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Real Wi-Fi in the garden room.

A mesh extender across 20 metres of garden, through one breeze-block wall, isn't going to hold a Teams call. The fix is the same one we'd use in a small office: a hardwired access point, fed by a Cat6a cable in underground conduit.

Book garden survey → How it works

Why mesh fails outside

Wireless extenders weren't designed for this.

A consumer Wi-Fi extender bounces signal off the back of your house. By the time it reaches the garden room — through patio doors, across grass, through cedar cladding — there's barely enough left to maintain a connection, let alone hold a 1080p video call.

The right approach is the one commercial buildings use: a Cat6a Ethernet cable from your router to a weather-rated access point at the garden room, providing fresh, full-strength Wi-Fi at the source.

Setup	Wireless extender	Wired AP
Reliable HD video calls	No	Yes
Works in rain / cold	Variable	Yes
Speed in garden room	~30–80 Mbps	300–600+ Mbps
Same SSID as house	Sometimes	Yes
Withstands 7+ years	No	Yes

How it works

One cable. Underground. Done once.

Site survey of house, garden & office

Identify the route. Measure cable distance. Check existing patio / paving / grass conditions. Discuss where the new socket should sit inside the garden room.

Trench & conduit

Narrow trench (typically 100–150mm wide) from the back of the house to the garden room. We bury a flexible duct at the correct depth (450mm under lawns, 600mm under driveways).

Outdoor-rated Cat6a cable

Direct-burial Cat6a Ethernet pulled through the conduit. Surge-protected at both ends. Sealed grommets where it enters the house and the garden room.

Access point install & configuration

Wall-mounted indoor AP for cedar / glazed garden rooms (or outdoor-rated AP if mounted externally). Configured on the same SSID as your house — your phone roams automatically.

Reinstate & test

Trench backfilled, turf or paving reinstated. Speed tested at desk position. Walk-through with you. You sign off when you're happy with both Wi-Fi and visible finish.

Three common scenarios

From simple to full kit-out.

SCENARIO A

Just Wi-Fi

One indoor AP wired back to the house. Single power socket already in the garden room. Output: rock-solid Wi-Fi for laptop and phone. Typical install: 1 day.

SCENARIO B

Wi-Fi + wired desk

AP plus an Ethernet socket at the desk — for those who want a wired connection to their workstation. PoE switch in the garden room for future cameras or NAS.

SCENARIO C

Full workspace setup

Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet, monitor + dock + webcam install, printer config, multi-room audio extended from the house. Whole workspace done in one job.

What's included

The full spec.

Cable

Cat6a SF/FTPDirect burial ratedUV-resistant jacket Tested to 10 Gbps over distance.

Conduit

Flexible electrical conduit, buried at proper depth, marked with warning tape above. Allows future cable additions without re-trenching.

Surge Protection

Ethernet surge protectors at both house entry and garden room entry. Essential — Irish weather sees plenty of lightning.

Access Point

UniFi U6+UniFi In-Wall HDOmada EAP670 Wi-Fi 6, dual-band, ceiling or wall mount.

Power

AP is PoE-powered through the same cable (no extra socket needed). PoE injector or switch installed at the house end.

SSID Roaming

Same network name as the house. Devices switch seamlessly between house APs and garden-room AP as you walk across the lawn.

Restoration

Lawns: turf relaid. Paving: blocks lifted and replaced. Concrete: core-drilled neatly, sealed. We leave the garden tidy.

FAQ

Garden office questions.

Do you need to dig up my lawn?

Usually a narrow strip, yes — about 100–150mm wide, depth depending on what's overhead (450mm under lawns is standard). We cut turf in strips, set it aside, trench underneath, lay conduit, backfill, and relay the turf. Within 4–6 weeks of growth it's invisible. We discuss alternative routes (along an existing fence line, through a flower bed, under a patio edge) where possible.

My garden room already has power. Why do I need another cable?

A 230V mains supply can't carry data. Powerline adapters that try to send data over the same cable are notoriously unreliable, especially across separate consumer units. A dedicated Cat6a Ethernet run is the only reliable solution.

How far can the cable run?

Cat6a is rated to 100 metres without amplification. We've yet to encounter an Irish garden longer than that. For very long runs (50m+), we sometimes add a small switch midway to keep signal clean.

Will it work in winter / heavy rain?

Yes. The cable is fully waterproof, surge-protected, and rated for direct burial. The access point inside the garden room is unaffected by external weather. We've installed these in Drogheda, Dundalk and Trim — they survive Irish winters fine.

Can the same cable run a CCTV camera outside the garden room?

Yes — PoE switches at the garden-room end can power a wired camera on the roofline or eaves, all on the same single cable from the house. We often combine these on one job.

What if I move the garden room later?

The conduit makes future re-routing easier — we pull the old cable, run a new one through the same duct to the new location. Conduit is cheap insurance for a 10-year-old install.