Bespoke Garden Rooms in Oxfordshire

Often not. Most garden rooms in England can go up under permitted development, with no planning application, provided the room is single storey, not in front of the house, under 2.5 m high if it is within 2 m of a boundary (further away, up to 4 m with a dual-pitched roof or 3 m with any other roof), and — together with other outbuildings — covers no more than half the garden. Listed buildings, conservation areas and National Landscapes have tighter rules. It is a general guide, so always check with your council; we assess your plot during the free consultation and tell you whether planning permission or a Lawful Development Certificate is sensible.

Not under permitted development. Those rules cover buildings used for something incidental to the house — an office, gym, studio or games room. A room people sleep in, or a self-contained annexe, normally needs planning permission and will need building regulations approval as well. Tell us early if that is the plan, because it changes the design and the paperwork.

As a general rule, not for a garden room under 15 m² with no sleeping accommodation, and usually not for one of 15–30 m² that is at least 1 m from the boundary or built substantially of non-combustible materials. Larger rooms need approval. Electrical work has to meet Part P whatever the size, and plumbing has its own rules. We tell you which applies to your design before work starts.

Yes — they are two of the most common rooms we build. A garden office gets insulation throughout, a full electrical package with sockets, lighting and data, and good glazing; a garden gym adds rubber flooring, ventilation and power for equipment, with a shower as an option. See the Didcot garden office and Carterton garden gym projects on this page for examples.

Yes. Every DKRO garden room has insulation in the walls, floor and roof — typically PIR boards or mineral wool, U-value better than UK building regs require for outbuildings. Combined with double or triple glazing, that means you can use it through January as comfortably as in July. We are not a shed company.

The first week is design, sign-off and material lead times — we agree the layout, finishes and spec with you. After that the on-site build itself takes 2.5–4 weeks on average from foundation to handover, depending on size and complexity.

Yes. We routinely install full plumbing — toilets, basins, showers and kitchenettes — connecting to your house drainage and water supply. This is popular for guest suites, gym recovery rooms, garden bars and pool houses. We size the foul/grey water and water supply lines as part of the design.

Anything between roughly 4 m² and 50 m². Standard rectangles, L-shapes with terraces, corner glass pavilions, lean-to extensions against the house, pitched-gable cabins, studios with skylights and living green roofs. If you can sketch it, we can build it — see our 8 base configurations on this page as a starting point.

From outside in: cedar, larch or composite cladding → breathable membrane → 100–150 mm timber frame filled with PIR or mineral wool insulation → vapour barrier → service void → plasterboard or timber panelling. Roof and floor follow the same insulated principle. We share the full spec sheet during quoting.

Yes — we are based in Wantage and build across Oxfordshire, West Berkshire and North Wiltshire, roughly 30 miles around: Oxford, Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford, Witney, Faringdon, Bicester, Thame, Henley, Reading, Newbury, Hungerford, Swindon and Marlborough, plus the villages in between. We also work across Surrey within about 15 miles of Guildford and Woking — including Godalming, Farnham, Camberley, Weybridge and Dorking. Tell us your postcode and we will come and quote.

Typically yes — a well-built, insulated garden room with electrics adds usable square footage and tends to recover most of its cost on resale. A cheap shed-style cabin does not. The difference is insulation, foundation, build quality and finish — exactly what we focus on.