Eco-Friendly Garden Buildings

As a lover of the great outdoors, you almost certainly treasure nature and value the preservation and protection of the natural environment. Well, we’re with you all the way.

At Garden Affairs, we’re as concerned as anyone about the climate crisis and the likely direction the planet is headed without dramatic changes in government policy and human behaviour.

So what are we doing to play our part in fighting the battle against global warming?

We work hard to ensure our buildings, and the materials they’re made from, do not add to the environmental pain of the planet.

For 20 years we’ve been a leading distributor of timber-based garden buildings. We always do our best to use natural wood throughout the building, including the door and window frames.

So if you’re:

• struggling with a lack of indoor space
• worried about how eco-friendly a new garden building will be
• concerned that a new building might disrupt the natural environment and landscape of your garden

read on to find out about the eco-credentials of a Garden Affairs timber garden room.

Good ol’ timber – as green as it gets.

If you’re looking for renewable, sustainable building materials, look no further than timber.

The beauty of wood is that it captures and stores carbon from the atmosphere, helping in the battle against climate change. And the timber production process is much healthier for the planet than other materials like plastic, which are manufactured using fossil fuels.

Add to this that it’s easy to reuse and recycle at the end of its life, or can be burnt for bioenergy, and timber’s eco-credibility is hard to beat.

We use timber harvested from sustainably managed sources. Wood certified by the PEFC (Program of the Endorsement of Forest Certification) or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), comes from forests where more timber is planted than is used. This increases forest reserves and the amount of carbon they absorb from the atmosphere.

Only through sustainable forest management will the planet’s forests be protected, which is vital if they continue playing a part in tackling climate change.

Not only is timber an eco-friendly product, but it’s also energy-efficient too, enabling us to give our buildings natural air-tightness, with breathability (no condensation or dampness) and insulation (year-round comfort). Read more about the benefits of timber buildings.

We use slow-grown Northern European larch & pine to ensure a sturdy and refined product. Slow-grown timber has a closer grain structure, making it strong and hard-wearing, particularly if it’s harvested when sap levels are low.

Living roof – blending in with nature.

Your garden building doesn’t have to be just a static wooden object – it can become a living part of the natural environment of your garden, a proper eco garden room.

By adding a sedum roof – a layer of shallow-rooted succulents – to your building, you’ll be creating an attractive and wildlife-friendly addition to the aesthetic of your outdoor space.

And there are other benefits of a green roof:

• It’s a joy to watch your green roof grow and develop.
• It will last for ages if you take good care of it – and it’s actually very low maintenance.
• It’s an excellent natural insulator, cutting down your heating and air-con bills.
• It absorbs rainwater.
• It attracts wildlife, like butterflies, ladybirds and bees.

Sustainable base work solution

If your garden building is to have a long life, it needs to be built on robust and rot-resistant foundations. But how to do that in an environmentally-friendly way?

We’ve developed a deck base system, which will support your garden office, studio, log cabin or summerhouse as solidly and efficiently as a concrete base.

The significant sustainability feature of the system is that it’s made from heavy-duty, pressure-treated timber – a practical and green alternative to concrete, with a fraction of the carbon footprint.

The deck base system is easy to install, cheaper than concrete, and like any timber, it can be reused and/or recycled at the end of its life.

The only non-timber components of the deck base system are the posts supporting the base. They’re made out of recycled plastic and are an essential part of the system as they keep the base away from the ground and are completely rot-proof.

Going paperless

Our eco-efforts don’t stop at our buildings.

We’re making a conscious effort to move towards a paperless office. The operations team has swapped the heaps of paperwork they once produced for a fully online alternative.

Traditional drawings are moving online with the use of our new 3D design tools. And you can now find the brochures we used to mail out to our customers on our website.