Garden room comparison: Garden Retreats vs Homebase

A bespoke garden room has a lot to offer, from aesthetics to practicality as an office or workspace for your business or games room for the whole family. The installation and inclusion of a luxury garden room won’t infringe on any room in your main house, but rather enhance the amount of usable extra space on your property while also providing ample opportunity to be creative with your design choices.

Choosing the right manufacturer is key stage in your journey to deciding the best garden room for you. This article will provide a detailed comparison of Garden Retreats and Homebase, helping you move one step closer to finding your ideal new garden room.

Garden Retreats and Homebase: Summary

The main differences between Garden Retreats and Homebase

Construction

Homebase supply two ranges of garden rooms: Mercia and Country Living. The Mercia range includes basic small garden rooms with roofing felt, as well as larger structures that are insulated and feature a synthetic rubber compound roof. The Country Living garden rooms are also made from tongue and groove interlocking timber boards, but you have to purchase the bases separately. They are all constructed using FSC-certified timber, and many come with a veranda and side shed for an additional storage area.

Garden Retreats’ pods are made using a modular system that consists of three different pod sizes for you to choose from. These can be mixed and matched to meet your space requirements, and the modular design means you can add more pods at a later date if your needs change. Should you wish to move to a new home, the entire structure can be transported with you and reconstructed on your new property.

External walls/cladding materials

Homebase garden rooms feature a timber frame of tongue and groove interlocking boards and shiplap cladding which is also made of timber. Annual re-treatment is required on any garden building from Homebase in order to maintain the 10-year anti-rot guarantee. The paint on their Country Living buildings is covered by a three-year guarantee, but does require some care and maintenance (they provide a one-litre tin of top-up paint).

The frames of our Garden Retreats pods are made from carbon fibre and glass fibre which prevents any expansion or deterioration. Our composite cladding also won’t cause any condensation and requires zero maintenance.

Configuration process

Every garden building from Homebase is supplied as a fixed size and design that you simply select as it is without any creative input. With Garden Retreats, our online configuration tool gives you complete control over every detail of your pod, from the size of the structure to the style of the internal walls and floors. We also offer a free site survey if you already know what kind of pod you want but have a few questions.

Installation times

Homebase’s Mercia smaller garden rooms aim to be delivered within 28 days from one of Homebase’s suppliers. However, as these buildings are flatpack, you will have to install them yourself using the instructions and manufacturer’s recommendations provided. Their larger Mercia rooms aim to be delivered within 77 days and include installation. The Country Living rooms, on the other hand, have a delivery window of 60 days, but they will be painted and installed by professionals.

The delivery times for Garden Retreats pods can vary depending on the custom design, but because of the materials we use, we can have your pod installed and ready to use within days rather than weeks or months.

Internal walls and flooring

Like the external walls of Homebase garden buildings, the internal walls of these structures require painting. The same tongue and groove timber boards used for the walls is also used for the flooring.

With a Garden Retreats pod, you have a wide variety of wall and flooring styles to choose from. We offer six colour options for our wall panels and 19 different Italian luxury vinyl floor tile designs including wood-effect and soft stone. These tiles are hard-wearing and wipe-clean, and won’t warp or dry out like natural wood tends to. You can even upgrade your wall panels to our bespoke option and create a unique feature wall with your own high-res images or logos.

Use potential

Homebase garden buildings are more suited for basic uses, such as a summerhouse, lounge area, hobby room, storage area, or possibly a workspace. The list of potential applications is far longer with a Garden Retreats pod, which are versatile and multi-purpose spaces that can be used for anything from running a commercial business such as bakery or beauty salon to home entertainment and wellness.

Benefits of the Garden Retreats pod

The materials used to construct your Garden Retreat require 75% less energy for production and transportation than steel. This means that not only is the construction your pod of an excellent quality, but it less harmful for the environment than alternative materials. Our industry-leading British warm roof system has an incredible U-value of 0.18, meaning our highly thermally efficient garden rooms will save you money on energy bills.

As well as your choice of wall panels and floor tiling, you can choose between bifold or patio door systems in black or grey for your garden room entrance. We also give the option for external composite decking and a roof terrace with a spiral staircase as premium add-ons. Also, if you haven’t quite made up your mind about these features, they can be added after your initial pod installation.

To find out more about our luxury Garden Retreats or to book a free site survey, get in touch with a member of our team today.