Conservatory or Orangery?

cally_c

Hi everyone,

We're currently considering either a conservatory or an orangery for the side of the house. It would be 4m X 3m, the longest side would be against the house.
So far, we've been quoted £25k for the orangery, & £12k for a conservatory, a big difference! I'm a bit more in favour of the orangery as it's better insulated & more substantial, but the price is :eek:.

I'd appreciate any thoughts/opinions on the choice & prices.

cheers!

adj_2

Hi,
We're actually just in the middle of our conservatory being built. Personally, I think orangeries look gorgeous - if money had not been any issue - that would have been my first choice too. However, just thought I'd post to give you an idea of price.
We are having a 3x3 conservatory, so a bit smaller than you're planning, but we are paying just under £8000. This is for Edwardian design, glass, argon, blue tinted roof, one full wall, all plastered, 3 double sockets and main light point, moving a man hole entry outside the conservatory, laminate flooring.
It's definitely worth getting a good few quotes as we found prices varied hugely. We also found it best to steer away from national companies who tended to do an hour long hard sell with us, and then create figures which seemed to be plucked out of the air. We've gone with a reasonable small company, who we've had recommendations from friends, and they also agreed to beat our lowest quote. Be cheeky and play the companies off against eachother quote-wise - it's definitely worth it and surpirsing how quickly their quote seems to drop!
Good luck!

adj_2

Also just a thought if you're looking at £25,000 for an orangery, perhaps you should also look at the price of an extension. Imagine there wouldn't be a huge difference price wise, and if it's something more substantial you want... Just a thought!

cally_c

Thanks for your replies adj. I'm still preferring the idea of a 'glass box' than an extension, but it's a good point.
I'd rather use local firms than the nationals anyway, I don't respond well to the hard sell, the more pressure they apply, the more I back off!
We've had two conservatory quotes, both £12k, but there are plenty of other local places still to try. Not so many do orangeries though, so we're a little more restricted there.
Will keep looking,

Thanks again adj

Alan_M_2

Consider a traditional extension with a single glass wall that opens into the garden, you get the best of both worlds and a more useable space.

We're going through a similar thought process and every time we end up back at a two story extension simply because the extra room upstairs would be so useful and the value it adds to our house in our particular area is almost 3 times build cost.