Many people who are struggling for space in the home are now turning to an outside garden building for that extra room. An outside garden building, garden office, summer house, playroom or man cave are just some of the terms people use for such a space. They can be a great addition to the family home and give family members that extra space they can utilise for alone time, socialising with friends, or to do their daily work.
If you are considering an outside garden building there are a few questions you will need to answer with regards to the electrics. Do you want to use your garden building all year round or just in the summer months? If it’s all year round, you will probably want to install electrics for power, lighting and heating.
Electrical Work Considerations for Your Garden Building
All electrical work for your outside garden building should be carried out by a qualified electrician. Part P of the Building Regulations was introduced in 2005 and it’s important your electrical system complies with this. An electrician will conduct a Part P compliance test and issue a certificate on completion of the work.
The following is a list of some of the electrical work that needs to be considered:
- Wiring
- Indoor plug sockets
- Any outdoor sockets
- Heaters
- Inside ceiling and wall lights
- Outside lights
- Light switches
- Data cabling
- Telecommunications
- Internet / Wi-Fi required
- Audio visual systems
- Fuse board / consumer unit
- Smoke alarm
- Burglar alarm
Designing Your Outside Office
When designing your outside garden office, it is a good idea to think about where you will position your furniture from the start to prevent trailing cables. For example, here’s just a couple of questions to consider:
- Where will you position the desks to work on? – You will need to ensure you have plug sockets there for your computer and sockets for any telecommunications and internet required.
- Will you want to have space for a sofa? – If so, you may want to place a lamp beside it and would thereby need a plug socket nearby.
- Do you want to have a wall-mounted TV? – If you design where this will go before your electrics are installed, the power socket can be positioned behind the screen so there are no visible cables.
It is always a good idea to specify a couple of extra plug sockets than you think you will require. We always accumulate electrical goods and it’s better and safer to have extra sockets, rather than overloading the ones you have.
Connecting Electrics to Your Mains Supply
The electrics in your outside garden building will need to be connected to the mains supply in your home. This involves running a cable from the consumer unit in your outside garden building and connecting it to the main house supply. This should be carried out by a qualified electrician and the system tested to ensure it’s safe and a certificate issued. The consumer unit should have a built in RCD (Residual Current Device) to help protect you from faulty electrical appliances and electric shock.
If you are having an outside garden building built in your home and you are looking for a local qualified electrician to carry out your electrical work then please get in touch with us today, for an informal non-obligatory chat to discuss your requirements and obtain a quote.
