Conservatories........

alleycat`

sunnyone wrote: »

We love our conservatory, our house had one on when we bought it and we replaced it about five years ago, it cost £8k because we have a weird wall but its money well spent.

A lot depends on heating etc. to wether you use it year round, it makes sence to put it on the central heating system to keep it warm during the winter.

You aren't, technically, supposed to connect radiators from the main central heating system directly to radiators in a conservatory (from my memory of regs).

Everyone does, but you aren't supposed to

VJsmum

I am just about to replace my plastic conservatory roof with a glass one. The cost will be around £4.5k - but it has to be done. Hopefully the glass will make it a more usable room as it is very cold in winter and stifling at the moment.

Ours is about 18m2 and the price includes taking down the old one.

Desperado99

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Originally Posted by Desperado99
My brother and SIL converted their (integral) garage for £5 about 5 years ago, although it was done by friend so it may have been 'mates rates' It has made a nice (although a bit narrow looking) dining room. I think it they could have afforded it they would have knocked through and made it a dining kitchen.

£5? I'm in :rotfl: :rotfl:

Ooops!! missed off the K

Gloomendoom

VJsmum wrote: »

I am just about to replace my plastic conservatory roof with a glass one. The cost will be around £4.5k - but it has to be done. Hopefully the glass will make it a more usable room as it is very cold in winter and stifling at the moment.

Ours is about 18m2 and the price includes taking down the old one.

It should make it a lot quieter. My parents have a massive plastic roofed conservatory and you can't hear yourself think in there when it rains hard.

thorsoak

We opted for a glass roof when we had a conservatory built onto our bungalow - and got the "self-cleaning" glass - it only needs washing over once a year (although with the amount of rain we've had this year, it has forgone it's "spring-clean". We use it daily throughout the year - we have a radiator in there, and in fact we removed the window from the kitchen into the conservatory and have no doors from the sitting room into it ...just the opening (against regs, I know) - our argument was we didn't know whether we would want doors or not - and it would be cheaper (and more MSE) to put them IN afterwards, rather than take them OUT!

VJsmum

Hi THorsoak. Do you have any problems with glare? A rep yesterday said he would advise against glass because the glare is too bad.

We are south facing.

thorsoak

We are westerly - so no, we don't have any glare. I certainly wouldn't recommend a UVPC roof (far too noisy) - I would be inclined to go for blinds for a southerly aspect.

jackyann

Back to my original advice emsywoo, to look at Home Building & Renovating. Garage conversion can work well (if you are happy to have the car, odd pots of paint, old tools etc. elsewhere BUT building regs & planning permission will probably come into play. Check out what your local authority says.

Bitsy_Beans

Person_one wrote: »

However much it is its a waste of money. Too cold in winter, too hot in summer, not as comfortable as your actual lounge, hardly anybody with a conservatory ever actually spends any time in there!

<ahem> guess where I am currently sitting
With a rad on me wall and oil filled rad plugged in its nice and warm n winter. Not like I have heating running in the house 24/7 so I dress accordingly garden isn't south facing, it's north so doesn't get full sun. If it was south facing garden them no I wouldn't have had a conservatory.

Cost: we have a 3x5m which 3/4 length of the house, love it, made so much difference to our downstairs living space. We paid £12k which was a VERY good price. My tip is to get a few quotes and haggle, haggle, haggle sadly not in SEmso can't recommend.

BE WARNED: as the size of ours was under requirements for building regulations eg we didn't go out further than 3 metres we and the company thought we didn't need planning permission. Turns out when our houses were built the council removed the permitted development rights from the land. If you bascially want to fart in the garden you need permission first :cool: so ring the planning office and check or you'll be doing what we have to and trying to get retrospective permission :mad:

Gloomendoom

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

BE WARNED: as the size of ours was under requirements for building regulations

I wonder how many conservatories are built that don't have building regs approval that should have. I suspect that the "no new electrical circuits", "thermally separated", and "not have a fixed heating system installed" provisos are regularly ignored.

Do I need Building Regulation Approval to construct a conservatory?

Building Regulation approval is not required for a conservatory providing the internal floor area is 30 m2 or less, and also, not less than 75% of the roof and 50% of the walls are constructed with a translucent material (e.g. glass or PVC). In addition to this the exempt conservatory should be thermally separated from the existing dwelling with an external quality door, not have a fixed heating system installed, the doors and windows should be toughened/laminated safety glass (where applicable), should not be built over a Public Sewer and no new electrical circuits should be provided