A garden home for your parents

Garden room or garden home?

A garden room fitted with a bed isn't a legal alternative. See can you sleep in a garden room? and every Class 3A condition.

Where it goes in the garden

• Close enough to help, far enough for privacy. Near the house means a short path and short service runs; facing the house means you can see lights on.
• Its own path, with no steps. Class 3A requires access to the garden home through the property, without a new entrance onto the road. Make that path level, wide and firm, not gravel or lawn.
• 0.6 m from boundaries, and at least 25 m² of garden left for the main house.
• Sun and shelter: a south or west-facing front gets light into the living space; avoid the darkest, dampest corner of the garden.

Getting in without steps

This is where garden buildings catch people out. Most sit on ground screws or pads, with the floor 15 to 30 cm or more above the garden, and sliding or bifold doors often have a raised track.

• A low-profile base or concrete slab keeps the floor close to ground level. See foundations.
• A level threshold on the main door, and doors that are easy to open.
• A gentle ramp and level landing outside if the floor is raised, designed in rather than added later.
• The Building Regulations already require an accessible approach and a level entrance landing for a garden home, so this has to be planned anyway.

Inside: designing for later life

• Wide doors and space to turn in the hall, bathroom and bedroom, in case a walker or wheelchair is needed later.
• A level walk-in shower with a seat and grab rails, or reinforced walls so rails can go up later.
• Steady, simple heat. A small, well-insulated building heats quickly but cools quickly too; a programmable system avoids cold mornings. See heating and insulation.
• Condensation control: showers and cooking in a small timber building need good ventilation. See condensation.
• Sockets and switches at easy heights, lever handles, non-slip floors and good lighting.

An accessible layout

A 40 m² one-bedroom garden home with a larger shower room and space to turn, drawn to scale:

Put the kitchen and shower room on the side facing the house to keep water and waste runs short. See more garden home layouts.

Staying connected to the house

• Alarms that reach the house: a call button or pendant alarm that sounds in the main house, and smoke and heat alarms in the garden home, interlinked as the Building Regulations require.
• Lighting on the path with sensors, so night-time trips between the buildings are safe.
• A spare duct in the service trench for broadband, a doorbell or an intercom. See electrics.
• A window facing the house, so you can see that curtains are open and lights are on.

Costs and grants

• A 32 to 45 m² garden home costs from about €50,000 for a modular unit, plus groundworks, connections and fees. See garden home costs or the estimator.
• If a parent has a disability, the means-tested Housing Adaptation Grant (up to €40,000) may help with adaptations, but get council approval before any work starts. See grants.
• A garden home is likely to have its own Local Property Tax charge. See property tax and insurance.

Prefer something attached to the house? See garden annexes and family flats for the other routes.