By Amy Hanlon on 08 Aug 2023
When it comes to garages you have so many options. Brick, concrete, or our speciality – timber. We don’t think you can beat a timber garage, for both functionality and style. The first thing to consider is size – small, medium, or large. For this article, we’re going straight down the middle. Medium. Not too small, not too big – just right. We’ll look at what size a medium garage can be, and most importantly, answer your burning question: how much does a medium garage cost?
How big is a medium garage?
How big is medium-sized, anyway? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the most important thing about a custom building is that it suits your purposes. If you want to store a tiny car and nothing else in your garage, it’s going to be a different project to one where you’re accommodating a huge Range Rover and some workshop space.
Perhaps it’s easier to start with large and work back from there. The largest garages we tend to build are 5m x 6m. This isn’t an arbitrary number we’ve plucked out of the air. Any building bigger than 30m2 finds itself watched closely by the stern (and expensive) eyes of Building Control. This involves structural engineers, architects, building warrants, and a whole world of costly paperwork. If you don’t want that, keep your garage under 5m x 6m.
The smallest garages we build are around 4.8m x 3m. This is fairly tight unless you’re housing a small car, or not housing a car at all.
So a medium-sized garage is somewhere in between the ~14m2 minimum and the 30m2 maximum. For this article, I’ll break down the cost of a 5.4m x 3.6m garage, and explain the costs involved. This is a real garage that we installed in May 2023.
How much does a concrete base for a medium timber garage cost?
I’d give my eye teeth for an article like this written by a groundworks company!
The cost of a poured concrete plinth, which is what we use for our garages, varies hugely from job to job. The main factors to consider are not only the size of the plinth, but also the amount of excavation that will be needed, and the quality of the ground that’s being excavated. If your concrete plinth is going on a 30° slope made out of solid bedrock, it will cost more than one which is being built on softer, flatter ground. If access to this ground is difficult, this will also impact the price of the job.
As a general guide, £3,000-£5,000 is a good ballpark figure, but this number can change dramatically. The only way to answer this question definitively is to have a reputable groundworks company visit your intended site to give you a quotation.
What’s included in the price of a timber garage?
Remember that all timber garages are not the same. The main thing you must check is that you’re not buying a big shed. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with big sheds, we’ve learned that once a single-skinned shed is bigger than around 14m2, keeping it watertight can be an issue. If water is regularly getting into your building you’re in for a world of problems. To ensure that a timber garage is 100% watertight, it needs LAYERS. Yup, like an onion. And like ogres!
The prices I’m discussing here are for a three-tier wall structure garage with steel box profile roofing. Our garage specification was created to keep the wet and windy Scottish weather out. Accept nothing less!
The 5.4m x 3.6m garage building I’m using as an example cost £8,005. This includes the three-tier walls, steel box profile roofing, and a mortise and tenon side access door. It also includes VAT, installation and delivery within 30 miles of our base in Errol. This is the main part of pricing our garage project.
What else impacts the cost of a medium-sized garage?
Garage door
The next thing to consider is the garage door. This project used a 2.4m sectional roller door, which cost £1,997. There’s a whole world of garage door options out there – depending on what features you’re after, this will impact how much your medium garage costs.
Cladding
This particular garage was built from close board and strap cladding. If you don’t speak cladding, we have a whole article explaining the differences and benefits of the options available. Close board and strap is an additional extra, which in this case added another £2,269 to the cost of the building. Other cladding extras include an upgrade to larch or cedar.
Doors and Windows
This garage has a single access door and no windows. Because our garages are custom projects, there are plenty of options for the positioning of doors and windows.
Included in the price of the building are two fixed windows with horticultural glass, and a mortice and tenon access door. You can also upgrade these doors and windows to uPVC double glazing, at an additional cost of £1750. Any additional doors or windows would also add to the cost.
What are the costs involved in a timber garage project?
Here are some variations on our example garage, with the prices of each:
| Project 1 | Project 2 | Project 3 | Project 4 | |
| Building | £8,005 | £8,005 | £8,005 | £8,005 |
| Garage Door | £1,997 | £1,997 | £1,997 | £1,997 |
| uPVC Door & Windows | – | £1,750 | – | £1,750 |
| Close Board & Strap Cladding | – | – | £2,269 | £2,269 |
| Total: | £10,002 | £11,752 | £12,271 | £14,021 |
To recreate our example garage faithfully would cost £12,271, as long as you’re within 30 miles of Errol.
None of these prices includes the cost of a concrete plinth. You can expect good concrete base prices to start around £5000, which will add to the cost of your medium-sized garage project. Bear in mind that base prices may be higher, depending on your individual project.
How do I order a timber garage?
If you’re ready to get cracking with your medium-sized garage project, let’s go! You can contact us by phone or online, or come in and see us at our Show Area in Errol. Our Sales Team will take you through the whole process and make sure that you get a Goldilocks garage that is not too small, not too big, but just right!
