Garden Rooms Wicklow questions answered in plain English

A small timber cabin is €6,700 to €9,000 room only. Insulated and fitted, a timber-clad room is €13,450 for 3 × 3 m to €23,450 for 5 × 5 m, and composite-clad €16,850 to €28,450, VAT included. See the price guide.

Most of the time is the wait for a slot and the making. On site, a cabin on a ready base goes up in a few days; a fitted room takes longer, with the base, the electrics and the finish. Ask for the lead time and the days on site in writing. See how long it takes.

No. SEAI grants are for energy upgrades to the home itself, and there's no council grant for garden rooms. What you can control is the spec and the size.

Less than an extension. Ground screws need almost no digging; a slab means a dig, shuttering and a few days to cure. The cable trench from the house is the other dig. Ask who reinstates the lawn and takes away the waste, in writing.

Ask for it in writing, separately for the structure, the roof covering, the glazing and the electrics, with the electrician's completion certificate.

One garden room company that covers your part of Wicklow, and only one. They look at the garden and the access, price it in writing, build it and deal with you directly.

Usually not. Behind the house, no more than 30 m² for all garden structures together, 25 m² of garden left, 3 m high with a flat roof, and not lived in. See planning in Wicklow.

Instead of excavating tonnes of soil and pouring concrete retaining walls, longer galvanised ground screws (up to 2.2 m) are driven into the bank and topped with a laser-levelled structural bearer frame, bridging up to 700 mm of fall across the footprint.

Yes. Ground screw foundations, pre-cut timber or SIP wall cassettes, and EPDM roofing rolls are all carried through a standard hallway and kitchen door without bringing diggers or wet concrete through the house.

Under Class 3 exempted development there is no minimum distance from a rear or side boundary, provided no part of the roof or fascia overhangs the neighbour's land and any wall within 1 metre of a boundary uses fire-rated cement fibreboard or steel cladding.

Upland gardens sit 200 m to 300 m above sea level and experience sharper winter frosts; specifying 120 mm PIR floor and roof insulation with 100 mm insulated walls and low-E argon double glazing keeps U-values around 0.18 W/m²K.

While the electrician trenches the armoured SWA power cable from the house board, an external-grade Cat6 ethernet cable is pulled through a parallel duct to a dedicated wall socket and Wi-Fi access point inside the room.

Yes. A toilet and washbasin for a home office, studio, or gym are permitted within a Class 3 exempted garden room provided the waste connects to the existing foul drain and the building is not used as separate sleeping accommodation.