Redbrook Conservatories anybody used them ?? any DIY advice also welcome !

deanos

Yes its up !

But i developed tennis elbow and had get someone to build it for me as my physio has advised to do no heavy lifting

It cost £500 to erect using a local window/conservatory fitter and that included the lead flashing so wasnt a bad price seing as it was going to cost me £150 for someone to do the flashing anyway

Took 2.5 days to complete and the only things wrong were wrong screws supplied to fix the fancy bit onto the roof and the roof vent wasnt pre glazed apart from that perfect.

It didnt look too complicated to build and would definately been able to build myself apart from the flashing.

Definately worth the money i paid and the fitters did comment on how well it was put together for a DIY conservatory and was one of the best they had seen (dunno if they said that to keep me happy tho , hope not !!!!)

Ive got some pics if intrested.

Dunkyboy_2

I'd like to see some pics, i have a salesperson coming tomorrow to look at what i could have by way of a conservatory on my house.
Not sure to have the poly whatsit roof 16mm or 32mm or to go for glass panels, have been told glass is better as there isn't much noise when it rains, as poly-whatsits are quite noisy. I will need to move a gas pipe, but apart from that i can't see any problems.I intend to build a dwarf wall with the aid of a ground plan this winter and get the conservatory fitted early in the new year.

deanos

Dunkyboy wrote:

I'd like to see some pics, i have a salesperson coming tomorrow to look at what i could have by way of a conservatory on my house.
Not sure to have the poly whatsit roof 16mm or 32mm or to go for glass panels, have been told glass is better as there isn't much noise when it rains, as poly-whatsits are quite noisy. I will need to move a gas pipe, but apart from that i can't see any problems.I intend to build a dwarf wall with the aid of a ground plan this winter and get the conservatory fitted early in the new year.

I will post the pics tomorrow as they are still on my camera.

I wouldnt go for a glass roof as it will make it very very hot, polycarbonate roofs reflect back the sun to make it cooler there are a few sizes 16mm upwards we went for 25mm as 16mm is too thin it is noisy when it rains but would say not much more than glass.

If you have a small size conservatory i would consider having panels at the bottom like i have done as a wall means you will loose about a foot all the way round on the inside due to the wall plus it works out cheaper but if you can build a wall thats not a problem.

A roof vent is also worth the money as if you have a Edwardian type roof the heat will trap at the top a roof vent lets the heat escape

I forgot to mention that with the Redbrook conserv. every box etc was labeled and the paperwork showed diagrams of what you get in the kit and what box it was in very handy.

The fitters also mentioned the wall fixings werent as good as they could be and they used there own they cost £4 a box and mean a very small predrilling they are self tapping into concrete which means a faster and more secure fitting will get some more info on these and report back.

Dunkyboy_2

For my Lean-to conservatory of 10m - 3m with a 32mm poly roof, patio doors, roof vents, i have been quoted 10k.
The groundworks and dwarf wall would already be built, they would be supplying and fitting only. This seems rather pricey to me. I have another salesman coming out later this week so i'll see what he says.
Will let you know how i get on.

deanos

Does seem expensive , we had 7 different people around and got fed up with there high prices thats why i went DIY, by doing the base yourself you will save a great deal of money, it cost me £130 for the ready mix cement and shuttering most quotes were around the £1000 mark just for the groundwork !

Heres the pics , click to get larger size

As you can see the Gas vent really buggered it up as i could have got a 3m wide conserv instead of 2.4 but never mind

Dunkyboy_2

Nice job deanos, did anyone from the planning have to come at any stage to check anything like the foundations for example.
I have been advised to have a cavity wall tray fitted, as most proffessionals now do this to prevent any damp problems which may appear after a few years. This may just be a ploy to try and get the work and stop people from doing it themselves.
How long a guarantee/warrantee do you get, and what will it cover, i was told that a 10 year warrantee the norm and it covers all materials for basically everything.

deanos

We checked with planning if we needed pemission, you dont need to get it checked unless you take away your patio door or put a radiator in then its classed as part of your home and comes under the building regulations.

Its just a slab base i used with damp proof membrane and added some steel for strength, my father in law is a site formeman and said it was ok with what we are doing, however if you build a wall if if different but not sure how.

The guarantee is 10 years and covers everything, its supply only tho on the parts

deanos

Just an update, we have had no problems with the conservatory and it still looks good as new :j

holybrook

My self build conservatory project can be seen on the web. As I am new to these forums I can't paste in the link but if you search for David and Allison Centurion in Google the results will link you to our readingweb.co.uk blog

My wife and I done it together - we are just DIY types not builders or anything like that we are both office workers.

I used Ray Ogden at ROC for the purchase, I was very fortunate in that because the size was not "standard" he sourced the actual conservatory from Centurion rather than his usual imported stuff. Mr Ogden supplied the base which when delivered was not to spec and the conservatory was specified wrong in that he knew it was going inches from an inaccessible fence, this had been discussed at length when I ordered but he "forgot" to specify internal beading on that side. I hassled him loads for compensation and several times was told a cheque was in the post eventually I rang him several times a day and insisting he log onto his internet banking and do a direct funds transfer. It seems I was lucky I got my £200 compensation.

Centurion were absolutely brilliant though, even though I never purchased directly from them they were there on their freephone number to help. I did have a problem fitting the beads that hold the glass in so they sent an engineer (at no charge) to help. Turned out I was not whacking them hard enough with my rubber mallet (hitting glass hard scares me). After a year the door lock was getting difficult to operate they sent an engineer and replaced it free of charge.

Can't praise them enough in particular Debbie Chadfield is very good with customers, if she still works for them just give her a call and you will see what I mean.

It is 3 years since we built our conservatory, it is the most used room in our house, as part of our build we installed under floor heating and a wall mounted climate control unit so we use it all year.

conservatoryguy

Would like to mention here for everyone that I am having not a single problem with my DIY Conservatories..build 2 and they are as cool as ever