CASE STUDY
Garden rooms and garden buildings have come a long way from the humble garden shed. They are now big business. A garden room can still be a humble shed. But at the top end of the market are full-on garden rooms, garden offices and dedicated garden spaces. Used every day for every conceivable occupation and hobby.
Garden rooms offered with a green roof are still relatively rare as live-loading dictates that roofs must be built to take the weight of a green roof from the outset. That means being able to handle the weight of waterproofing, filter fleece, root barrier, substrate and planting. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
In Bristol, Little Green Rooms are, by their own admission a young business based around a creative, bright and passionate team. They can manage all aspects of a green roof project. The creative, the finance as well as the operational hands-on design, build and install of your very own hand-built garden room. Since 2021 the team has grown to nearly thirty people who install several hundred garden rooms across the South of England and Wales every year.
Jack Shaw founded Little Green Rooms (LGR) . He is a designer and furniture maker devoted to sustainability. So LGR has benefitted from his long-standing approach to innovation, creativity and attention to detail.
But these garden rooms are no sheds. They look more architectural than functional and inside feel just like any room in your house. All Little Green Rooms’ buildings are designed to have a sedum green roof from the outset. Everything is handmade. All the timber is sourced from well-managed forests. The insulation comes from recycled plastic bottles and every order generates a donation to 9Trees who plant and manage native woodland across the UK. These are truly green garden rooms. Not only that but this is a true people business with green partners and profit-share across the business.
This approach is nothing if not all encompassing. Little Green Rooms have created a stylish, functional and sustainable solution to deliver the extra space so many of us crave. A space to work in, relax, or to develop ideas & hobbies. These garden rooms have been designed from the ground up with home working in mind. The ethos is “positive spaces have positive impacts.”
Every garden room is considered aesthetically, functionally and acoustically. These rooms are designed to be warm in the depths of winter and cool in the warmest summer. These are exactly the sort of credentials that we look for. Not surprisingly we are more than happy to support. So, in the last few days Harrowden has become a key supplier to Little Green Rooms. Their product is made for our Sedum Flat Roof Kit. In a noticeably short time, their customers have embraced sedum with all that means for pollinators and biodiversity.
There is a plethora of benefits associated with a sedum roof, not least that it creates a real talking point. The Enviromat® green roof kit comes with everything to turn a standard space into a delightful green roof, full of plants and flowers.
Components include a root barrier, a layer of specially engineered drainage mat to protect against damage to the sedum roof and the building itself, then comes dedicated matting that ensures excess water is wicked away from the roots to keep the green roof secure and healthy.
Last but by no means least is the Enviromat® sedum roof. Essentially, a pre-grown green roof mat consisting of a carrier fleece for easy handling, specially formulated growing medium and of course, sedum plants. Plant coverage is at least 95%, so from the moment your Enviromat® is unrolled, the roof is fully planted.
Harrowden’s role was relatively straightforward supplying our Enviromat Flat Roof Kit to support the project. Our kit comes with everything you need to turn your standard, dull space into a delightful green roof, full of plants and flowers.
If you would like to talk over your plans or discuss a bespoke seed mix or turf application please get in touch.
