Considering Purchasing a House with a conservatory

atppkr

Hi,

Would really appreciate some guidance here.

Predicament

I really like a property i have seen and considering on making an offer, the things is; it has a massive conservatory which is connected to the kitchen dinner. So essentially the foor plan would be living room (house) > kitchen/Dinner (conservatory). As a family we would expect to spend quite a lot of time in here, eating and chatting etc.


Conservatory has full electrics, dwarf walls (only glass half way up around the sides, and has a plastic roof.

Doing a bit of research, I have found comments suggesting that conservatories are FREEZING in the winter and too hot in the summer, which makes me think that this will be a bad move.

Can anyone shed any light on their personal experiences? I have not asked the owner directly, although i think i will but would expect a very biased answer, as they are wanting to get rid.

Ta

McKneff

For me, a conservatory is a big plus, we love ours and spend a lot of time in it.

Yes, it does get cold in winter, so we heat it, carpet makes it warmer, blinds make it warmer, simple.

In summer, during the day, it does get too hot in the middle of the day but why would you want to be sitting in it at all then anyway, you can sit in the lounge where its cooler or sit in the blazing sun. by teatime its fine, its hot for about 4 hours, if its a good price (the house) and you like it, go for it. We have never regretted adding a conservatory to ours,. Love it.

Isis_Black

I have a conservatory and yes they're freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer

BUT!!!!

In the winter we have one of those electric stove heaters in there and it keeps the room perfectly warm :-)

In the summer the windows and doors can be open plenty so cools a lot but also has a fan in there

Ido still need to get some blinds in there which will help a great deal all year round, sounds like this one you've seen doesn't but may benefit from them :-)

But I will say they are a fantastic addition to the house :-) I do love mine :T if I ever move to another house without one I'd have to very quickly get one put in

atppkr

Thanks for your replies. Appreciate it.

I would post images (links to images) but it wont let me to give you an idea of how big it is. How big are yours?

Can you also define Freezing? Are we talking hat and scarf material here?

Isis_Black

Mines a 2mx3m :-)
Oh very cold lol so luckily we have a electric control to the conservatory in the front room so we can switch the heating on without opening the door, but only take a few mins to heat up and can get too hot at times too :-)

They are fantastic at Christmas :-) we go mad lighting and decorating the room, it's our little grotto lol

Slinky_Malinky

I get the impression the kitchen/diner is either in the conservatory or open plan with it. I am just wondering if you would find the kitchen very hot to cook in during the daytime in summer - and then in the winter any cooking could cause a lot of condensation. Might be something to bear in mind if you love to cook/bake.

manda1205

I have to disagree with everyone, I have a 2x3m conservatory which is attached to my kitchen and we use as a dining room. I absolutely hate it. As above has said, in winter when I cook it gets full of condensation and gets terribly mouldy, even though we heat it with an oil filled radiator, which does its job very well, if we wanted to fix the mould we would need it on 24/7 in winter and that would cost a fortune. During the summer however it is lovely, but now that we have bought our house from the landlords we will be bricking it up and putting a proper roof on it to turn it into a proper extension.
However it would in no way put me off buying a house as there a lots of ways around things and if you have proper extractors this may cause you no problems, and you won't really know until you live with it.

atppkr

Well, that's the issue.

I would be paying for the privelage of having a conservatory, when in fact, it may need to be ripped down and replaced with an extension. Double the cost, which in turn would be mean I'm paying over the odds for the property.

A second viewing and a grilling should properly put me in a better place.

Would still like to hear other people's comments/experiences and even images if possible.

Does anyone know when I will allowed to add links? It's currently blocking me thinking I'm a spammer.

Thanks for the replies. Been really helpful.

SuzieSue

I think you have to have made around 10 posts before you can post a link (just post some repetitive posts until you get to 10).

I would think very carefully before buying this property. I had a conservatory fitted around 5 years ago and although I love it most of the time, it can get too hot in the summer and I never use it between November and February as it is too cold - it is as cold as it is outside so I don't bother to heat it as it would cost too much.

Which way does the convervatory face as this makes a bit difference to how much you will be able to use it?

I would never buy a property with a consevatory which didn't have its own door separating it from the rest of the house as it will cost too much to heat in the winter.

SuzieSue

atppkr wrote: »

Well, that's the issue.

I would be paying for the privelage of having a conservatory, when in fact, it may need to be ripped down and replaced with an extension. Double the cost, which in turn would be mean I'm paying over the odds for the property.

Don't pay extra for the conservatory especially as you don't know if you will keep it. A lot of people who have convervatories put in think that their house is worth more just because of it but it isn't. A consevatory is not like an extension which can be used all year round with no more heating than the rest of the house.

bluebird

Our conservatory has a Tinted plastic roof so eliminating the summer sun heat, so in summer we can sit happily our problem is winter,its cold,we do have a raidiator but the conservatory fails to be warm enough so sitting for long periods is too cold.we do use it for sunday lunch or any family occasion where we need to use our huge dining table. buy a tinted roof and you got the summer to enjoy.