Skirting On Your Garden Studio or Garden Office
Hi there!
Iain here. Hope you are well!
I am going to discuss the gap which can appear below your garden studio...
Alex designed all of our studios to have a gap below them.
This maintains an airflow around your studio so that rising damp is never an issue.
He also recommends that rather than block in the gap, to just put plants or planters along your studio which don't block the airflow and also look great. Decking is also a good option as there are many gaps which allow airflow.
You can see an example of plants used below a garden studio in the photograph below...
The alternative to plants or decking is one that Alex does not recommend as it impairs the airflow and is expensive to do. It's also not very robust as it's plastic and only comes with a 1 year guarantee.
It's also easily damaged by strimmers.
The studio below has skirting coming down to a layer of bricks...
This garden studio was installed on very sloped ground so meant a large gap opened up as it left the higher ground.
The skirting is a upvc product which we give a 1 year guarantee to. The reason is that as it's touching the ground, which will get wet with rain and possibly snow, so it will not wear as well as the rest of your studio.
On this particular garden office the customer paid to have a brick foundation below the skirting so that a strimmer would not have to get close to the skirting when cutting his grass...
Although expensive, the skirting is considerably cheaper than landscaping the garden and paying for a concrete foundation which is very polluting.
This QC6 garden office also had grey decking installed in front of it's french doors. The gaps between the decking means there is still a good airflow below any studio.
If you install decking around your garden office then this can fill any gap and avoid skirting...
Some customers don't mind the gap and use flowers and plants...
The garden office below is a 12' x 8' QCB with a 4 to 6 inch gap below it (100mm to 150mm).
The gap keeps a nice airflow below the studio and it's barely noticable because of the greenery and foilage around the studio.
Alex would always recommend...spend some money on nice plants and foilage, which soften the look of your studio, to fill the gap below your studio, rather than building skirting which reduces the airflow and can potentially give a home to foxes or other animals.
We always maintain at least 100mm gap below every garden office as this gives airflow which means damp will never be an issue.
Hope this helps!
Many thanks,
Iain