Client Name

Frog Bikes Ltd

Location

Englefield Green

Usage

Garden Office

Specification

External Dimensions: 5m by 8m
Internal Area: 35m2

Comments

Thanks Roger " we are really delighted with the build and Alan and Ashley were absolutely brilliant throughout. Please pass on to them our thanks for being so flexible, working around our needs as we were still running a business in the first building. We appreciated that it wasn't the easiest job for them!
And once again, much like Costi's team, they were so hard working, doing very long days here and travelling far to get here.

Summary

It's a great sign when happy clients, whose own brilliant company (lightweight children's bike) has expanded, come back to us to increase the size of their existing Garden Spaces studio. We designed and built the original Frog Bike garden office in 2014 but they now needed more office space, ideally linked to their existing building rather than being a standalone.

Details

Space was not an issue for this build but there was a slight slope to the ground which we speedily leveled using a JCB. The office design purposefully mirrored the existing building so that the two blended and in time with some silvering of the cedar cladding they will appear as one. The studio, which includes an integrated WC, is a Helix specification throughout apart from two popular upgrades: the cladding (to western red cedar instead of Thermowood) and lighting (to Aurora LED down lights rather than strip lights). The windows and doors are high quality uPVC frames in anthracite grey with A rated double glazing (argon filled with toughened glass as standard). The flooring may look like solid oak but is actually our 10mm v groove laminate; aesthetically pleasing whilst highly robust and cushioned. It is perfect for high traffic areas and comes with a 25 year warranty. A key element in this design was the capacity to link the two buildings without compromising the structural and thermal integrity of the original structure. This was achieved by removing a high opening side window and creating the aperture for the interconnecting walk way, as seen in the images. You will also spot a wall hung climate control unit which our client had come to appreciate would be useful on those airless hot summer days, to counterbalance the impressive thermal efficiency of our studios.
Communication and flexibility is our tenet during any build and at short notice we adapted our remit to include (in addition to standard power and lighting) the installation of Category 5 cabling for faster Ethernet speeds, crucial for a busy internet based business. 16 double power sockets were strategically placed to ensure capacity for several desks and the 21 down lighters as well as the large fixed panel glazing guaranteed great working light in this great working space.