Conservatories

Paul_H_4

Hi,

Iam looking into getting a new conservatory built. Have had a number of quotes and Anglian came out double the price of the rest. The Anglian guy was going on about how their product was a lot superior including the roof frame. He said their roof structure was alot better than anyone elses but they appear to use "ultraframe" roofs who also seem to supply a number of other companies.

The guy also reckons the anglian glass is a lot better than Pilkington glass. Does anyone know if this is true?

Is the Anglian product a lot better than competitors and therefore worth double the others?

All the other quotes include the same size, foundations and brickwork. Therefore the actual glass product for anglian is alot more than the equivalents (around 300%)

Cheers.
Paul

McKneff

He's a salesman, trying to push up his commission.
He;s a good salesman but still got £ signs in his eyes.

We had the same when we wanted a conservatory only this time it was
St. Helens Glass, after the initial quote, they bombarded us with telephone calls for months. It may be worth more, but never double the price.
Everest are the same, they are double everyone elses price.

Always ask for previous customers phone numbers for recommendations.
We did it with one company and the customer, when we talked to them
said they wouldnt touch them ever again with bargepole:eek:

If you go for any of the others try to get a local one, they are easier to get hold of it there are any problems.

ormus

hes talking complete boll ocks.

OddjobKIA

paul - h roughly were in the uk are you IE midlands, london, wales etc etc.

I would go for a local firm in your area they have to do a good job to get a good word of mouth customer base. knock on doors of neighbours who have conservatory's (ie's) ask them for their opinion or recomendations..


ps go for a glass roof not a plastic one.............much quiter in the rain

27col

You cannot take anything a salesman says at face value. His main reason for talking to you is to sell you something and thus make his commission. As to Anglian Glass being better than Pilkington. You do not seriously think that they have their own glass, do you. Go to a local company and you might well be talking to the owner. If they are reputable, then they will be happy to tell you the names of recent customers, whose opinion of them and their product, you can ask. Even if Anglian were better than other suppliers, they do not supply conservatories that are twice as good as the others. Twice as dear, maybe, twice as good, no.

Paul_H_4

Cheers for all the advice this is about what we were thinking.

aliclago

I had a sales rep from the Anglian as well. As you said, his quotation came as the highest out of 5. Surprisingly, a builder quoted the similar price for a proper tiled roof extension. The cheapest one was less than half the Anglian's quote. I am still considering whether or not I am going for a conservatory or a proper extension, as people mentioned heat loss problems with a conservatory.
I don't know how effective the glass provided by the Anglian is but I think that their quotation is too expensive as a conservatory.

McKneff

If i was starting again i would definitley go for the extension. As you say about the heat loss in winter, it is horrendously hot in the summer enough for us not to be able to sit in it during the day.

Kiran

If you are not after flooding the house with light, ie you don't have a long dark room that would become even longer and darker with an extension, then the extension is the sound option. The "U" value of glass is, with the exception of very high performance glass, always going to be higher than a cavity wall (insulated) wall. That means that it will conduct more heat to the outside world resulting in more heat loss.

If however you do need the extra light there are a couple of options you can go for

1) The good old skylight, this will let aditional light in but not have such a large area of glass bridging the gap between inside warmth and the outside elements

2) Velux also make a product called a light tunnel, its designed to bring light from outside into dark areas, its effective and the opening of the tunnel is small enough to avoid heat loss.

If you do go down the conservatory route, check with the companies the U values of their glass, I have Anglian windows in my house and they do perform well. I would say that if you bluff the sales people with "quotes you've had" you can play them off and get good reductions!

Hope that is of some help

Kiran