are conservatories worth the money

chinagirl

economiser wrote: »

It's crazy to expect anyone to build an unheated conservatory. Ours is a traditional conservatory (i.e. full of non-hardy plants) and some form of heating is essential. If you are using it as living space it would obviously need more. What would be the purpose of an unheated conservatory?

I totally agree. Why do people expect not to have to heat their conservatory in the winter? We have a large radiator in ours which runs off the gas central heating. We also have an electric oil-filled radiator for top-up warmth if needed, and we keep this on lowest setting at night as a frost-guard when the house heating is off.

During the summer, if it is fine, the French doors are open, and the window top-lights are open too. Actually we had a solid tiled roof on ours on the advise of our fitter, as he said being South facing, it would be too hot with a glass roof. From the inside it looks just like a normal ceiling, and from the outside it looks like a regular tiled roof building with pvc/glass walls.

I can honestly say, ours is the most used room in the house, and cannot imagine not having one now. Nothing like sitting in there all warm and cosy, looking out into the garden on a cold frosty day!

Madiba_2

Ours is "unheated" but a 2200W electric heater takes about 10mins to get the place warm, so no big issue there.

vansboy

As BusyBody says, do make sure it's big enough to be at least another USEABLE sized room.

Or all you'll really have is a lean-to greenhouse - that cost a lot of £$£$.

& if you're doing it 'cos you've not enough space, a proper extension would more than recoup the outlay - a conservatory won't!!

VB

jadebabe

Hi, thanks for all your replies, we were also thinking about, taking off the patio doors so that the dining room would go straight through to the conservatory, would we need planning permission for this , if so would we be likely to get it ,thanks.

DKLS

I love my conservatory, the amount of light that floods the entire ground floor is amazing, great for painting and reading. It has a radiator, but with windows I can keep a comfortable temp, The previous owner got rid of the patio door and its all open plan now, not sure of planning regs on that one though. My orange tree is rapidly outgrowing its pot. As others have said get one as big as you can afford/accomodate.

missile

deanos wrote: »

Sorry to put a spanner in the works but if the central heating is in the conservatory then you need planning permission as its now classed as a permanent building , i was told this by the council when i enquired before building mine, by your wording you mean you dont have permission ?

No, we applied for "and had no issue with planning consent". IMHO even if you do not need it, best to apply (it costs very little) so that when you come to sell you can show approval to any prospective buyer. We also removed the window and a portion of the wall so we could fit french doors into the conservatory.

missile

I would advise that you get a reputable company. Go see some of their workmanship. We got several quotes and used the "cowboy firm" price to negotiate a discount off the top quote.

Poppy9

jadebabe wrote: »

Hi, thanks for all your replies, we were also thinking about, taking off the patio doors so that the dining room would go straight through to the conservatory, would we need planning permission for this , if so would we be likely to get it ,thanks.

You don't have to go through the full process of applying for planning. You can email your local planning officer pictures of your property and the rough drawings of your proposed extension. They may make a decision from this. They did with me and they put the "no you do not need planning permission in writing". I did however need building regs. If I remember rightly cost £120 and 2 visits from inspector. We had a decent builder who worked well with the inspector so we had no issues.

flea72

for a room to be classed as a conservatory (and therefore exempt from some building regulations) it must not contain any plumbing or drainage. therefore if you want to have proper central heating in a conservatory, you will need building regs approval. also, the room has to be seperate from the main struture of the house, so must have doors between the main dwelling and the convservatory, to again be exempt from building regs approval. if you are planning on having central heating installed and no doors between the two rooms, them you will need building regs approval. planning permission is only needed, where size/location has bearings on the development. a conservatory company will therefore not do the heating installation side of things (other than elec heaters), but will turn a blind eye, and pretend they didnt hear you say you will be putting a radiator in the room

however, what you do with the heating/plumbing once the conservatory has been erected is up to you. but when you come to sell the property on, alot of surveys are now bringing up the fact that the heating has been added, without building regs approval.