Shopping Guides Buyer's Guide To Summerhouses

Date Published:

29/08/2008

Types Of Summerhouse

So, what’s available, and what are the basic must-haves? Garden buildings fall broadly into three groups:

Interlocking Cabin Style Summerhouses

Softwood tongue and groove boards interlock at the corners to form a Scandinavian-type cabin usually with a traditional pitched roof. These softwood buildings must be painted or varnished regularly to protect the timber. Assembly is very easy and you only need a few metal fixings for the roof and floors – the rest locks together and can be built up in a couple of days. There are no large panels to deal with so it’s easy to take the pieces through narrow side passages or even through a standard doorway.

Modular Summerhouses

Some companies make their garden buildings like mini-houses, with cedar or redwood external cladding, walls filled with insulation and plasterboard or melamine interiors. These buildings offer better heat retention levels and should also stay cooler in summer. Doors and windows are usually double-glazed, lockable units and electric points fitted to the walls so there’s no ugly conduit. These contemporary structures with shallow pitched roofs and floor to ceiling glazing can suit a period house as much as a contemporary building. Prices start from around £5,000.

Timber-Frame Summerhouses

If you’re prepared to spend from about £23,000 upwards, you can have a traditional oak frame with reclaimed tiles or even thatched roof. These buildings are more suited to period houses with large gardens. Oak buildings need less weather treatment than softwoods and the building time will be more than the matter of days taken for the first two categories of building. However a bespoke building can look stunning and match a traditional house style exactly. It should come with at least a 10-year guarantee.

Foundations For A Summerhouse

It may make sense to arrange for a slab or concrete pillar base to be installed at the same stage as your house foundations. A more environmentally friendly option is to use rows of concrete pillars supporting metal fixings that attach to the building’s base frame. There’s a lot less disturbance and the building is raised above ground level, improving air flow and isolating the building from damp.