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Design DilemmaGardens
livie93

Making structural changes to office outbuilding

Livie
last month


Hello!

We have an outbuilding in our garden which was put in by the previous owners. It's pretty big; maybe 6m x 3m or so and it has electricity and internet. So the hope was to use it as an office but they've designed it in a pretty rubbish way which makes it feel dark and not well connected to the garden. Tiny windows and a tiny door! It's a fairly cheap construction I would think, made using cladding with cedral click cement fibre board (I think...). Anyway, I want to have it altered essentially to make it a nicer space. Perhaps remove a wall and add in some sliding doors, or just add in much longer windows, or a huge window at the back which looks onto the field. Or change the roof so it has Velux windows in it?! I'm not really sure...they also never quite finished it when we moved in, so it also needs a proper flooring, skirting boards and gutters.

So I am stuck as to who I hire for this sort of work. We aren't doing a complete re-build and given this is not our "forever" home we don't want to spend a load of money on it, I just want to improve it so we actually use this space. I worry an architect might be a bit overkill and I expect garden building companies won't do this sort of work. Any thoughts much appreciated :)

Featured Answer
  • PRO
    Bespoke Glazing Design
    24 days ago

    We can certainly help you with that. DM us your details, and I can schedule a call with our design team. They can answer any questions and provide a clear quote.

    Comments (12)

    • PRO
      Piur & Co interior design
      last month

      HI Livie,

      I offer free 30-minute Zoom consultations if you want to take advantage of to pick my brain and I can offer you some advice. If you want I would be happy to help design the space for you, for a daily design fee, or just offer you advice on how to proceed and what to consider for free.

      If you want my help please feel free to reach out.

      hope to hear from you :D


    • Sonia
      last month

      I wonder if a window company can help? So could they put in a nice big slider in place of those teeny tiny windows? They are usually pretty good at upgrading windows. Get someone who is recommended to you of course.

      Livie thanked Sonia
    • PRO
      Piur & Co interior design
      last month

      You would need a carpenter to create the opening first, before the window or doors get installed.

    • Livie
      Original Author
      last month

      @Piur & Co interior design that's very kind of you to offer your time for a free discussion on my options! I should say I am based down in Exeter, not London, so not sure if that changes anything, but would be happy to discuss options!


      @sonia I wish my outbuilding looked like that photo 😅 Do not understand what motivated them to put in such small windows! I thought about a window company too, but as was said there would need to be a carpenter/builder of some sort to create the holes for them without suggesting the whole thing needs to be knocked down and started again!

    • Sonia
      last month

      Livie the only reason I thought of a window company is that I had a standard window changed into a patio slider which entailed removing the lower bricks before installing the slider. All done by the window fitter. Depends on the talent of the window fitter I suppose! 😊

    • Livie
      Original Author
      last month
      last modified: last month

      @sonia Yes this makes sense as we had similar. We had our extension re-done but it was a fairly simple job, but they did re-build us a wall for it, even though they are window and door fitters! I was considering asking them to take a look...I get nervous though that they think it'll be fine and then not do a great job 😅 Perhaps a bit unfair!


      Though I also wanted someone who had a bit of a design flair, rather than just window installers/builders as I'm struggling to picture what would make sense and actually help the aesthetics of the building!

    • Sonia
      last month

      What area are you Livie? Maybe we can recommend someone although your guys sounded good. I suppose as it’s a wooden building it may be a bit different?

    • Livie
      Original Author
      last month

      @sonia I'm based in Exeter in the South West...🙃 I think it's built as a timber structure with insulation with these horizontal cladding things clipped onto the sides! The guys who built our conservatory wall just built a timber frame too as we couldn't have brick without faffing with foundations (couldn't be bothered with that :) )

    • Isla Cherry
      last month

      The window size may be small due to many reasons. First I would check the suns position. It may face west which with huge windows or a slider would be scorching in summer. Of course you could open the slider. They (the previous owners) may have wanted to utilize as much wall space as possible. I agree with Sonia that a window company is your best option for some alternatives. I would pick your best view and increase the glazing on that side. Also think of function before losing wall space. I'm also in the South West. Wessex windows in Bristol are excellent and may be able to help you or have another branch.

    • Livie
      Original Author
      28 days ago

      The windows are small I think because he wanted loads of wall sockets in it as he built it for a huge train set 😅 it's bigger than our garage 😳 it's not west facing. That long side with the tiny windows is north facing and the back of it which looks onto a lovely field has the same size tiny window and that's east facing. So would be nice for the back of it to have a lovely big window so it gets the morning sun! At the moment the building is completely unusable in the winter and it doesn't warm up at all in the summer as no light comes in from anywhere 🙃 The whole right side of the outbuilding has no windows at all so that's always going to provide us with wall space. Thank you for the window company suggestion too!! I'll have a look at them as well!

    • Isla Cherry
      28 days ago

      A huge train set and I thought I had a problem with DH's oversized Lego builds! We are heading the same way as I refuse to have my minimalist interior dreams destroyed by huge bright plastic eyesores. Eiffel tower + crawler crane so far....

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