Client Name

Mills

Location

Stanstead, Suffolk

Usage

Flexible Accommodation

Specification

5.7m by 4.8m

Requirement

Affording to rent a property or support a mortgage is becoming increasingly challenging for our younger generation. Many people continue to live with their parents well into adulthood. Creating a self-contained unit or an annex in the garden is becoming a popular halfway-house solution, freeing up space in the house and giving the young adult a greater sense of privacy and independence that they naturally crave. We can even install a washing machine! Other clients simply require a spare bedroom with ensuite facilities. Our clients wanted to utilise the space at the bottom of their garden to install a self-contained studio for occasional use, as opposed to a permanent residence.

Comments

"I would again like to say how delighted we are and how much we love the studio."

Summary

If a building is used as a permanent residence, planning is required. If however it is a self-contained unit without a kitchen, for occasional use, planning may not be necessary and it can be installed under permissible development. Anything that requires waste water drainage has to be checked by the building control department or if you choose, by our trusted associates ‘PWC’, who are certificated to inspect and ‘sign-off’ builds on behalf of the local governments’.
The photographs seen here were taken over a year after installation. In one, you can see a white internal door to the left of the front glazing. This leads to the ensuite shower room with a sink and vanity unit, an eco-toilet, a curved corner shower enclosure, two tiled walls and a thermostatic electric shower. A compact water heater and soak provide adequate services for this ‘occasional use’ shower room. In the main room there is plenty of space for a double bed, book casing, a desk, wardrobes etc. The room is naturally light and spacious yet benefits from its own area of decking, accessed through French doors. The cladding across the front, which has retained its beautiful warm honey hues, is our Western Red Cedar. This FSC wood is a fabulous natural material. It lasts for decades, maintenance free and is thermally insulating adding to the thermal efficiency of the SIPs (structured insulated panels) of the building. It is kiln dried, so will not warp or swell, is secured with secret stainless steel fixings that do not bleed, it is incredibly robust with a fine even grain and holds anti-fungal properties. We do of course offer other finished including our colour coded polymer render or stone cladding (much more detail is available on our website). As mentioned our studios are highly thermally efficient and our double glazing is A-rated argon filled, so minimal additional energy is required to maintain the perfect ambient temperature through the colder months. Our clients chose a wall mounted electrical convector heater, hard wired with thermostatic control. The final studio is a bespoke effective solution to a specific need which we trust will serve our clients admirably for many decades to come.