Garden room prices: what the job involves and who is registered to do it

How garden room prices works

1. Read what the published price is for. Some lists price a building supplied and erected on your base. Some price it delivered flat packed. Some price a turnkey room including groundworks and power. All three can appear on the same search results page against similar photographs, and the difference between them is a large share of the total.
2. Look for the base and the groundworks line. This is the exclusion that appears most often. If the list says the price assumes a level, prepared base, the base is yours to arrange, and on a sloping or soft garden it is not a small item. Ask what the supplier requires the base to be and get that priced before comparing anything.
3. Look for the electrical supply. Running armoured cable from the house consumer unit to the building, terminating it correctly and certifying it is a separate job from wiring the sockets inside. Price lists frequently include the second and exclude the first, and the first is the one that involves digging up the garden.
4. Check the delivery and access assumptions. Published prices assume normal access. If the building has to be carried through a house, lifted over it, or brought across a neighbour's land, that is a cost and sometimes a permission. Suppliers will tell you if asked and rarely volunteer it in a list.
5. Compare specification, not headline. Wall thickness, insulation, glazing units, roof covering and the guarantee behind them are where suppliers genuinely differ. Two rooms of the same size and price can be a decade apart in how long they stay dry and warm, and the specification sheet says so if you ask for it.

Insurance and paperwork

Common questions

Are garden room prices negotiable?

There is usually less room than in the glazing trade, because margins on a manufactured building are thinner and the price is closer to a product price. Timing helps more than haggling: quiet months and a flexible installation date are worth more than an argument about the total.

Do prices include VAT?

Sometimes and it is worth checking, because on a purchase this size the difference is substantial. A list aimed at consumers usually includes it and one aimed at trade usually does not.

Is finance offered on garden rooms a good deal?

It is a normal way to buy one, and the thing to compare is the total repayable against the cash price rather than the monthly figure. A supplier subsidised rate can be genuinely cheap and a long term at a high rate can cost more than the building.

Registered contractors by region

• Registered roofers in the East Midlands postcode area
• Registered roofers in the East of England postcode area
• Registered roofers in the London postcode area
• Registered roofers in the North East postcode area
• Registered roofers in the North West postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Scotland postcode area
• Registered roofers in the South East postcode area
• Registered roofers in the South West postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Wales postcode area
• Registered roofers in the West Midlands postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Yorkshire and The Humber postcode area