Get a spare room for small change
How do you add a sleepout to your property? Katie Newton investigates.
Anyone who’s tallied up the cost of adding an extra bedroom will know that upsizing is expensive. It usually means going up another rung on the property ladder, or spending tens of thousands on a renovation.
But adding a sleepout to your existing property can be a cost-effective solution to a space problem, says Sanders Cabins and Sheds manager Matt Pike. ‘‘Lots of people are wanting that extra room for family members but don’t want to spend $200k extending the house. They can spend a tenth of that on a cabin and the teenager or whoever can have their own space on the property.’’
There are plenty of options for kitset or readymade structures that can work as sleeping quarters. Manufacturers such as Versatile or Ideal offer pre-painted steel clad options, while other companies sell basic timber sheds or open-sided shipping containers that can be lined and insulated. Some boast pitched shingle roofs and French doors for extra charm, like those from She Shed which cost $6200, or $7600 delivered and installed on any suitable flat surface.
Sanders has been in business for 40 years, and for half that time has been supplying pre-built cabins and sheds throughout the North Island. Pike says the biggest shift he’s noticed is that people now want to turn them into self-contained units so they can rent them out.
‘‘We’ve noticed real growth in the number of people who want a self-contained unit and so are prepared to go down the building consent route,’’ Pike says. ‘‘They want to put the en suite and cooking facilities in there and list it on Airbnb. It’s all about getting that extra bit of income.’’
But the cheapest way to add a sleepout is to avoid the need for building or resource consent altogether. The Building Act exempts sleepouts from this requirement providing they are no bigger than 10sqm in floor area, are a single storey less than 3.5m tall and less than 1m off the ground and are placed at least the equivalent of their height away from the boundary.
They also can’t have sanitary or cooking facilities or a drinking water supply, but instead must have an associated dwelling on the property that provides these things.
If someone’s sleeping in them, smoke alarms and a hinged exit door must be included, and any electrical work must be done by a registered electrician. Other rules such as maximum site coverage can sometimes apply so it pays to doublecheck with your local council about the rules for your particular property.
But what if you don’t want to add a new dwelling to your land? Another popular option is to refurbish an existing structure, like a shed or garage to use as a spare room.
‘‘I’m all about keeping the bones of the space simple.’’ Anna Begg
Wanaka interior designer Anna Begg transformed what was a tool shed at the bottom of her garden into a cosy guest sleepout. The DIY project gained her a finalist spot in NZ House & Garden magazine’s recent Interior of the Year awards.
Armed with plenty of white paint and ingenuity, Begg and her boyfriend refurbished the space for less than $2000. Half of that cost was for the grooved ply she used to line the walls, which she says ‘‘adds a subtle detail to the walls and gives it that feeling of a cabin’’.
‘‘I’m all about keeping the bones of the space simple,’’ she says. ‘‘For wall cladding, a great option is plywood because you don’t need to Gib stop it, and you can paint right on to the wood.’’
She insulated the sleepout with pink batts and added a rug for extra warmth and texture. ‘‘The flooring can be simple as it’s a small space – you could just paint the concrete if you lived in a warmer climate,’’ she says.
The door to her shed was so tiny, a $75 vintage spring bed with fold-down legs was the only bed option that would fit.
She dressed it in soft linens, and added