Converting Conservatory to Living Space

sparkle_berry

We currently have a part brick convervatory which we never use as its too cold in the winter and too cold in summer. We now want to convert the conservatory into a living room by building a proper flat roof, I was hoping there would be a builder out there able to tell me if this is possible. I have been told it depends on how deep the foundations are, I have no clue as the conversatory was already there when we purchased the house. If it was possible to build a roof does anyone know roughly how much this would cost?

Thanks for your help.


Susie

Doozergirl

What does your roof consist of currently? If it's the lightweight plastic then the reason you have that is that glass windows in your conservatory can't support the weight of anything heavier.

You need a proper structure to support a roof eg. brick columns and joists, so it's likely you'd have to start from scratch.

A roof itself won't be quite as expensive as you'd imagine, just depends on whether you have the structure (and yes, foundations) to support it.

I hope that makes sense - I'm not very technical about these things!

HugoSP

A flat roof will have very little impact if any to the footings. The bulk of the construction weight will still be in the brickwork. A flat roof is basically a timber construction with a bitumous or other waterproof covering on top. It would all depend on ho much extra brickwork would be required for this flat roof. I suspect it would be little more than some reinforced concrete lintels over the windows, if needed.

The issue may arise from Building Control. A conservatory does not normally come under their scope, however they may consider that converting it in this way would make it an extension, which would come under their scope. Hence you may then be required to have foundations of a certain depth.

My advice would be to speak to your local Building Control office about this. Some BCOs are fairly relaxed about conversions of old structures, whilst others seem to insist on it being brought up to date with the latest regs, or suggest a compromise in between.

As the only way of improving the footings (if needed) would be to underpin the conservatory, I suspect you would be better off rebuilding from scratch.

You should also make sure you're not running into problems with planning as well.

A rough guess would be somewhere around £1500 to £2000 for a garaged sized conservatory.

What type of roof is on there at the moment? I assume it's a glass or polycarbinate roof?

HugoSP

In response to Doozegirls post above, I ahad assumed that the conservatory was of brick construction with windows and a see through roof. If she is right then, yes rebuilding from scratch would be the answer.

03022242

maybe you could get away with timber frame walls on top of a dwarf wall?