The Wavyroom Loft is a prefabricated backyard room of 99 sq ft, with a 43 sq ft loft above part of it. It stands 12 ft tall on a near-square 9.9 ft by 9.9 ft footprint, and comes with a sliding door, windows and an aluminum composite panel exterior.
Wavyroom is the backyard-room brand of Spacewavy. We design the Loft and sell it in the United States and Canada, as a private space a few steps from the house — a home office, a studio, a guest room or a workshop.
The Loft is the step up from the Wavyroom Basic. Both sit on the same floor area; the Loft is the one with height. Section 2 covers what that gives you.
The unit is prefabricated — manufactured before it reaches you — and installed on site in one day.
One day is how long we spend on your site setting the unit down and connecting it. Everything else comes first — confirming what your city and zoning allow, and working out how the unit reaches your yard and where it sits. We plan that with you, so the overall timeline depends on your site and your local process.
The Basic and the Loft cover the same 99 sq ft of ground. The Loft is 2.5 ft taller — 12 ft against 9.5 ft — and that extra height is what the loft needs. Under a 12 ft ceiling there is room for a platform over part of the floor without giving up the room beneath it.
The loft is 43 sq ft. That is not a second room; it is a second surface, above the floor and out of its way. Going up adds surface without taking more of the yard. Whether those 43 sq ft count toward floor area under your local rule is a separate question, and section 4 is where we take it up.
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The room below has details of its own. The roof line is angled, and a built-in sliding credenza sits beneath it — storage, and a surface for a lamp or whatever you keep to hand. A desk-and-cabinet unit can be added if you want the room set up for work from the start.
Two more things differ from the Basic. The door is a sliding door rather than a folding one, and windows are included. And the footprint is a different shape: the Basic is a rectangle, 8.6 ft by 11.5 ft; the Loft is close to a square, 9.9 ft by 9.9 ft. Which fits your spot depends on the proportions of the space, not only on the area.
Both prices are for the unit.
| Wavyroom Basic | Wavyroom Loft | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (unit) | $23,500 | $28,300 |
| Floor area | 99 sq ft | 99 sq ft |
| Loft | — | 43 sq ft |
| Footprint (W × D) | 8.6 ft × 11.5 ft | 9.9 ft × 9.9 ft |
| Height | 9.5 ft | 12 ft |
| Door | Folding door | Sliding door |
| Windows | — | Included |
| Furniture | — | Desk-and-cabinet unit (optional) |
| Installation | 1 day | 1 day |
The Loft product page has a 3D model you can turn to view the unit from every angle. Where the loft sits within the room and how it is reached, we walk through with you during consultation.
$28,300 is the price of the Wavyroom Loft unit — the room in section 5: 99 sq ft of floor, the 43 sq ft loft, sliding door, windows, aluminum composite panel exterior and Zeno Wall interior, installed on site in a day.
Against the Basic, the $4,800 difference buys the extra 2.5 ft of height, the loft, the sliding door and the windows.
The price does not cover what depends on your property. How the unit reaches your yard and where it sits, how power gets to it, and what your local authority asks for all vary from one address to the next. We go through these with you during consultation, against your actual site, and that is when the complete picture comes together.
Give us your address and a description of the spot — access from the street, what is around it, where your power is. We check the property-side items one by one with you before you order.
A backyard studio is a detached, non-habitable space in your yard. In the United States and Canada, a structure like this can be installed without a building permit if it meets the limits and conditions your jurisdiction sets — area is only the first of them. Those rules are not the same everywhere. These are the ones we work from:
| Jurisdiction | Permit-exempt up to | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| California, US | 120 sq ft | CRC §R105.2 — one-story detached accessory structure. No height limit. |
| IRC-based states and cities, US (Oregon; Dallas and Austin, Texas, among others) | 200 sq ft | IRC §R105.2(1). Austin adds a 15 ft height limit. |
| Houston, Texas, US | 120 sq ft | No electrical, plumbing or mechanical systems. Area is not the only test here — we confirm the rest with your local office. |
| Ontario, Canada | 15 ㎡ (161 sq ft) | One story, detached, storage use, no plumbing. |
| British Columbia, Canada | 10 ㎡ (108 sq ft) | Single story, accessory use, detached, non-habitable, no drainage plumbing. |
The Loft's 99 sq ft (about 9.2 ㎡) of floor is under each of the area limits listed here. The unit was sized to the 10 ㎡ line, the tightest of them.
Area is the number most jurisdictions start with. It is not the only condition, and on the Loft the two that matter most are questions about the loft itself.
Does the loft make this a two-storey structure? California, Ontario and British Columbia all write "one story" into their exemptions. Whether a platform inside a single room reads as a second storey under those rules is not ours to decide — we put the question to your local authority with you.
Do the loft's 43 sq ft count toward floor area? Each municipality answers that its own way. Where they count, the number to hold against the table is not 99 sq ft alone, so this is settled before anything is ordered rather than assumed.
Height is the next line: the Loft is 12 ft tall; California sets no height limit, and Austin's limit is 15 ft. The right-hand column holds the rest — use, wiring, plumbing. Houston's exemption requires no electrical, plumbing or mechanical systems, so floor area alone does not settle it there. We go through each of these with you during consultation, and the same applies to any city or county not in the table.
A permit exemption is not a zoning exemption. Setbacks, lot coverage and permitted use are set by zoning. Electrical work can need its own permit. HOA rules, and wildfire, flood or heritage overlays, apply on top. This holds in every jurisdiction above, so we check those items with you as well.
The Wavyroom Loft's specification.
| Area | 99 sq. ft. |
|---|---|
| Loft area | 43 sq. ft. |
| Dimensions (W x D) | 9.9 ft x 9.9 ft |
| Height | 12 ft |
| Door | Sliding door |
| Windows | Included |
| Wall thickness | 50–100 mm |
| Slab thickness | 100–150 mm |
| Exterior | Aluminum Composite Panel (ACP) |
| Interior | Zeno Wall |
| Furniture | Desk – cabinet unit (optional) |
| Installation | 1-day installation |
Loft area 43 sq ft
The area of the platform above the main floor, listed separately from the 99 sq ft of floor below it.
Sliding door
A door that moves sideways along a track instead of swinging or folding. It needs no clearance in front of it, inside or out, which keeps the space by the opening free.
Windows included
Windows are part of the standard unit. How they sit relative to your yard and the sun is something we go over with you against your site's orientation during consultation.
Wall thickness 50–100 mm, slab thickness 100–150 mm
The walls are about 2–4 in thick; the slab, 4–6 in. The slab is the floor structure of the unit.
Aluminum Composite Panel (ACP)
The exterior cladding: two thin aluminum sheets bonded to a core between them.
Zeno Wall
Our interior wall finish. The spec describes it as easy to maintain.
Desk – cabinet unit
An optional desk-and-cabinet unit you can add to the room.
One-day installation
The unit is manufactured before it arrives, so the day on site is spent placing and connecting it rather than building it. Anything beyond this standard configuration is something to raise with us during consultation.
Same 99 sq ft, same materials and wall build-up, same one-day installation. The choice comes down to whether the room needs a second level.
The Loft is the right one when something has to go up: storage you want off the floor, a sleeping platform in a guest room, a second working level kept apart from the desk below. It is also the one to look at when the near-square footprint suits your spot better than a long rectangle, or when you want the windows from the start.
How you plan to use the room is itself one of the permit conditions. Ontario's exemption is written for storage use and British Columbia's for non-habitable accessory use, so sleeping in the room is one of the things to put to your local rule before you order — section 4.
Look at the Wavyroom Basic when a single level holds everything the room is for — a desk and a chair, a mat, a workbench — and the 8.6 ft by 11.5 ft rectangle fits the space you have. It is 9.5 ft tall, opens with a folding door, and is $4,800 less at $23,500.
Either way, the next step is the same: send us your address and how you plan to use the room, and we check the site and the local rule with you before anything is ordered.