Guttering & water butts

Your new timber building will help you enjoy your garden regardless of the British weather, but when it’s raining where will all the water go?

All our buildings have roof designs with sufficient overlap to direct rainwater away from your building, but you may want to add gutters to your building to control where your water goes or even just to store it up for use when watering your garden.

Depending on the type of roof you choose you may need guttering all round your building or just to a single side. A pent roof systems sloping to the back of your building would allow gutters to be concealed at the rear of your building, with plenty of room to accommodate water butts.

Most of us pay for our water on a meter so it makes sense to harvest any ‘free’ water available to use on our gardens. If this option is something you would like for your building, please mention it when you talk to us and we can discuss your options.

Interior & Insulation

Depending on the type of building you have chosen, you might want to consider installing insulation and or lining.

Power, water or internet

Utilities can add greater options fro your garden build and it's intended use.

External finish

Protecting your building is the secret to a long life for anything constructed of wood.

Ground preparation

All our buildings require a solid level base, to ensure that your finished building is both properly supported and elevated to provide the protection from the weather

Ground preparation

All our buildings require a solid level base, to ensure that your finished building is both properly supported and elevated to provide the protection from the weather at the ground where it is needed most.

If this is something you already have or are happy to prepare yourself we can offer advice on what would be required. (You can see some examples of ground prepared in the gallery below.)

Some customers prefer for us to prepare the base as part of their project which we are also happy to do.

Note

If you are wanting to connect your garden room to your homes electricity, water or broadband utilities it may be worth digging a trench for cables and pipes at the same time as preparing your base.

Base preperation concrete slab for timber garden building

Base preperation concrete pavers for timber garden building

Base preperation treated timber bearers for timber garden building

Interior & Insulation

Depending on the type of building you have chosen, you might want to consider installing insulation and or lining.

Power, water or internet

Utilities can add greater options fro your garden build and it's intended use.

External finish

Protecting your building is the secret to a long life for anything constructed of wood.

Guttering & water butts

Adding gutters to your building to control where your water goes or even just to store it up for use when watering your garden.

External finish

Protecting your building is the secret to a long life for anything constructed of wood. All our timber buildings come complete with a finish of either a shed manufacturers preservative, cuprinol high grade preservative or cuprinol shades range – (option includes nail fills). We can even match your finish to existing buildings in your garden.

Paint finishes

We finish our external timber with Cuprinol Decorative or Cuprinol Shades in a range of attractive fade resistant finishes, it has excellent all weather protection and is harmless to both pets and plant life. We can use alternative finishes upon request.

In order to get the best possible appearance for your garden building, we will even recess and fill any screw or nail heads on any facing sides of the building prior to painting. If you want us to do this on all sides of the building or to non painted buildings just let us know when ordering your building.

Natural finishes

Enjoy the natural appearance of your timber building by opting for a more natural finish. All our buildings come finished in either a proprietary wood preservative or with cuprinol high grade preservative, which is a standard finish on our garden rooms, summerhouses and home offices.

We also offer our customers the option to specify their own finish, which we will apply during the manufacturing process. We have had excellent results using the ‘Sikkens’ range of preservatives however their is an additional cost to both the material and the time it takes to apply Sikkens.

Summerhouse North Yorkshire Garden rooms

Garden room clad in Strongcore with UPVC doors and windows

Loglap redwood cladding with cedar roof shingles finished in *******

Horizontally fixed western red cedar cladding and roof shingles with hardwood window frames.

Custom Garden Rooms North Yorkshire, Durham and Cleveland

posh sheds in North Yorkshire, Durham & Cleveland

Interior & Insulation

Depending on the type of building you have chosen, you might want to consider installing insulation and or lining.

Power, water or internet

Utilities can add greater options fro your garden build and it's intended use.

Ground preparation

All our buildings require a solid level base, to ensure that your finished building is both properly supported and elevated to provide the protection from the weather

Guttering & water butts

Adding gutters to your building to control where your water goes or even just to store it up for use when watering your garden.

Power, water or internet

If you are planning to have electricity, internet or even a water supply to your building it’s worth planning for this early on in your build when you are preparing your base.

The simplest solution is to dig a trench between your home and your garden room, the width only needs to be sufficient to lay any pipes or cables however the depth need to be at least 50cm for your armoured electricity supply, and you may want to lay your water supply up to 75cm deep to avoid freezing.

Apex are happy to do this work as part of your project, and any work that requires certification will be carried out by a fully qualified professional.

Electrical installation

We use qualified engineers for all our electrical installations.

When considering powering your shed or garden building you need to think about what are you are planning to use it for and what electrical equipment you are going to use:

Lighting
plug sockets
External sockets for garden equipment or lighting
Underfloor heating
Hot tubs
Alarm systems

Also do you plan to line your building? if not you will need conduit or trunking to secure your wiring to the inside of your building.

We are happy to provide advice on any aspects of powering your garden building.

Internet

Whether you want to use your garden building as a home office, a place to relax, play computer games or read your ebook you’ll need access to your home internet connection.

Depending on where your home internet connection is you might be able to access wireless internet from your garden building, although it’s worth thinking about the following:

Some types of insulation can effect your wireless signal, particularly the types that use a metallic surface.
You might consider using mains networking, which provides an internet connection through your mains sockets. This option obviously depends on whether you plan to have electricity installed in your garden building. Whilst we have had success with this option it is not a guaranteed solution as outside buildings are often wired with their own consumer unit.
A wired connection has been the most effective solution in our experience, and if you are planning to connect your home office to your home’s mains supply it makes sense to include a cable for connecting your home broadband connection at the same time.

Water supply

There are many reasons why a water supply might be useful in your garden building whether to water your plants, wash your hands or even make a cup of tea.

The main concerns in running a water supply from your home to your timber building, is freezing and contamination, both can easily be avoided by making sure your pipe work is suitable for purpose. If you run your pipework under ground you should look to be about 75cm below ground level which will reduce the risk of freezing and give yourself adequate depth to add some back fill whilst maintaining the 50cm depth required for armoured electrical cable.

If you have any questions regarding any of the subjects covered on this page please call us on 01642 612016 for further details.

Exterior lighting attached to garden room

electrical installations in your garden room

Interior & Insulation

Depending on the type of building you have chosen, you might want to consider installing insulation and or lining.

External finish

Protecting your building is the secret to a long life for anything constructed of wood.

Ground preparation

All our buildings require a solid level base, to ensure that your finished building is both properly supported and elevated to provide the protection from the weather

Guttering & water butts

Adding gutters to your building to control where your water goes or even just to store it up for use when watering your garden.

Interior & Insulation

Depending on the type of building you have chosen and it’s intended purpose, you might want to consider installing insulation and or lining.

Insulation

Insulation will help to keep your building cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We use self extinguishing polystyrene sheets are used to insulate your building in both 25 and 50mm thickness.

Note: If you choose to insulate your garden room with a metallic faced insulation then you may find your mobile telephone or wireless internet signal might be weakened.

Lining your timber building

Lining your building gives your building a more finished appearance as well as hiding any insulation or wiring you may have chosen to install. The type of lining you choose depends on it’s use or how you want it to appear.

Vox wall panelling

100% waterproof, easy to clean and available in a wide selection of contemporary and traditional finishes.

6mm WBP Ply board

WBP (water & boil proof) ply board is a very robust material ideal for lining sheds, workshops, play houses and animal shelters.

T&G boards

Kiln dried tongue and groove boarding provides a highly attractive finish for the inside of a summerhouse, garden room or home office. extending the beauty of your timber building to the inside. t&g boards can be left natural, stained or painted to suit your individual taste.

Plasterboard

If you want your garden room to have a more homely appearance you may want to consider installing plasterboard with a skimmed finish, which can then be painted or decorated.

Redwood vertical extended tongue and groove

T&G lined Garden Room with electrical sockets and downlighting

Power, water or internet

Utilities can add greater options fro your garden build and it's intended use.

External finish

Protecting your building is the secret to a long life for anything constructed of wood.

Ground preparation

All our buildings require a solid level base, to ensure that your finished building is both properly supported and elevated to provide the protection from the weather

Guttering & water butts

Adding gutters to your building to control where your water goes or even just to store it up for use when watering your garden.

Call 01642 612016 to get a quote

or complete the form on our contact page to arrange a call back.

Kim Wright

15. August, 2022.

We cannot recommend Apex enough! Steve was very helpful, he understood straight away what we wanted & designed a lean too for storage purposes together with a gate to access rear garden that more than met our expectations. Very pleased with the install and the team - who were all polite, tidy workers. If you are considering a build then look no further!

Susan Wilkin

20. July, 2022.

We are delighted with our beautiful corner summer house. The workmanship is excellent and nothing was too much trouble for Steve's very polite and hard working team. Great care was taken when erecting the structure so as to avoid damage to herbaceous border. First class service and would highly recommend.

Peter Boydell

18. January, 2022.

These guys do a really good job at building their summer houses. We had ours in the summer after a long wait due to the popularity of these buildings during the shutdown. However the pre and post Customer Service is shocking. Before the build we seemed to be chasing them for information and now, post build, we have a window that needs changing. Two months ago they said it would be changed but I have heard nothing since their first e mail declaring this and I have sent 2 e mails since asking for an update. No use phoning as they do not answer. Its only a small window but why should I have the hassle and cost 3 months into the lifetime of the building? One month later and they turned up and did it. Think they were short staffed on the admin side a d that has been sorted. It does look great in the garden

Mike Onfreeserve

3. September, 2021.

We have a summerhouse from Apex and it is superb. We had a hand in the design, inasmuch as the height was increased for us because we are tall and we had the windows to fit our blinds and a couple of extra landscape windows included. We opted for insulation and boarding out and it is pretty toasty. My plan was to put in a log burning stove and we had a hole cut for the flue. It was erected quickly and tidily. I was left to sort out my wiring and sockets and the guys came back to put the insulation in and then fully board the walls and ceiling. Add WiFi and a telly and it is a very nice relaxing space. We thoroughly recommend the company. They are attentive and very skilled at what they do. I echo one of the other comments which is that they make some of the best timber buildings you will see. We are delighted. Kris and Mike, New Marske

Alan Moss

1. October, 2020.

Knowledgeable and helpful.

David Stinton

30. July, 2020.

We wanted a bespoke shed/blacksmiths workshop and that is what we got. We love our workshop, it did have a small problem which was quickly solved and now we are enjoying it. THANK YOU!

20 July 2022

recommends

We are delighted with our beautiful corner summer house that blends in with the garden perfectly. The service and advice were second to none and Steve and his team were hard working and polite. Nothing was too much trouble. We would highly recommend.

Douglas Sykes

30 July 2021

Garden Room just completed today, what a fantastic job by Steve and his team. Steve and his team did a great job, delighted the way they all worked to complete the work. Garden was left tidy each day they were here to work. Highly recommend Apex Timber Buildings. Thanks Steve.

Nigel Morris

12 June 2021

Absolutely over the moon with my fabulous workshop! Steve and the guys have been amazing and worked non stop to finish!! Highly recommend this company!!

John Cozens

27 August 2020

Many thanks for our 12x8 shed that you've just supplied and fitted. The quality is amazing and we're so pleased with it. Add to that your great team of lads who came and fitted it and you've got one very happy customer. Highly recommended Cheers 😎

Ruth Fyfe

20 June 2020

Shed arrived yesterday for my beauty room. Excellent customer service from start to finish. Definitely use these again. Thanks guys

Peter Rodham

14 May 2020

great service and very reliable top quality and very competitive prices

Chris Hicks

31 March 2020

My wife and I visited the show room where we met Debbie, she was very helpful and informative. This was followed up by a home visit from Stephen who was fantastic advising us on size and what design would suit our requirements, at no point did any sales pitch take place they just wanted to build us something that we'd be happy with. Stephen let us know the cost of what we wanted very quickly, we paid a deposit and they built the summer house for us. Apex arranged a date that suited us for the installation, the team were very courteous and worked hard to complete the installation as quickly as possible. The quality of the materials and high standard of craftsmanship is second to none and I highly recommend Apex Timber Buildings.

Stephen Gamlin

13 October 2019

Great workmanship and communication a pleasure to do business with, thank you for my shed.

Les Podraza

20 September 2019

Steve and his crew did an absolutely brilliant job building my garden office. Astonishing quality and total professionalism. Highly recommended company but most importantly really nice people that care!!