My Conservatory Is Unusable!

Hanz990

Hi All,

Really need your advice. I've got a bee in my bonnet with my conservatory, it's driving me mad. It's relatively new (less than 10 years old) and it came with the house when we bought it 4 years ago. It is a south facing room which renders it completely unusable due to the incredible heat and glare.

It gets so hot it even melted a plastic TV I was temporarily storing in there. I can't keep anything in there now in case something melts or alternatively everything gets incredibly sun damaged. I'm worried it's a fire hazard too. The glare is ridiculous and on sunny days I need to wear sun glasses because it's incredibly bright. In winter it is pretty chilly in there. Don't get me wrong it's a lovely room in theory - it really brightens and heats the whole house up for free, but we simply can't use it as a functioning room.

I'm 3 months pregnant and I'd like to get the conservatory in use as a dining room/play room. It's a pretty large room... We don't have the space for an unusable room any more and there's no way you can sit in it comfortably!

The last time I made an effort to find a solution to get the room in use, we had a couple of companies come round who did the tiled conservatory roof option and everything was thousands... One even quoted 15k!!! :eek: So then I contacted a company who did blinds who quoted a couple of thousand. However, I'm nervous to spend money on blinds if it's not going to completely solve both the heat/glare problems. Again because it heats up so much I'd be worried about the blinds setting on fire!

I really don't know what the answer is. Can anyone provide me with any suggestions that will get my room up and running? Preferably something affordable that won't cost me a year's salary! With me going on maternity leave soon money will be tight.

Please help, much appreciated!

martinsurrey

Hanz990 wrote: »

I really don't know what the answer is. Can anyone provide me with any suggestions that will get my room up and running? Preferably something affordable that won't cost me a year's salary! With me going on maternity leave soon money will be tight.

Please help, much appreciated!

I'm my opinion the only real way to make a conservatory useful, as an everyday space, is to knock it down and build a proper extension.

Not what you want to hear, but honest.

it will always be cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

smudger1964

Welcome to the world of conservatories..I had one in my previous house ..never again..unless you are prepared to open all the windows and doors in summer ..and have a heater on all winter they are a waste of time..Agree with the previous poster..a proper extension is the only way..
The only thing mine was good for was a large drying room in the summer for laundry..That also ending up being a dumping ground for junk..a glorified shed

I used to have the windows permanently open from April to late September..then the other 6 months just peer out at it from behind the patio doors as the cost of heating it was a nightmare

Horizon81

Yeah they're pointless rooms on the cheap by people with no class.

My mate made a better job of his 'inherited' conservatory by installing several layers of insulation on the underside of the roof and then boarding over it to create a deep ceiling. He claims it's made the room much more useable.

Slinky

We had a conservatory on the north side of our previous house. It only got a thin strip of sun on it for an hour a day but I'd come home in the evening and find the thermometer over 80 degrees.

When we extended our current house which faces south, we went for a sun room which has big windows but a proper tiled roof. It gets fairly warm, but I do like it warm, and in the winter is a useful way to heat my office which sits behind it, on a sunny day. It would be unbearable as a conservatory.

In your situation I'd be surprised if blinds will make a significant difference unless somebody with a south facing conservatory can tell me otherwise. I think the tiled roof may be the only option, and even then I'd insist on taking up references from people who have had the work done and actually go and visit them on a sunny day to see how effective it is.

Jonesya

If you can run to spending £10 you could try painting the glass roof (and even the windows) with a cool glass white wash product, possibly as a short term fix until you got some blinds:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayer-Crop-Science-Garden-Coolglass/dp/B000TAR7YI

esuhl

My sister's south-facing conservatory is great. It's bright and sunny (when it's bright and sunny!) and somehow it doesn't get too cold in winter or hot in summer. So they definitely can be better than an extra bricks & mortar room.

I would have thought that blinds would help in a hot conservatory. Or maybe that partially-reflective film that you can apply to glass would reduce the heat and glare?

thescouselander

Our conservatory was the same but it got a lot better when we invested in some roof blinds. Its still hot but not nearly as bad as it was and glare is no longer a problem. Not cheap but it made the space usable.

andrewf75

I know people with conservatories that work fine, but I think mostly they face north and are made from the latest technology glass. Traditional conservatories don't really work and there is no way round it without spending a lot of money unfortunately.

Stevie_Palimo

Change the roof to a tiled one, add blinds and then it will be usable all year round, Maybe an expensive option but will solve both issues of being too hot and too cold.

muddyl

Depending on whether its a glass or polycarb roof the panels could be changed to tinted ones or even reflective ones.


Heating them in the winter is much better done by under floor heating but it does need to be done properly otherwise the earth just takes the heat away. Under floor heating is getting cheaper and cheaper and becoming more of a primary heating source as it can be more efficient than conventional methods. Some new builds are having it installed as standard due to this.