Vivid Green » low maintenance

Remote worker award winner moves in to prize office

Russell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:48:36 +0000

Last September Amanda Farren of Ella Announcements won one of our garden offices in the 2009 Remote Worker awards and last month she moved in to her new premises. The office has given 22 year old Amanda much needed additional space as she juggles caring for her three young children and building her business. Amanda said: “It’s great to have our dining room back! Being able to keep the house for the family has been an enormous benefit and I love being able to work in the office and watch my children playing in the garden“. Vivid Green Director, Neil Johnston said “The design works really well with lots of light from the large windows and glazed door and a good view of the garden and house. Also, the installation is a good example of the benefit a garden building offers to separate work from home”. Ella Announcements is run by Amanda, a work-at-home mum to 3 young children from her home in Coventry, where she juggles everything from designing and printing, to hoovering and laundry, with several lunch stops, nappy changes and school runs (4 a day!) in between. www.ellaannouncements.com/

Standard designs and ‘bare board’ reduce investment in insulated garden buildings

Russell — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:32:34 +0000

Standard designs at a discount All of our insulated garden buildings to date have been bespoke but, in recognition that there is a significant cost saving if customers choose a design that we have already built, we are now offering some of our designs at a discount of 10-15%. The other option we are offering is ‘self completion’ or ‘bare board’. We install the insulated garden building, complete with roof membrane, external cladding, windows and doors and customers put in the electrics, internal plasterboard, heating and decoration. For those with the time and capability this offers a further 15-20% saving. In both cass the buildings are just as well insulated as our bespoke designs with the same quality of materials and workmanship. Prices below exclude VAT and are for installation within 100 miles of Harpenden. Call for prices beyond and for detailed specification.

Edden: 2.4x 2.4m; £6,500 complete, £4,700 bare board

Jaray: 4 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,500 bare board

Moore: 5 x 2.7m; £14,400 complete, £12,200 bare board

Collier: 6 x 3m; £17,800 complete, £15,320 bare board

McClelland: 3 x 3m; £12,100 complete, £9,900 bare board

Rawlings: 3.2 x 3m; £11,700 complete, £9,500 bare board

Wikinson: 5 x 5m; £23,000 complete, £19,800 bare board

Fowkes: 6 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,000 bare board

Garden gym!

Russell — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:00:39 +0000

Our latest build has provided a home gym for a fitness enthusiast and replaced a very old shed. Sited on a sloping site, the building is clad in long lasting cedar with double glazed, argon filled windows and doors. As well as providing power to the gym for the exercise equipment, we also extended the Sky cable to provide entertainment whilst working out. The gym incorporates our usual underfloor heating and plasterboard finish. Not the greatest photo but weather has been so poor recently; better to come in the Spring!

New free guide to garden buildings

Neil — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:36:33 +0000

We have been asked for a brochure many times and I have resisted the temptation to produce a document which will be out of date in weeks. However, there is clearly a demand for advice and information on garden buildings and what to look for so, we have prepared a 14 page guide on creating the perfect garden building. We have tried to make it as unbiased and objective as possible with 30+ links to sources of information and suppliers. The principles and advice apply just as much to extensions, conversions and even conservatories as well as larger buildings such as nurseries, residential accommodation and holiday homes.

Available as a 1MB pdf with compressed photos we can also send hard copy with higher quality images. Email us with your preference and, if you would like us to mail a hard copy please let us have your full snail mail address; mail@vividgreen.co.uk.

Feedback welcomed on topics covered etc.

Garden buildings and planning rules

Neil — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:01:28 +0000

Planning restrictions and garden buildings

When the Government changed the planning rules relating to outbuildings on 1 October last year we thought flat roofs were the only answer. So we designed a couple of flat roofed buildings to meet the demand: the Penthouse 8 and Penthouse 7.5. Both these Vivid Green buildings incorporate all of our design principles: low energy, low maintenance, plenty of natural light. Headroom is between 2075 and 2150mm (6’ 9” to 7’). Both buildings offer attractive space for an office, studio or workshop.

Penthouse 8

Penthouse 7.5

However, over the last few months we have designed several other buildings for customers who wanted to site the structure close to one or more boundaries but liked the idea of a more attractive roof shape. The following sketches give an idea of the options available if you can leave at least one metre between your boundary and the wall of the building.

Flat roof & lantern

Flat roof with lantern

The simplest way of adding headroom and light is a lantern. Glass lanterns can be very expensive but we have found a polycarbonate version which offers a great alternative. Double and triple skinned versions offer superior thermal and sound insulation. Headroom is typically 2075 to 2150 (6’ 9” to 7’) plus an extra 300-500mm (1’ -1’ 7”) under the lantern.

Shallow hip

Shallow hip

A shallow pitch of at least 15 degrees offers the option of cladding the roof with cedar shingles and just a few more degrees opens up lots of options including eco-slates (imitation slates manufactured from recycled plastic). Because of the need for a slope, the height of the walls (eaves height) is reduced but greater headroom can be achieved throughout the rest of the building. Typically 1800mm (5’ 10”) at the eaves, headroom increases to 1930mm (6’ 4”) 500mm in from the walls and is 2600mm (8’ 6”) in the centre.

Shallow hip + gablets

Gablet roof with porch

When the garden is a little bigger there is the potential to add ‘gablets’ to the roof: triangular gable ends. These can be left solid but, using triangular windows makes a very attractive roof shape and provides additional light. Headroom is similar to the shallow hip design above.

Both shallow hip designs require one wall to be inset by approx 600mm to allow installation of doors. This creates an attractive porch or veranda depending on size

For more details, call or email us: 01582 469076 or neil@vividgreen.co.uk

Planning guidance

If you want to know more about planning regulations take a look at this web site: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/wales/genpub/en/1105619048902.html