself with armoured cable to it from the house. Run a oil filled radiator but only needed when v cold outside.

That was 10 yrs ago, and it’s been fanatastic – cost less than £1k, feels like an office, is ‘my space’ so kids/family ignore me, never ever been cold in it, radiator seldom clicks on, and once warm, it stays warm. BT happily gave me extension cable to run a phone into it – highly recommended!

Did my garage out by putting studs on the walls with standard roofing insulation in-between followed by a skin of thick chipboard, lining paper, paint.

Same for ceiling only with plaster boards then some thin wood cladding. Worked out fairly cheap and is virtually soundproof. No reason you couldn’t do the same starting with a wooden shed.

I run some RG45 from my router down the side of the house to a hub, much more reliable than Wifi.

Similar project planned here. Reckon £1k for a decent home build including small wood-burning stove 🙂

Thanks for the advice and experiences, everyone. Probably going to go for a 7×5 with a desk right across the rear wall, leaving space for shelving and an oil-filled radiator.

*Bump* for those wasting time at the end of a Monday at work.

Mike – why don’t you ask Stoner to build one for you…. 😉

I think some of the people on here are a lot more hardy than me – i get cold working at home sitting in my dining room (and it’s worse in the little space with the bureau on the second floor landing…).

My dad built one for my mum.

It’s a garden house type thing. Not too big, he insulated it and uses a nice little wood burning stove.

It’s perfect and cost under a grand.

Build your own. Way cheaper!

Use treated timber for weatherboarding.

Insulate underneath as well as the walls and roof.

Shouldn’t take much more than a couple of days if you are handy and have the right tools.

I think some of the people on here are a lot more hardy than me – i get cold working at home sitting in my dining room (and it’s worse in the little space with the bureau on the second floor landing…).

I get cold when working at the dining room table during the day, but that’s because I won’t put the heating on if it’s just me in the house; I’m sure that a small, insulated space with a heater would be warmer.

Build your own. Way cheaper!

I did have an idea for building on myself, based on an A frame like the chestnut house from Grand Designs. I’d be happier with a bought one though, I think.

very interesting and timely thread!