Hut and garden offices can be designed online by Dorset Man’s software

He devised diysheds.co.uk as a way for people to create 3D plans for garden buildings. Later, manufacturers created VisualConfig, a tool for hosting on their websites.

Fox said diysheds.co.uk was born out of the experience of finding a garden shed to work in his own home. Christchurch House.

He couldn’t find anything online that would meet his needs, so he decided to design and build it himself.

He created software that calculates the optimal use of materials rather than creating waste. He added 3D visualizations and released the first version of the site at the end of the year.

“DIY sheds now allow users to create shed, garden office, and playhouse plans for free. Users can design in real time using online 3D software,” he said. ..

“Then you can see the resources, cutlists, plans you need, or use augmented reality on your mobile phone to virtually roam your designs.

“The site has started acquisition traffic March 2020, mainly due to blockades and new needs for telecommuting. Since then, the site has been used to design over 5,000 garden rooms.

“The materials used in these designs are worth over £ 18m based on the price of home improvement stores on High Street.”

He said he received a lot of interest from garden room manufacturers who are enthusiastic about using it. technology On their website. In January, he reduced his freelance web development work and created VisualConfig Limited. This allows manufacturers to create a “configurator” for their site, calculate prices, and collect leads from their customers.

It also creates all the manufacturing drawings you need.

The company won the Digital Investment Award at the DIY Week Awards and was in the final selection alongside Evergreen Garden Care and Sagittarius. It was a finalist in the Digital Innovation category that was competing with Wickes and Thorns DIY.

Fox is considering expanding into industries including kitchens, fitted wardrobes, decks and pavements, fences and cladding.

He said he could use the original diysheds.co.uk site to provide materials and kits to users.