conservatory or extension

rabialioness

hiyaa,
need more space in our house. and as we have space in back garden thought it would be a good idea to make use of it , instead of moving.\
would like some help and advice as to whether a conservatory is better or extension.
taking into consideration cost, value of house and upkeep etc.
any advice greatly appreciated.
also best way to go about it or decent and reliable companies. which companies to avoid etc.

N9eav

I did both! If you plan on staying then an extension would be more worthwhile, it cost a lot more but could be of more use. But it all depends on what you need. I added a large kitchen and 2 bedrooms above for about £30k My house increased by £70k.
A conservatory is cheaper, but could be cold in the winter and not used much. You can't officially put fixed (radiator) heating in without planning etc.. But you can always sneak it in after any inspection or plan is passed.

rabialioness

thanks for the tip.
wow, doesn't seem a bad price for such an extension.
how do you go about it?
did you use local builders or national company.
do you have to get planning permission first?

MATH

We had a conservatory a few years ago and had a council bod round to have a look as the house has been extended twice before. All he said has that we would have to have external doors between the main house and conservatory, he didn't mention anything about radiators.

We had a custom made one cos we wanted to add loads of extra insulation and with a super power rad it's usable all year round. We know some friends who have an off the peg conservatory and didn't think about heating and don't use the extra space cos it's too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

MATH

Forgot to say. Before we decided on a conservatory we had a couple of estate agents round to give their opinion. Both said a conservatory although cheeper to build would add more value to the house in our area because buyers like the idea of having one so much.

N9eav

The radiator thing is debateable. Some councils think that once you add a radiator you are making it a permenant structure, so needs full planning and building regs. A conservatory is a temporary structure so does not need plans and regs, so it's how you plan the thing.
Anyway back to rabialioness.... How long is a piece of string? If you are serious about an extension.

Decide what you would like and make it as big as you can, it won't cost much more for a slightly larger one than adding on again later.
Our local council does planning advice. You get a form and roughly sketch and size your proposed extension.
They then decide if it is possible or not based on the area, how big a plot you have, neighbours privavcy and light etc.
If they say yes. Engage an architect to draw up a plan.
Then get loads of local builders to submit an estimate for that plan (most won't give estimates without one)
If you are happy submit the plans for approval, etc etc. engage a builder and have mess and headaches for months, but it's great when it's finished.

A conservatory on the other hand can be erected in days with little mess.

tricky_3

If you add a radiator, you have to comply with heat loss regulations. A conservatory can't. To comply with building regs you need a set of external standard doors between the house and the conservatory and treat it as unheated space.

A conservatory isn't considered a temporary structure and will need building regs approval. It may be within 'permitted development', however it may also need planning approval.

cloud_dog

rabialioness only you can decide. You need to focus on why you want the extra space; how would you benefit from the extra space.

We went through the exact same dilema 18 months ago, umm'd and arr'd over extension or conservatory. Our house has the kitchen and dining room at the back of the house. We knew we wanted a larger dining area for when we had friends round, etc, sooooo a conservatory across the back of the house would have done the trick, but just as importantly we (the missus) wanted a better kitchen - no room for a dishwasher - that was my job, so accomodating that was my No1 priority

I basically got a piece of A4 drew the back of the house and pencilled in a number of different arrangements using a conservatory and/or and extension.

The extension won. We now have a similar format to the back of the house but the two rooms, in essence, are elongated by another 3.5m. This has allowed us to put in a utility room (didn't have one before) for the w/mc, TD, tall freezer, a couple of larder cupboards, extend the kitchen so that missus cloud_dog has much more work-surface, the all important dishwasher is now in the kitchen. On the dining room side we have a large 7m (almost) by 3m room that has an extendable dining table at one end and we have made the other end into a bit of a fanily room (sofa, extra TV, chair). Also what we have done is made it open plan thereby making the back of the house quite impressive (from a re-sale perspective) but extremely useable when you are in the kitchen and have friends round, or are looking after young puppy_dog, etc, etc.

So to sumarise my essay we've gained a lot of extra space and importantly functionality, but probably just as important we have made the space more useable everyday.

So, you need to think long and hard about what benefits do you want from the extra space (we thought about moving but decided not to)

One other comment our extension was a single storey extension but all told (including architect, council (almost £2k), builders fees, all new appliances (7), flooring, lighting, kitchen & fitting) our costs were a few grand shy of N9eav £30k (I'd budgeted £25k, so not far off). We did pay extra for building work because I wanted the ceiling to be completly seemless, i.e. no beam between the two rooms so the builder had to recess the steelwork level with the existing joists (extra effort - this also required a structural enginner to do all the weight / sheer calculations - extra money (£500)).

The point is we are not looking to move we were only looking at how we could make it more useable to us. At the end of the day it was alot of money and dust (an awful lot of dust and pain - you need to think about the kitchen and the timing of it getting disconnected and a new one installed) but we are extremely happy with the results.

cloud_dog
p.s. sorry to go on, but thought I'd share our experiences