Planning Permission

Allowable size of exempt garden rooms

You are permitted to erect a Garden Room up to an upper limit of 25 sq. metres (270 sq. ft.) on condition that you leave 25 sq. metres of free space in your Garden. If you are planning any kind of extension to your house in the future, it is necessary that you maintain the 25 sq. metres even after both the Garden Room and house extension are built. The 25 sq. metre planning permission in Ireland free space can be combined with both the side and the rear of the house.

Keep your neighbours happy

It might be a worthwhile and courteous action on your part to notify your neighbours of your intention to build a Garden Room to allay any fears about the type of structure you are building. This is merely in the interest of good neighbourly relations as you do not require any permission from them to construct a Garden room within the 25 sq. metre limit

Restricted height for all Garden Rooms

You are permitted to build a mono pitch or single pitch roof up to 3m in height or for a slated or tiled pitched roof up to 4m in height.

Requirements for Windows

You are not allowed to put a window within 1m of your neighbour’s boundary.

The front of your property

If you decide to build your Garden Room to the side rather than to the rear of your property it is a requirement that you either screen the building with fencing, bushes or trees or you are required to make it compatible with the front of the existing building, to meet the regulatory conditions for exemption.

Existing structures

If you have an existing timber or block shed, it may use up some of your 25 sq. metre exemption. However, if you have a garage or shed that was included in the initial planning permission granted when your house was built, you will still be eligible for the exemption of the 25 sq. metres for your Garden Room structure.