Please help! Conservatories!

koalakoala

Get a sun room. Far superior to a conservatory. I’ve had both

thegreenone

In contrast to what most (of very experienced people) on here have said:  we have a 19' x 12' conservatory, parallel to our lounge. There is no way we could've had a proper extension, or the lounge would have been a black hole with only one small window on the end.

We have two walls, already part of the house, one low wall and one long length of glass with sliding doors out to the garden.  Underfloor heating.  Solar reflective glass on the roof.  Ceiling light/fan.

We use the room as a dining/second living room with TV.  I'm sitting in it now, sleeveless-top, no socks and no heating on.  I spend most of my downtime in here.  Please don't believe all reports of freezing in winter and boiling in summer.  If you get everything right, it's simply not true.

However, your property looks perfect for a proper extension may be with side walls, proper roof with light lanterns and one wall of glass onto the garden.

[Deleted User]

TELLIT01 said:

Definitely do not have a polycarbonate roof.  Our neighbours did, and in summer it sounded like a shotgun going off when the sun came round and heated the roof panels.

I don't experience that here with mine.

YoungBlueEyes

We bought a house that had a conservatory on the back. The plastic roof on it sounds like the Gaza Strip when it rains!

TELLIT01

When we had a fully glazed roof we could use the conservatory all year round as we have underfloor heating.  If it got too hot in the summer we opened the patio doors.  The 'warm roof' certainly means far less temperature variation and it doesn't cool down as quickly as a glass roof.  The deciding factor for us having some form of solid roof was the severe storms in the winter 2 years ago.  My wife had literally just walked back into the house from the conservatory when a loose ridge tile from our neighbour's roof came through the glass conservatory roof.  If my wife had still been in there, there is no doubt she would have been seriously injured, possibly killed.  I know that risk is low, we'd had the conservatory 10 years with out issue, but neither of us could relax after that.  I still believe the change of roof type was a good move irrespective of that.

liberty_lily

YoungBlueEyes said:

We bought a house that had a conservatory on the back. The plastic roof on it sounds like the Gaza Strip when it rains!

We bought a house with one like that a few years back. The noise when it rained was hideous! It wasn't long before we replaced it with a fully glazed roof and the problem immediately went away 😃

At our current house we inherited a *proper* extension (if you overlook the general bodgery of a previous owner's builders, lol!) that for some unknown reason had a polycarbonate roof. This had not only been fitted in a patchwork pattern 🙄 but was fitted with unplastered plasterboard underneath!

By the time the property had been repossessed and we viewed it, the roof resembled a giant sieve complete with soggy plasterboard that was coming away in huge chunks. One of our first jobs in summer 2018 was to replace the roof with proper joists, insulation etc and slates. One day the whole room will be finished!

YoungBlueEyes

We’re talking about getting rid of ours and having the whole back extended. Think that might be big pennies tho… 

It’s almost a shame to knock it down really. It’s bricks up to nearly waist height, proper double glazing and a lovely pair of doors. DPC. A big radiator up the wall, a light+fan combo thing.

It’s just the roof. And it’s in the way of where himself wants the extension. 

Bendy_House

YoungBlueEyes said:

We’re talking about getting rid of ours and having the whole back extended. Think that might be big pennies tho… 

It’s almost a shame to knock it down really. It’s bricks up to nearly waist height, proper double glazing and a lovely pair of doors. DPC. A big radiator up the wall, a light+fan combo thing.

It’s just the roof. And it’s in the way of where himself wants the extension. 

To sort the roof, which should make it a proper room, will cost a tiny fraction of what a whole new extension will be. Really worth working out if the extra 'benefits' of a new extension - a bit more room? - will be worth it.

TELLIT01

As a rough guide to price, we had a 'Guardian Roof' fitted on a 14' x 10' approx conservatory with pitched roof.  That cost £8k, although we were quoted almost double that price by the people we purchased the original conservatory from. Moral - shop around.

YoungBlueEyes

Sorry OP, I don’t mean to take over your thread. 

Yeah an extension is gonna be a big wodge of money v sorting the connie roof. 

But a better roof won’t make my pokey wee kitchen any bigger ha haa!

I’ll take some pics tomorrow so yous can see and perhaps give me some accurate views? In fact I’ll be a good girl and start my own thread.