Enter the Garden Room
There are many reasons for why you need a Garden Room that will keep you and your family warm and dry. Somewhere with lights, water, electric and heating. All the cosy feelings of a house – but, well... separate.
Whether it’s for work, play, or a place for guests to stay...
Space
So much room for activities!
You love your children ( or let's face it, maybe your partner) with all your heart, but jeez... we all need our own space, right?
Whether it’s ‘never leaving home children’ or your mother in law coming to stay, a Blackstone Garden Room is the ideal Annex solution for housing the whole family.
Art
Creatives LOVE a Blackstone Garden Room. Painters, Crafters, Writers and Musicians all need somewhere to go to be amazing at what they do best.
We know things like; lighting, sound, warmth and practicalities are so important when designing your space and that’s why we do it from scratch, for you.
Work
The working home office for you to share your gifts with the world.
Things like beauty therapies and holistic treatments are fairly traditional working from home businesses, but maybe it’s personal training, a photography studio or a dog grooming stand?
Technical Specification
If you’re familiar with Gillies and Mackay, you’ll know we don’t muck around with our specifications. We love nothing more than to barter back and forth with new ideas, new technologies and a whole world of possibilities for design, specification and techniques.
Our Garden Rooms are made with a 5 tier wall specification that looks and sounds a little something like this…
External Cladding
For our Garden Rooms as standard we will always use 19mm thick tongue and groove redwood or Siberian Larch (depending on your preference) which is the first defence of many, against the Scottish weather.
Cavity
Water, as far as we’re aware cannot ‘jump’ - which is why a Cavity is the perfect solution
to halting any moisture ingress through the external weatherboard of our Garden Rooms. The cavity keeps the water on the outside and stops it from ‘jumping’ to the internal lining.
Breather Membrane
It’s a material that is water resistant but still allows air to flow. The membrane is lined between the cavity space and the OSB sheeting known as the cold side of the insulation. This prevents the moisture (as well as all the other elements) penetrating through to the internal of the Garden Rooms structure.
Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
We love a bit of OSB. It’s not our primary material it’s used as intended, to brace a structure. OSB is very strong and durable -
Ideal for the internal structure of a wall rather than the finishing lining. Although there are plenty Hipsters who prefer a OSB lining just for the rustic look it can offer to the finished internals of our Garden Rooms 😉
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Pressure Treated Graded Framing
Depending on the size of structure we may use heavier timbers, but as a standard we will never use less than 95mm x 45mm pressure treated C24 Graded framing. The strength of this timber is what you would
expect to be used in new build homes.
Lining
V’D Lining - is Scandinavian Redwood. Like the external cladding it is tongue and groove but has a different profile finish. Both the fitting and finishing is carried out by Gillies and Mackay.
Plasterboard - perfect for a smooth, modern finish. After fitting, the plasterboard will need to be finished by a skilled decorator.
Roofing
Steel Box Profile
This is our most favoured and common roofing option. We use Planwell, a fantastic firm in Buckie, Aberdeenshire. Murray and his team are amazing, they churn out massive quantities of Nova Permaroof for us on a fortnightly basis. The reason this option is so favoured is it’s 20 year guarantee and the fact it doesn’t leak! There are a couple of alternatives which are often preferred for Apex shaped roofs (pitched/pointed).
Shingles
Armourglass Shingles are self adhesive shingles made of Bitumen – slate chips on tar – which come in two shapes, square and hexagonal. Shingles offer a far more decorative feel to your Garden Room. Aesthetically more pleasing to some rather than steel, but more expensive. However, it's not as expensive as slate itself and is a good looking alternative.
Slate
It’s not often as a request or preference but it’s definitely something we can accommodate. Having a slate roof on your Garden Room is totally doable, you will need engineered trusses and a slater but both of these things are arranged by us - so no need to dust off the ol’ Yellow Pages (who?).
Flooring
Quickstep Elka Flooring is definitely our preferred laminate flooring. So many dodgy alternatives out there. We love Elka and Elka loves us. The 25 year guarantee and beautiful range of colours really help too though.
Electrics & Plumbing
At Gillies and Mackay we build the building because we’re joiners. We do however, project manage all the other trades who are skilled in their own professions. We work closely with our accredited Electricians, Groundsmen and Plumbers to ensure these areas of the build go according to plan.
Light, Heating and Power.
These are the three things that make your Garden Room a space you can live, work and play in and thankfully electrics don’t need to be regulated by Building Control so assuming you’re not infringing on other areas - we’re able to build and hook you up without any added complexity.
Plumbing
Plumbing is a whole different kettle of fish and if you intend to tap in to the mains it will mean the entire building will need a warrant. We recommend you start with an Architect who can guide you through that process, we have several G&M approved Architects for you to choose from.
Size plays an important part to the cost structure of a Blackstone. As does utility. As all our garden rooms are custom builds, we can't give exact prices but here's a rough idea of what to expect from a Blackstone build:
Small Building
Up to 15m2
£12k - £15k
Medium Building
Up to 25m2
£15k - £25k
Large Building
Up to 30m2
£25k - £40k
Huge Building!
Up to 60m2
£40,000+
Examples of things we cost for:
- Planning / Building Control (in few cases required)
- The outer body
- The inner body
- Roofing
- Windows
- Doors
- Internal Finishing
- External Finishing
- Verandah
- Heating
- Electrics
- Decorating
Please Note:
If you’re planning on the building being bigger than 30m2 or running mains water to the building, it will require a Building Warrant and Engineers Certification.
This can add a considerable amount to the cost.
Customer Story
"My own little retreat from the world."
Inspiration Gallery
Before You Book Your Consultation...
The Buyer's Prep Guide
It'll be no surprise to you that your new Gillies & Mackay building will need some serious preparation work.
You've no doubt got questions – we've got answers. Here's everything you need to get started on the road to the shedlife.
