Conservatory Roof

Mnd

We have a conservatory that the poly carbon roof was knackered. We don't intend to move so we had new windows/doors and a "trendy" tiled roof. we also had the cavities insulated.

I can't comment about cold weather yet, but it has made a immense difference in keeping the temperature lower during the hot weather.

We fully intend this to be an all year round room

phoebe1989seb

Definitely don't add plasterboard beneath polycarbonate!

The previous owners of our place did that with disastrous results. Actually the owner before that had a stone extension built to match the 400 year old cottage but presumably ran out of money/employed idiots and didn't fit a 'proper' extension roof.

By the time we came along - the property had been lived in by the owners, then rented out and finally repossessed - the extension roof was in a parlous state. The ancient polycarbonate - fitted patchwork style so all pieces didn't run in the same direction - had been plasterboarded beneath (not skimmed), and a tarpaulin thrown over the top after it began leaking. According to a neighbour it had been that way for years - despite the estate agent's blurb referring to a 'recent refurbishment', but that's another story

Anyway, the moral of my tale is that any small leak left unattended (not saying you'd do that, OP!) will cause the plasterboard to decompose and end up all over the floor. Better to do a proper job!

In our case we've put on slates (with celotex insulation and skimmed plasterboard underneath) to match the rest of the cottage, obviously not an option for you, but a glass roof would be my preference if I couldn't stretch to a proper extension. We've previously had polycarbonate and glass in a few houses and the glass ones were infinitely preferable. No personal experience of the faux tiles I'm afraid.......

jamie_128

Is the glass roof fine to put on top of a normal conservatory? Obviously foundations arent strong enough for proper roof tiles but is glass okay in this situation, i.e. doesent weigh too much?

Is this likely to be cheaper than the faux tiles? I actually like the glass roofs to be honest as long as it helps with heat control, would probably just fit an oil filled radiator in there for the winter time.

Aylesbury_Duck

My conservatory is glass-roofed and isn't really useable from November to February. There is a radiator in there (previous owners had it installed) but I have isolated it because it's just a waste of money trying to heat the space in the winter. Mine's a "luxury" conservatory - I don't mean in the quality sense, I mean that it's an extra space we enjoy for eight months of the year but that we don't need - so no point in heating it. I suspect your oil-filled radiator will be working hard to keep an even minimally comfortable temperature in there over winter. It might work for occasional use but in anything other than a mild winter I'm not convinced it'll be practical as a living space.

jamie_128

So glass roof no good then? Better going for the lightweight tiles everyone goes for?

Aylesbury_Duck

jamie_128 wrote: »

So glass roof no good then? Better going for the lightweight tiles everyone goes for?

Only you can decide. With the tiles you lose natural light and the benefit of the space being warm in spring and autumn when it's sunny.

Personally I'd go for the glass. I think it provides more benefit for more of the year whereas the tiled roof is better but arguably for only a small part of the year.

Mnd

You can have skylights fitted into the "tiled" roof

jamie_128

Until i move in i wont be able to check foundation depth for the conservatory, is there any chance that any conservatory has deep enough foundations to turn it into a sun room without having to knock it all down? Its about 10 years old ive been told. And is bricked at the bottom all the way round.

TELLIT01

Are the vendors able to tell you the name of the company who build the conservatory? They would be best placed to provide that sort of information.

DD265

Our house has a conservatory that we use as our dining room. The conservatory is north-west facing. It has a wall mounted air conditioning unit which also provides heat.

We moved in, in February so will be interested to see how the space fares over winter. When we've needed to heat or cool the room to eat, it typically takes 15 minutes for the air con unit to do it's thing, so we time turning it on to fit with when we're going to eat.

We used it pretty much daily when we moved in, I can't remember when we stopped, but only a handful of times on the hottest days over the summer. Otherwise, it's been bearable.

I wouldn't personally have anything other than a glass roof on this one because of how much light it will block out of our living room if we did.