Conservatory worth investing?

grumbler

TELLIT01 said:

twopenny said:

Neighbour has installed an external air conditioning unit to their conservatory. No doubt heating too as they are diy,ers.

As to an investment not necessarily so. I bought a house sans conservatory because I love the sunlight streaming into my living room winter and summer giving heat and cheer. When looking for a property I saw some with fabulous views but the room they attached to was dark year round.

  The triangular glazed 'wall' section up to the ridge does make a huge difference.

I don't see how shape of the roof can make any noticeable difference as long as the roof is made from the same clear galss.

TELLIT01

It make a big difference.  There is an additional glass area 14 feet long and about 4 feet high which allows a lot more light in.  I was meaning by comparison to a tinted polycarbonate pent (flat) roof which blocks out a lot of light.

kdotdotdotdot

Regarding the 'hot in summer, cold in winter' thing, that depends on where the conservatory is.  I bought my house specifically because it had a conservatory (and a greenhouse!) and it's north-facing and so gets little direct sunlight.  I've got the doors to it open now and only need to keep it closed off on the coldest of days in winter.  It will get hot in summer, but again, all I need to do is open the door and the breeze will clear out the heat.

As to whether building one is an investment, I'm not one for spending thousands on a house if I'm not going to be the one enjoying the results.  I'm sceptical about these great outlays, so I'd say that if YOU want a conservatory, then get one.   If not, then don't.  

andre_xs

We had to move our dining area into a conservatory because we needed the space in the house. We bought it used during Covid, for £400. It is roughly 3.5m x 3 m, just enough for comfortable dining for 4 people. It has "layered' grey polycarbonate sheets as roof.

We needed a quick and cheap solution. The conservatory is made from wood, and the panels go down to the floor level, i.e. no wall needed. I actually build a kind of wooden stable platform directly onto the patio, and the conservatory simply on top of it. The panels were so small, I could transport them in our car. Yes, this is a 'cowboy' solution, but it worked for 2 years now without a problem, and we may not need it for ages, so may be disassembled again in some time.

Yes, it gets hot in the summer (West facing), but if it is too hot, we sit outside. And yes, it gets cold in the winter, but we have our dinner in there every night. UK doesn't get too cold, putting on a simple heater for 15 min before we have our dinner is sufficient to make it warm. But then still table, chairs, etc are cold, only the air is warm. But hey, we had no money and no other solution, so we are very happy with it. And all in all, incl all additional building materials we needed etc we spend less than £800 for an additional dining room.

It's 'easy' to get it warm and cosy in the winter too, you just need to switch the heating on earlier before you go in. But then it also gets more expensive.

As usual, it depends on what exactly you need. What do you want to use it for? Do you want perfect 'high class' finishing, or are you happy with a working solution with DIY character?

For us it was a fantastic investment, it gave us the space we needed for the money we had. But not an investment in the form that we would hope to get more money in case we want to sell. Just improved our quality of life (how else could you get ~9 square meter living space for less than £1000, even if heating is more expensive right now; and if you look for these combined heating/cooling AC systems, they are pretty efficient, I think under optimal conditions they produce up to 6kW heating energy with 1kW energy consumption).

Newbie_John

We got our house with conservatory facing south (SE England), I never really thought much of them before.
Down side - totally unusable in summer - 40*C+ on most days, similar in winter - it's as cold as outdoor. Good for storage, that's about it.
Plus side - it works great in autumn and spring, adds space and even provides heating - I left the house this morning at 18*C (kept all the windows shut in conservatory, and all the doors to the house open) and returned to mighty 27*C - it was just 20*C outside, mostly sunny. Saying that, normally I would put heating on late in September but while having it - it moves it till early November   

Phil4432

Looks like an old thread, but as I'm in a similar position I'll give my thoughts.

The lifespan of a conservatory can be short due to shallow footings, this is one of the reasons its cheaper than an extension.  So if you added such a conservatory and sold the house, it would add value.  But if you sold the house 12 years later, a savvy buyer would consider the conservatory a potential expense as it's at the end of its lifespan.  Particularly if you are on clay.

The way round this could be to pay for deeper footings.  But as the OP pointed out, even a regular conservatory costs a lot more now.  The other option, pay for a permanent extension.

Our conservatory is at the end of its life, I'll be replacing with a glass lean to in order to keep it cheap. 

DRP

If you have a conservatory and want an extension on the same footprint, then you may be lucky enough to find the footings are enough to bundle an extension off.

Possibly this is rare, but we recently did this. You will need to dig inspection holes and get building regs to approve.