A well-designed garden room gives you a genuine extra space — a quiet home office, a studio, a gym or a garden lounge — without extending the house itself. We prepare the design and the drawings so you have a considered, properly insulated building that works all year round, ready for a builder to price and construct. We design only; we don't carry out the building work, which keeps our advice focused on getting the layout, siting and specification right for how you'll actually use it.
What we do
We design around the actual use — a quiet, well-lit office needs different glazing, layout and acoustics from a gym or a relaxed garden room.
Properly insulated walls, roof and floor plus the right glazing make the difference between a cold summerhouse and a space you'll use in January.
Where the building sits, which way it faces and where the doors and windows go all shape how bright and pleasant it feels through the day.
Proportions, materials and roof form chosen so the garden room sits comfortably in your plot rather than dominating it.
A garden room is usually treated as an outbuilding that's incidental to the house, and many fall within permitted development — which can mean a full planning application isn't needed. The limits are specific, though: it should be single storey, with a maximum eaves height of around 2.5m and an overall height of up to 4m for a dual-pitched roof, 3m for other roofs, or 2.5m where it sits within 2m of a boundary. It also shouldn't sit forward of the principal elevation, and outbuildings together shouldn't cover more than half the land around the original house. These are general limits and may not all apply to your property.
Designated land — conservation areas, and similar — has tighter rules, and flats and some properties don't have the same rights at all. Importantly, a garden room used for sleeping, or as primary or self-contained living accommodation, is not 'incidental' and would need planning permission. We advise on the likely route for your specific garden and prepare the drawings it needs — always subject to confirmation with Wirral Council (or your local planning authority).
Building regulations are separate from planning. A small, detached, single-storey garden room often falls outside them — many are exempt below around 15 square metres of floor area, and up to about 30 square metres can sometimes avoid full approval depending on proximity to boundaries and the materials used. Above those thresholds, or where the building contains sleeping accommodation, the regulations are more likely to apply.
Any garden room intended for habitable or self-contained living use will need building-regulations approval covering structure, insulation, fire safety, drainage and ventilation. Where your project needs them, we prepare the technical drawings, and a structural engineer provides any supporting calculations. We'll give you an honest steer on which side of these thresholds your project is likely to fall — confirmed with building control.
Questions
Concept design, space planning and architectural drawings for homeowners who want their project shaped properly before committing.
Before you spend on a full set of drawings, it pays to know what's actually possible. We sketch the options, weigh up the likely planning route, and give you an honest steer on what fits your home, your plot and your budget.
Technical drawings and details prepared for building-control approval — the 'how it's built' stage that follows planning.
Garden Rooms for homeowners across Wirral, including:
Send Sean a few photos and a short description of what you'd like to do. You'll get an honest first view with no obligation.