Friday, May 23, 2014

Trailhouse


Tiny houses are certainly starting to take off now in the UK. The latest company to the market is husband and wife team Tony and Diane Statham's Trailhouse . As has become common, their designs are not only compact but they can be easily towed and are being marketed at shedworkers as a garden office as well as actual accommodation space.

The specs will be reassuringly familiar to regular readers of Shedworking with cedar cladding onr a softwood frame, excellent insulation in walls, floor and ceiling. The roof has agricultural coated steel panels for lightness and there are full double glazed units in the timber windows. Interiors are tailormade and made with recycled materials where possible. More details at the link above or here. Well worth investigating if you're considering going down this path. ---------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Homeworking can save £3bn a year in costs and cut carbon



Increasing the numbers of UK employees working from home can cut costs by £3 billion a year for UK employers and employees and save over three million tonnes of carbon a year, according to a new report by the Carbon Trust.

 
Over 40 per cent of UK jobs are compatible with working from home, it claims, but recent research by the Carbon Trust has found that only 35 per cent of companies have a policy allowing their employees to work from home. And where homeworking is offered by companies, between on third and a half choose not to accept it.

Homeworking reduces employee commuting, resulting in carbon, money and time savings. If office space is properly rationalised to reflect this, homeworking can also significantly reduce office energy consumption and rental costs.

However, the research has revealed a critical finding: carbon savings are sometimes not achieved because of potential rebound effects, particularly the increased carbon emissions from employees now working in homes that are often energy inefficient. Business must therefore take care to factor in their individual circumstances when considering homeworking policies, to ensure that these will actually cut carbon emissions and not increase them.

Hugh Jones, Managing Director of Advisory at the Carbon Trust, said: “Homeworking is on the rise, with numbers increasing by over half a million since 2007.  This new research shows that in the right circumstances, it has the potential to be expanded significantly and be a win-win for business and the environment.

“Significant financial and carbon savings can be achieved from the roll out of homeworking.  But companies must be careful to ensure that they get the balance right, for if employers do not take account of their individual circumstances, a rebound effect, from employees heating inefficient homes, may actually lead to an increase in carbon emissions.”

Ian Foddering, Chief Technology Officer & Technical Director at Cisco UK & Ireland, said:
“By 2018, there will be over 10 billion mobile-connected devices globally, as such, telecommuting will not only become commonplace but is already in the progress of fast becoming the most natural way for people to work and collaborate globally. Cisco has aggressive targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operations and suppliers worldwide, and telecommuting is helping us to achieve these goals.

“The average Cisco employee telecommutes two days a week, and those using our Cisco Virtual Office technology typically work from home three days each week. In total, this amounts to avoiding 35 million miles of commuting per year. Not only is this great for the environment, reducing Cisco’s CO2 emissions by 17,000 tonnes annually, but it’s also great for business, with an estimated $333 million per year made in productivity savings."

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Beach hut garden office



An excellent piece by Catherine Lillington in the Birmingham Mail talks about the boom in tiny houses in the UK with Mark from Tiny House UK but also features this marvellous beach hut-inspired workspace belonging to Paula Fallows from log cabin specialists Keops Interlock inspired by her childhood memories of summer holidays by the sea in Weston-super-Mare and Llandudno.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, May 19, 2014

Noddfa: The Ecumenical Fellowship of Aelred of Rievaulx


Noddfa is a wooden shedworking atmosphere in the vicarage garden at Sutton on the Forest near York built by the Ecumenical Fellowship of Aelred of Rievaulx. It houses the Fellowship’s library, of thousands of books on ecumenical theology and spirituality, and also acts as a place of peace, relaxation, reading, prayer, reflection and refreshment. For more information contact them at info@fellowshipofaelred.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Thatched shed to rent


This little beauty in Arkley, Hertfordshire, will set you back £6,000 a month but it does come with a five bedroom detached house which has a heated outdoor swimming room and cinema room. The thatched shed also has bar facilities... --------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Get your beach hut ready checklist


Specialist beach hut insurers Love Your Hut (they also insure garden offices and shepherds' huts) have put this checklist together for hutters getting ready for the new season.


1) Be prepared for rain – make sure roof coverings are secure and complete
2) Avoid fire risk – remove debris from under the hut which may have accumulated over the winter
3) Prevent damp and mildew – wipe interior walls, empty or replace any desiccant water traps. Try to ventilate your hut without compromising its security
4) Prevent intruders and vandals – make sure  windows and doors haven’t swollen or warped out of shape and that they fit properly in their frames. Make sure locks and padlocks haven’t corroded
and are fit for purpose
5) Avoid liability risks – check to make sure the hut and area around it is safe and secure especially fascia boards, steps, bases, verandas and tethered boats

Image courtesy Lynette Amelie ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Pilgrims Coffee House: Holy Island shedworking

Two brothers have stepped up the homemade feel at their cafe on Holy Island – by roasting their own coffee in a shed in the back garden. Andrew Mundy, 29, has been running Pilgrims Coffee House for ten years and recently asked his younger brother Tom, 24, if he wanted to get involved and start roasting coffee The pair bought their machine from online auction site eBay, only for the motor to break down and have to be replaced. “We started in January and it’s been a bit of an adventure, but it’s been good,” said Tom. “Now it’s fully installed in the shed and going well.”
Berwick Advertiser -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, May 12, 2014

Stratford Garden Centre's Big Build




The Stratford Garden Centre has contracted Warwick Buildings to create a bespoke New England style retail village for use by small local independent retailers. We hope to follow the project from build to business, showing how shedworking buildings are fast becoming the smart choice for start-ups and small businesses. 
 
The ground work has been ongoing since February and the first phase of the build is already underway with the first two of eight units ready for internal fitting and exterior painting. The buildings have low roof lines and the roof pitch is kept fairly low.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, May 09, 2014

Driveable shed in European rally charity dash


These wacky funsters from York are taking part in the 3000 mile Scumrun rally through Europe to raise money for children's charities in a Renault Scenic converted into a shed called '50 Sheds of Grey'. Team member Thomas Belt, told The Press in York: “The idea for the shed came shortly after we decided to take part. We were sat in the pub where we do all our best thinking, trying to think of something that hadn't been done before. At first we thought of just cladding the car in wood, then we thought why stop there? Why not add a pitched roof and turn it into a shed?"You can sponsor them at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fiftyshedsofgrey. ---------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, May 08, 2014

An allotment on a garden office




Joel Phelan's shed made largely out of recycled materials is one of my favourite entries for this year's Shed of the Year competition (Joel also makes sheds - more details here). So there are vegetables up on the roof and inside is his shedworking space which he uses for painting and as a music practise room.

"It is great to work knowing it provides me with a really high level of sustainability," he says on the readersheds.co.uk site. "The lights are powered by a solar panel, I use a wood burner to heat it, and then there is the allotment roof. It's easy to access with a little staircase and I have a little tin bath up there for a summer soak. It's a little mini countryside which keeps me sane in a city."



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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Writer's shed



A lovely shedworking setup from WSD Architecturein Hackney, London, for a writer who wanted something to work in which also reflected his interest in children’s literature and mythologies.  

Photos by Wai Ming Ng. Via archdaily (where there are lots more photos). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning