Frequently Asked Questions about Aspire Pods
Our Frequently Asked Questions about Aspire Pods provides answers to questions you’ll have about our products, service and living with your new garden room.
At Aspire Pods, we believe in offering a personal service at every stage of the process in creating you a dream garden room for your home.
Helping you with buying your new Aspire Pod
Every day we answer all manner of questions about the materials, quality, process and best uses for garden rooms as home offices, play areas, studios and the extra space they provide.
In this section, we answer the most frequently asked questions about our range of Aspire Pods. These cover questions such as planning, Building Regulations, electrics, wifi and connectivity, security, colour options and much more besides. We have tried to answer some of the more common questions that arise when considering purchasing a garden building. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions not covered in this section.
Product Design
The design of an Aspire Pod gives you a low-maintenance product using modern materials, a quality build and high-specification windows and doors.
Answers to our most popular product questions helping you understand the make-up, design, materials, sizes and day-to-day living with our product in your garden. It’s also useful information for comparing against products in other materials.
No. Aspire Pods come with a tried-and-tested synthetic material. This is widely used for buildings in difficult to reach applications such as high-rise apartments where access isn’t easy and building coverings.
This material is colour stable, won’t grey and keeps its colour year-on-year. The benefit is none of the staining or painting of 100% timber garden rooms and won’t look tired through exposure to the elements.
Subject to regular use, there is no reason why our Pods shouldn’t give you many years of reliable service and the product comes with a 20 year guarantee.
The doors and windows are the same products used in dwellings and also come with a long warranty.
We provide our pods at standard sizes meeting most customer requirements, from 3m wide and 3m deep starting size up to 6m wide and 3m deep.
We also offer bespoke garden rooms and can help create you a Pod at a particular size, design or shape.
Our smaller sizes such as 3mx3m and 4mx3m only come as a single open room. Larger pods have the option of dividing up into separate spaces falling under our bespoke product. Talk to us if you have a particular requirement in mind.
As standard all doors and windows come with 28mm sealed units having a soft-coat low-emissivity coating, warm edge spacer bars and argon gas fill. As standard all glass in doors is toughened. We provide alternative glass options such as laminated glass for extra security, acoustic glass, sun-control glazing or integral glass blinds in bifolding doors, French doors and windows.
The product is not designed specifically as an acoustic structure although it does come with excellent insulation and insulated profiles to the doors and window. We offer an acoustic glass upgrade to doors and windows, improving the acoustic performance of these.
Yes it is possible to fit plumbing in an aspire pod for a kitchen or toilet and we can advise you better during your consultation.
No. The materials used for the exterior fabric of Aspire Pods never need maintenance such as staining or painting. All they need is a routine clean with a hose or jet-wash, a soft sponge and mild soapy solution.
Planning
Planning the addition of any extra rooms or alterations in your home often raises questions over planning, dealing with Building Regulations and your local Council.
An Aspire Pod is designed to without the stress or planning associated with a fully-built extension or additional structure in your home. At the same time it provides the space you and your family need to grow.
An aspire pod falls under Permitted Development meaning any garden structure under 2.5m high doesn’t need Planning Permission. This applies to houses only and flats, apartments or listed buildings are excluded.
The minimum distance required from your fence or other boundary wall is 500mm or ½ a metre.
An Aspire Pod is designed as a free-standing structure and is therefore not suitable for attaching to an existing building. Neither can it be provided as a ‘lean-to’ design.
Installation
The way an Aspire Pod is part-fabricated and assembled both away from and at your property ensures a hassle-free installation. There’s none of the mess, disruption and interference associated with having builders all their materials in or around your home.
Whether you have a free space ready for a new Aspire Pod or there’s some preparation work involved first. We help you understand the entire process better, start to finish.
Garden access is the easiest and less disruptive way to bring the cut panels to your home. However, all the cladding panels used in our Pods are sized for convenient transportation. And if you live in a terraced property, the panels are small enough to pass through your home. We will discuss access requirements with you when our Consultant visits you.
The construction of your base takes two working days. Once dry, a further seven working days is needed to build your new pod.
Generally, it takes around two weeks to complete an Aspire Pod for our smaller sizes. The construction lead time also depends on the site conditions.
We offer a selection of base constructions and this shall be discussed on-site. Every base typd comes insulated and with the same guarantees
We carry out the base work and construction of an Aspire Pod only and will need a clean area to commence our works.
Every garden and installation is different, therefore we assess and discuss existing plants, trees or shrubs during our site visit and consultation
Usage
You’re good to go. Soon we’ll have your Aspire Pod built and ready for you to enjoy the added space, privacy to work, leisure and endless possibilities it provides for you.
Living with and maintaining your new garden room is a breeze. Some answers to popular questions about using your pod while also having the amenities and comforts you presently enjoy in your house every day of the year.
Yes. Our pods do not come with heating as standard but we offer a selection of heating options letting you use your pod as an office, gym or any other use all year round. We do not recommend the use of any naked flame appliances such as wood-burners. As standard we provide a plug-in electric heater.
Our standard wall finish is a matt white melamine that doesn’t need painting. Where we provide plasterboard walls, these are left ready to paint in your desired colour.
Yes. We work with an approved and certified electrical contractor and provide and electricity supply from your property to the Pod. Alternatively you can make your own arrangements with your own contractor and we’ll provide full details of what’s required.
As standard we provide a plug-in oil filled radiator. Available as part of our options package is an air-conditioning unit providing both cooling and warm air.
You have the choice of running either CAT6 cables from your property from your chosen contractor. Alternatively, subject to the location a wifi extender may provide a simpler solution. Television aerial or cable TV points are not provided and you’ll need to make your own arrangements for these.
We can provide an aerial and TV connection.
Building Regulations clearly stipulate the requirements for habitable rooms and as garden rooms, Pods do not comply with current regulations and are therefore not suitable. A different product is require for habitable rooms and therefore subject to planning permission.