Guide4 minute read
What a bespoke playhouse actually costs
A handcrafted, installed playhouse or climbing frame in the UK starts at around £3,500 for a single elevated house and runs to £16,000 for a large multi-tower playcentre. Interior-led designer houses begin at £5,000 and reach £15,000, and fully bespoke commissions begin at £20,000. What separates one end of that range from the other is footprint, height, the standard of the interior, and how much of the structure is joinery rather than kit.
The ranges, as published
Every range on this site carries a guide investment, and this table gathers them in one place. They are guides rather than quotations because the final figure depends on the configuration chosen and on what the site survey finds, but nothing here is a teaser: these are the numbers the collections are actually built and sold against.
| Collection | Guide investment | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| The Treetops | From £3,500 | The entry point: one elevated playhouse, ply-lined, on a compact footprint |
| The Forest | £5,000 to £12,000 | The classic playcentre, from a single house to a house with tower and slide |
| The Damson | £7,000 to £15,000 | A larger cottage form, often combined with climbing elements |
| The Otter | £8,000 to £16,000 | The largest Signature builds, including two-storey and mega combinations |
| Otter Cottage | From £5,000 | The entry point to the Designer collection: a cottage form, interior-led |
| Badger Lodge | £9,000 to £12,000 | A designer house with the warmth and finish of real architecture |
| Harvestwood House | £12,000 to £15,000 | The largest Designer house, and the most architectural of the three |
| Masterpiece | From £20,000 | Fully bespoke commissions, drawn to a brief rather than chosen from a range |
What moves a project within its range
Two families choosing the same range can land a long way apart. These are the things that actually move the number, in roughly the order they matter.
- Footprint. The single largest factor. Every additional square metre is timber, joinery and labour, and a wider span needs a heavier frame beneath it.
- Height and levels. An elevated house costs more than a ground-level one, and a second storey more again, because the structure below it has to carry the load and the balustrading has to be right.
- The interior. A ply-lined, finished interior is a different piece of work from an open shell. It is the difference a child notices first and the one that dates slowest.
- The roof. Cedar shingle is hand-laid and costs more than a sheet roof. It is also the element that makes a structure read as architecture rather than equipment.
- Play elements. Slides, monkey bars, scramble nets, fireman’s poles, bridges and towers each add material and fixing work.
- Joinery against kit. The further a brief moves from a published configuration toward drawn-from-scratch joinery, the more of the cost is design and bench time. This is the line between Signature and Masterpiece.
Why this costs more than a flat-pack playhouse
A flat-pack playhouse from a shed retailer can be had for a few hundred pounds, and for some gardens that is the right answer. It is worth being clear about what the difference buys rather than pretending the comparison is unfair.
- Timber section and grade. Heavier sections, properly specified, are what stop a structure loosening and twisting after a few winters.
- Made rather than assembled. These are built in a Devon workshop by joiners, then installed by the people who made them, rather than shipped as panels for a parent to bolt together on a Saturday.
- Designed for the garden it goes in. A bespoke structure is drawn around the space, the levels and the planting, instead of being placed wherever it happens to fit.
- A fifteen-year guarantee. That is a statement about how long the thing is expected to last, and it is the number worth comparing against a two-year warranty.
Judged over the years a family actually uses it, the arithmetic looks different from the sticker. A structure that serves two children from toddling to their teens, and is still sound afterwards, is doing a different job from one replaced twice in the same period.
Spreading the investment over time
Not every garden estate arrives at once, and it does not need to. The modular system exists precisely so a family can begin with one complete structure and add to it as children grow and budgets allow.
A first commission might be a single elevated house. A tower and slide can follow, then a bridge to a second platform, then a den beneath. Each addition is designed to meet what is already there, which is why it is worth saying at the survey that you intend to extend later: the first structure can be positioned and specified with the second one in mind.
Common questions
- What is the cheapest handcrafted playhouse you make?
- The Treetops range starts at around £3,500 for a single elevated, ply-lined playhouse on a compact footprint, designed and installed.
- Does the price include installation?
- Structures are installed by the workshop that built them. The site survey establishes access and levels, both of which bear on the installation, and the confirmed figure follows that survey.
- Why is there a range rather than a price?
- Because a range is configured rather than bought off a shelf. The same collection covers a single house and a multi-tower playcentre, and the guide investment spans both ends of what that collection can become.
- Can a structure be extended later?
- Yes. The modular system is designed for it: towers, bridges, dens and additional houses can be added to an existing structure, which is why it helps to mention future plans at the survey stage.