Summerhouse or Snowhouse?

It’s that time of year when you’d rather go without the bathroom light for 4 months than embrace the freezing cold 5-metre walk to the garage to get the light bulbs. So why would you consider your Summerhouse as an alternative venue to your kitchen table or living sofa when it’s -5 outside?

How about the exact same reason you would in the Summer? It’s your special retreat that encapsulates your dreams, inspires your thoughts and lets your imagination, conversation and happiness flow. Let’s take a daunder to the bottom of the garden this weekend and get it ready for winter.

Tip 1: Heating

There’s always good chat around this topic. I love it, the prospect of being cosy inside whilst the elements batter the outside is what winter is all about. My most fave source of heating is of course the wood burning stove.

G&M Office Stove

Stoves are amazing. Fresh air heat is what I like to call it. Central heating has a tendency to dry you out, from the inside. Wood burning doesn’t do that. It’s a fresh hot heat with no stale air. But they’re not for everyone. Reasons being; you have to be able to light it in the first place. It’s only a box of matches and a firelighter away but for some lighting fires indoors is weird. It’s also quite messy – you need to empty it and sweep up the dust.

For me? It’s all part of the experience and reminds me of my chores as a child. There’s added positives such as boiling a kettle on top, or soup even! Toasting marshmallows and generally getting right involved with stove-like things. If you fancy it I’ve written a blog on what’s involved in fitting one, click here to read.

Underfloor Heating

Second fave, the absolute ease, and practicality of underfloor heating! You’re looking at about £400/600 fully fitted for a medium-sized Summerhouse. Underlay on top of your Redwood subfloor then the underfloor heating mats, then laminate on top. It’s perfect and is the most common request for our cabins. There’s a dial for you to set when it comes on and to what temperature, perfect for cosying it up before you run the gauntlet.

Tip 2: Blinds

Cute blinds

All that single glazing could do with some help, right? If you’ve got a tonne of windows in your Summerhouse, then there’s nothing better than wrapping them up in an insulated Roman blind. Insulated blinds keep the cold out and the warm in. Perfect for retaining the heat from your floor or stove.

Tip 3: Insulation

Ecotherm Insulation

This is a bit more tricky but totally doable. Way back when I started this blogging nonsense I did a wee “how to” on insulating your Shed read it here. It’s the same rules for a summerhouse and you can read all about it here. Once Insulated you’d do well to line it too, making it all pretty and finished. We like to use 16mm Redwood V’d Lining when doing ours, but that’s a tad excessive. I’d recommend maybe a 6mm MDF profile board that looks like this…

MD Profile Board

Everything you need for Insulating and lining your Summerhouse is readily available at your normal DIY stores. Specifics on your shopping list will be;

• Ecotherm/Kingspan/Celotex
  Foilback insulation 50mm thick
• Anti Fungal Timber Preservative
• Timber Packers
• MDF 6mm Beaded Profile Board
• Nails/Screws
• Hammer/Screwdriver

And there we have it. Stove fitting, Blind hanging and Insulating all in one blog. Oooft. Hard work, this one. Here’s hoping it helps at least one person make their Summerhouse into a Snowhouse this winter. Any questions? hit me up in the comments.