Garden Room Buy vs Build: EVERYTHING You NEED to Know

Should you buy or build a garden room or summerhouse?
👌 Buy workshop plans here: https://sumeraybuilds.com/en-gbp/products/workshop-full-plans
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Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
0:30 – Costs
2:47 – Building Difficulty
3:42 – Maintanance
5:15 – Looks
6:10 – Working in it
7:40 – Conclusion

#SumerayBuilds #Woodworking #DIY

so you’ve decided that you want to get a garden room Whether it’s to work in escape in or just hide from your kids and you’re not sure whether you should buy a pre-fabricated summer house like this one or build your own from scratch like I have here As someone that has done both of these choices I feel quite well placed to tell you the things that I wish I knew before I did either In this video I’ll be breaking down the cost difficulty to build maintenance looks as well as the reality of what it’s like working in both of these buildings Let’s get into it The summer house behind me I got back during the beginning of COVID Actually it cost me5 £55,000 It was delivered by Dunster House It arrives as a big jigsaw totally flat packed and I put it together in about one day And as you can imagine the prices since 2019 2020 have changed quite a bit So just to make sure that we are comparing apples to apples here I’ve gone on to the Dunster House website and found this log cabin that’s about 5×3 m which is a similar size to the workshop that I built that is currently available for just under £5,000 And whilst that sounds simple enough this isn’t accounting for the base that you will need to put down before you can actually build your summer house It also isn’t accounting for anything like the paint that you’ll need on the outside the electrics for the internals and any extra features like an additional window and door that you might need A good example of an optional extra is this additional door that I bought I think this was an additional £200 It does look like a bird has gone to the bathroom all over it So sorry about that And this is really important to factor in because once you’ve added on all of those optional extras and the not so optional extras like the base you’re probably looking at an additional spend on top of what the actual summerhouse costs of about £2 to £3,000 So overall a log cabin that is about 3×6 m is going to set you back in the range to about 8 to 9,000 On the flip side of that my workshop that I built just this time last year set me back just over £7,000 I did a full video breaking down the details of that which I’ll link to here I’m not going to break it all down here because I don’t want to repeat what I’ve said there But the main thing to mention here is you’ve got a lot more flexibility as to what materials you decide to use If you’re quite a savvy person and you can source secondhand materials then you could potentially slash the price of it in half Also the other big factor at play here is if you are confident enough to actually build this yourself If you are considering paying a laborer to do the work for you honestly you can probably double that £7,000 In conclusion you can expect a pre-fabricated summerhouse and a selfbuild to set you back about the same cost But just remember if you are paying an external laborer to do the work for you it’s going to cost a lot more which seems like a great time to talk about the difficulty to build A summer house is essentially a flat pack piece of furniture similar to what you might receive from IKEA There’s just a hell of a lot more timber than what you’d get in a set of drawers You are going to need some pretty basic tools like a hammer There’s no need to get out the big expensive equipment when you’re ordering one of these You’re going to need a good friend and probably a whole weekend as well as a lot of patience when you realize that most of the instructions are written in hieroglyphics A DIY build however is a totally different game You are going to need considerably more tools a lot more time as well as a lot more knowledge and confidence in basic building construction But this does give you absolute and total control over everything every measurement every piece of material it’s going to be totally down to you So there’s a lot more room for customization here In conclusion a pre-fabricated summerhouse is a lot easier and certainly a lot faster to build whereas a DIY build is a lot more rewarding but it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted Maintenance is another huge factor that you need to consider when weighing up your options here Now here I’m next to my summer house I’ve had it for 4 years and I’ve only painted it once when I actually got it You can see now that that paint is actually wearing out a little bit and it is definitely going to be due another coat And honestly I don’t think I’ve actually got the patience to lightly sand this down and then paint the entire thing again I just hate painting Also there’s other factors at play Being a structure that is entirely made of timber means that this thing grows and shrinks with the seasons A good example of this is right now it is coming up to summer It is mid June time and you can see that this door here has become really stiff So that’s something to be aware of Also if you come inside my summer house you can see that this section I’ve sort of got my home gym And in winter there is a good 1-in gap above this power rack here As you can see in summer it’s gone down and there’s barely enough room to slide a piece of paper in there And obviously if you decide to clad your DIY build in timber then you’re going to have this exact same issue from a maintenance point of view You’re still going to need to expect to paint it every 2 to 3 years to keep it maintained This is exactly why I went for this plastic cladding option that yeah was a bit more expensive but I sleep very sound at night knowing that I will never need to paint this or maintain it ever again With a pre-fabricated summer house you should expect to do a fair bit more maintenance whereas a DIY build done right can be significantly lower maintenance in the long run As for looks well let’s be honest a summer house it looks pretty charming You may not agree with the color that I’ve opted for on the walls as well as the doors and windows And if you don’t well that’s up to you It’s all personal preference right Let me know in the comments But there’s no denying that there is a certain level of charm with a summer house that you probably won’t replicate building it yourself unless you really know what you’re doing Whereas a DIY build you’re going to have to really know what you’re going for at the start to end up with that final look Mine is certainly more of a fortress than a fairy tale looking summerhouse but I love it Overall I would say that a pre-fabricated summer house does have instant curb appeal At the end of the day this thing turns up pre-esigned ready to build and you don’t really have to worry about it looking any different from the catalog picture where you ordered it where as a DIY build you’re going to have to both execute on the design and the actual build of it and just hope that you get it right Prior to building my workshop I actually worked in this summer house for about 4 years and I can tell you with absolute confidence there’s about 3 months of the year where it’s perfect In winter it is so cold that even the heater isn’t enough to quite warm my fingers whilst I’m typing on my keyboard And in peak summer at sort of 25° plus this thing is basically a sauna So unless you insulate it bear that in mind It is really hard to use one of these as a home office if you haven’t insulated it properly Whereas in my self build I insisted on insulating this with the thickest PI board that I could fit within the actual gap of the timber walls The result of that means that this thing is beautifully cool in the summer and can very quickly heat up in the winter after about an hour of having my heater on Since then I’ve actually moved all of my home office from the summer house into here which does have its challenges with using it as a workshop as well But I’ve managed to make do so far And this has been lovely because it means I’m not sat there in gloves in winter or I’m not sat there basically in me pants in summertime And it is worth mentioning that you obviously can insulate a summer house but the things you need to remember is this is going to come at additional costs beyond what you’ve paid Also the thickness of the PI board or the insulation that you’re going to have is going to decrease the actual internal size of your summer house So remember that as well From my point of view if you are just looking at a summerhouse without insulation and you’re not planning to insulate it it doesn’t really make a good working office in the UK for all year round So I guess that makes the killer question What would I do if I had neither of these buildings and I was looking to do one or the other Well I can say with absolute confidence that if I was to do this again I would 100% go with the selfbuild option The quality of the build the comfort of working inside it as well as the feeling of satisfaction every time I look at it 100% makes it worth it from my point of view And don’t get me wrong I get why people buy summer houses They’re really fast to build They’re really simple to put together And you don’t need to know what noggin are or own all of the tools to take on the build yourself And really I think that’s what it comes down to If you are the type of person that backs yourself to do one of these self builds then you will likely end up with a much better result And if you’re not then opt for a summer house Just know that there is an increased amount of maintenance that you’re going to do certainly with painting it every few years It will need some upgrades to it if you want additional doors and windows and you’ll need to put the electrics in there So that’s all going to come at extra costs And it won’t be ideal working in it year round without insulation but it certainly has its place And if you are considering building your own workshop then you should check out the workshop plans that I have available on my website This breaks down everything you need to know including all of the materials that you could expect to buy as well as detailed plans and step-by-step instructions So make sure you check that out It is well worth the money And if you want to watch me build that workshop you can click here next Until next time happy