Potential home office

[R56Cooper]

Hi - just throwing some ideas around and looking for some input.

My house is a 1920s semi which is long and fairly narrow. As is common with many houses of that age, the kitchen extends beyond the house, basically as a single storey extension. Behind the kitchen is a downstairs toilet / utility and behind that, is a small room which is only accessible from the garden.

The room is probably 2.1m x 1.8m - it has no windows and currently has a rickety wooden door.

I have no idea what the room was originally for, but we basically use it to store the lawnmower etc. It's essentially an outbuilding that is attached to the house.

The room is dry and has power running to it, plus a strong WIFI signal which should be fine for my work. It's currently bare brick with a concrete floor and a bare plasterboard ceiling.

I'm toying with the idea of converting it into a home office as when I work from home I have no dedicated space and end up sat at the kitchen table.

I could have the wooden door replaced with a half-glazed UPVC one (obscured) and then batten / insulate / VCL / board and then tape and joint the interior. Maybe plastered too but to keep costs down I would probably just paint the plasterboard white.

It currently has a double power socket so would probably need one more adding but that would be simple to take off the existing socket. Lighting is currently a single lightbulb but I could change that for an LED panel to flood it with light. I would also remove the current plasterboard ceiling and replace with new, together with insulation.

Floor would just be cheap carpet tiles over underlay.

That all sounds quite simple, my only issue is heating, there is a radiator on the wall behind this room so if necesary, I could drill through and feed off that but I was thinking of just using a simple oil-filled radiator, especially as the room is fairly small

It has an air brick already fitted so there is scope to ventilate using that (maybe replace with ducting and a fan?).

Office set up would be to fit a desk to the back wall so I would have about 1.8 m x 0.6m of worktop space, should be plenty of space for twin monitors. I'd put a couple of shelves up too but other than that, keep it fairly empty.

Would be interested in any thoughts / ideas. The room is already connected to the house so I don't *think* there would be any need to consider any building control issues (other than the replacement door and glazing which I believe would be covered off by the installer providing a FENSA certificate?).

Apart from the door, I would DIY so costs should be materials only. Probably aiming for £1.5k all in, although I haven't properly costed up yet. Costs for a door would be £500 if I buy from a supply only place, albeit I've never fitted one before! Other than the door, the materials are fairly cheap.

Any ideas of whether it would add value to the house? All I am really proposing to do would be to board out an existing brick built room but I think the addition of a proper dedicated home office space would be attractive in the post-covid world. It would also lend itself to being used as a craft room / small workshop so either way I think it would be a good idea.

Edited by R56Cooper on Monday 18th October 14:19

[so called]

I guess it was the coal store.

For socket outlet, Maybe just a decent extension lead as your computer, printer etc are all low power.
Oil Radiator would argue against that point though.
I'd go with a radiator myself having been watching electricity charge increases.

I would be thinking about a window to avoid the claustrophobia.

[wombleh]

A friend set up a music studio in their garage and put a WiFi controllable oil heater in, so they could schedule or turn it on with phone 30mins before going in there. Sounds like installing a proper radiator may not be too much of a job in your case though, especially if you can do some/all of the work yourself then may end up cheaper.