Changes to existing Conservatory

7chb

My Wife and I are in the process of trying to decide whether to move or renovate.

One of the areas we are looking at in our current home is our conservatory.  It's approx 2.5 x 2.5m, but currently it falls into the usual traits of being too cold in winter/too hot in summer and so it's largely just used as a storage area and so it seems a bit of a waste.

The current layout is a set of upvc double doors between the living room/conservatory, a set of double doors from the conservatory to the garden on the right side, with the left and top side being 1/3rd bricked and the rest windows.

The obvious change is to the roof to one of the many companies I've seen offering non-glass efficient friendly replacement, but am I right in saying we'd need to get building control involved if the roof is changed to something other than glass?  If so, is this process usually covered by these companies or would this be an extra cost to us on top of the work?  And for anyone who has had this work done, do you notice a significant improvement?

Secondly, the left side currently just looks staright at our garden fence.  What we'd want to do is remove the glass and replace with upvc panels and add insulation/plasterboard to it so it can be used as a solid wall, but didn't know if a) this was possible from a building perspective and if it was b) if it would again impact planning permission/building control.

If we were to make these changes, we would also look to get a wifi electric radiator installed to help manage the temperature during the colder months - I'm presuming as a stand alone heating system this again wouldn't impact building control?

Just hoping people may be able to inform us if these seems viable before we look to get people in to quote

WIAWSNB

Hi 7chb.
Worth doing? Almost certainly yes. Need to inform BC? Hmm, up to you.
Provided you retain the uPVC doors, then no need. If you remove them, then you are technically in breach, but hardly a terrible crime, and easily resolved by refitting them.
It's one of these situations where I would personally take a balanced view; do I want to waste heat by doing this incorrectly? No. But do I want to involve BC with it's resulting costs, and almost certainly absurd demands? Deffo no.
My take is that I'd do this job properly, which would make this a normal living space, at least the equal of the rest of the house (mine is from the 1930's), and forget BC. 
As I said, in the infinitesimally remote chance BC get word of my actions, and in the less remote chance they could be bottomed to become involved, I'd just replace the doors.
Does it have a dwarf wall? If so, I'd likely look to adding ~2" insulated p'board to the inside. Cheap and easy.
Once you then insulate the roof - various ways, including adding a ceiling - you'll have a normal room - assuming the glazing is 'double'.
Yes, to extend your CH into a non-conforming extension is also a BC breach, but who the heck will know, and to retract a doddle.

7chb

WIAWSNB said:

Hi 7chb.
Worth doing? Almost certainly yes. Need to inform BC? Hmm, up to you.
Provided you retain the uPVC doors, then no need. If you remove them, then you are technically in breach, but hardly a terrible crime, and easily resolved by refitting them.
It's one of these situations where I would personally take a balanced view; do I want to waste heat by doing this incorrectly? No. But do I want to involve BC with it's resulting costs, and almost certainly absurd demands? Deffo no.
My take is that I'd do this job properly, which would make this a normal living space, at least the equal of the rest of the house (mine is from the 1930's), and forget BC. 
As I said, in the infinitesimally remote chance BC get word of my actions, and in the less remote chance they could be bottomed to become involved, I'd just replace the doors.
Does it have a dwarf wall? If so, I'd likely look to adding ~2" insulated p'board to the inside. Cheap and easy.
Once you then insulate the roof - various ways, including adding a ceiling - you'll have a normal room - assuming the glazing is 'double'.
Yes, to extend your CH into a non-conforming extension is also a BC breach, but who the heck will know, and to retract a doddle.

Hi, thank you for your response, that is much appreciated.

We'd keep the uPVC doors between the living room and the conservatory so that would be one less issue.  We'll look to get some people out to quote and see whether the proposed cost of adding an insulated ceiling and possibly boarding up one side of the walls to see how the cost compares to possibly moving.

WIAWSNB

7chb said:

WIAWSNB said:

Hi 7chb.
Worth doing? Almost certainly yes. Need to inform BC? Hmm, up to you.
Provided you retain the uPVC doors, then no need. If you remove them, then you are technically in breach, but hardly a terrible crime, and easily resolved by refitting them.
It's one of these situations where I would personally take a balanced view; do I want to waste heat by doing this incorrectly? No. But do I want to involve BC with it's resulting costs, and almost certainly absurd demands? Deffo no.
My take is that I'd do this job properly, which would make this a normal living space, at least the equal of the rest of the house (mine is from the 1930's), and forget BC. 
As I said, in the infinitesimally remote chance BC get word of my actions, and in the less remote chance they could be bottomed to become involved, I'd just replace the doors.
Does it have a dwarf wall? If so, I'd likely look to adding ~2" insulated p'board to the inside. Cheap and easy.
Once you then insulate the roof - various ways, including adding a ceiling - you'll have a normal room - assuming the glazing is 'double'.
Yes, to extend your CH into a non-conforming extension is also a BC breach, but who the heck will know, and to retract a doddle.

Hi, thank you for your response, that is much appreciated.

We'd keep the uPVC doors between the living room and the conservatory so that would be one less issue.  We'll look to get some people out to quote and see whether the proposed cost of adding an insulated ceiling and possibly boarding up one side of the walls to see how the cost compares to possibly moving.

If you are keeping the PVC doors, then no need to involve BC.

Ask around locally, too. You ideally want a good handyperson, that's all. It isn't a specialist job - you just want 'competence' and neatness. Someone who knows what they are doing.

All sorts of lightweight roofing sheets these days, many in the form of tiles. Tbh, you could even keep the existing roof - polycarb or glass - and just insulate under it, but it won't look as good. 

mr_stripey

following this!

I could really benefit from being able to use my conservatory for an actual space rather than a hot box in the summer and place to keep my beer cold in the winter!

Always assumed it would need a full on re build in order to do so - so this thread is encouragment that I might be able to achieve better utilisation of the space without spending 20 grand!

TELLIT01

We had a lightweight solid pitched roof installed on our 14 ft by 10 ft conservatory 4 years ago and it cost £8k.  We were quoted double that for exactly the same roof by another company so it definitely pays to shop around.  Ours was a complete roof replacement including all the metalwork of the roof.

Specifically it was Guardian Warm Roof.  It's made a massive difference to the usability of the room.

Swipe

There are plenty of DIY conservatory roof insulation videos on youtube where people have done this for a few hundred pounds. 

WIAWSNB

Happened to be in my local Eurocell outlet this afa'. Noticed they had what looked like lightweight roofing, in the styles of slate, concrete, you name it. 
Highly authentic finish.
That part is purely decorative, if you want the 'conservatory' to look like a 'garden room'. 
Inside, you can simply line the ceiling with, say, 2" Celotex, keeping it fully vaulted, or you can add a flat false ceiling - again based on 2" insulation - or you can go half way; a raised flat ceiling with sloping sides. All super lightweight.