To ask if you’ve managed to turn your conservatory into a useable space?

[Ethelfleda]

South facing garden - conservatory is stupidly hot in summer, cold in winter etc. I’ve read different methods from cheaply lining the ceiling up to total roof replacements/ extension.
Have you used any of these, what was the cost and rough size and was it worth it?

I’m watching this thread eagerly! We have a south facing one too and have exactly the same issues. Ours is currently a playroom attached to our front room. The only saving grace is that our front room is very dark so it stays very cool and counteracts the heat in summer. In winter...it’s unbearable. It’s got a really cheap roof too. I’m hoping we can save enough to replace with a small extension eventually.

Ours is that same. We have our dining table in it and the kids toys on boxes. I'm currently using it as a office whilst I work from home.

We did get a quote from one of those roof installation companies and it was about £1800 but I didn't like the salesman so we didn't go with them and I never got round to getting another quote.

I hope to move really so don't want to pay much more out on the house.

Mine is south west facing so only gets really hot in the afternoon. I've got a ceiling fan for the summer to cool it down, and in the winter I have rugs in there and an electric heater. We use it as a dining room and playroom all year round, although its not the best when its bellow freezing so we tend not to linger after eating then!

We've just pulled it down and had extension built. But costing £75k it's not the cheapest option!

NeverForget £75k!! how big was your extension??

Mine is currently being used as a greenhouse with seedlings etc on shelves, it's actually very useful for that :)

When the kids were smaller we had sky connect a separate box to the tv in there and used it as a second living room for the kids with sofas etc. That worked great for a lot of years, as we could see them through the patio doors but they could watch tv, play board games and have their friends over without using the living room. ( All we had to do for winter was put in a portable heater which we put on a timing switch, so it was warm for them when they used it, but not while they were at school etc, and in summer, they just opened the patio doors to the garden to keep it cool).

8x4m. Remove old. Dig some new footings. New single storey full width extension. Roof windows bifold etc. New kitchen, flooring, blinds etc. The whole shebang

We have the same and we’re thinking of getting a roof but on it to make it a more usable space.
Has anyone done this?
How much did it cost and did you use the conservatory more?

To those saying they put the kids in with their friends, are they OK with that?! I had a friend in high school whose mum always insisted we sat in the conservatory when we went round. We all loathed it in there, it was freezing!!! We just didn’t go round to his after a while.

We had a South facing conservatory too. I say 'had' : it was utterly unusable with its extremes of temperatures, and it was off the kitchen (typical 1930s semi), which made the kitchen v dark.

We pulled it down and built an extension on the same foot print with doors out to the garden and vaulted ceiling with veluxes. Then knocked through to the dining room next door to create a massive L shaped space.

We went through all sorts of potential solutions before we took the expensive option. Nothing else would have made the space work for us. Our extension / knocking through / new kitchen, flooring etc etc cost about £35k (Yorks) .

I have no idea why conservatory’s are so popular, ours is a waste of time, hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, the conservatory was here when we moved. I wouldn’t have one or recommend to others.

Ours is south west facing too, we replaced the polycarbonate roof with a new glass one. It's made a massive difference, cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, quieter when it rains. Best thing we ever did. Cost £7k so not cheap but totally worth it and we use it so much more.

They were popping up all over the place 15/20 years ago. They're all getting pulled down again round our way!

Ours is used as a utility room with the washing machine and tumble dryer, ironing board and hoover etc all kept out there plus all the welly boots.

The conservatory on our house was here when we bought it too. I wouldn’t have one built either. I would love a big extension - we have a smallish 1930s 3 bed semi but the garden is really long so plenty of space to build out back (plus, DH works in architecture so could do the drawings, obtain planning permission etc) but this isn’t our ‘forever home’ it’s our ‘for the next 6 years-ish’ home so probably not really worth it.

We are in the south of france. Ours is mainly used as a greenhouse. It is lovely in spring and autumn, and on sunny days in winter. It also helps to heat up the sitting room.

In summer it gets hot enough to melt candles (learnt that one the hard way).

The cats like baking themselves in it too.

We only have a small garden, DH and DS want to get rid of it to make the garden bigger. Seeing as we cant even seem to keep on top of the garden as it is, I think it's better to keep the veranda.

Plus our tumble dryer broke down last year and we haven't replaced it because everything dries faster in the veranda than it did in the dryer.

It would be lovely to have it transformed into a proper extension, but I dont think we would ever recoup the money if we wanted to sell at a later date.

At the moment it's a playroom and general crap room. We have a little heater for colder weather. At some point when we have the money (ha!) we would like to turn it into a more useable space as it's massive but for now DD can cover it in paint and glue and glitter and playdoh as much as she likes!

When we moved in this house 9 years ago, it's the only room we've not touched. It's full of the kids stuff and goes through numerous recycles a few times a year.

As my youngest is 6 and has all her dolls houses etc, we're not planning on touching it for a good 4 years or so. Ideally it would be nice to scrap it and make it a proper room with an extension on top extending DD's bedroom as it's the smallest.
However this will probably cost thousands so definitely just a pipe dream at the moment!

We had ours taken down and a very nice extension built including having a steel put in so it opened properly into the house whereas the conservatory was like a different room . We had our conservatory for about 11 yrs and the only person who used it consistently was the dog who is a bit of a sun lover .

Ours came with the house and I was so excited to begin with. I spent a fortune on nice furniture to go in there with dreams of reading a book in there of an evening.

In reality I hate it. It's too hot, or too cold, and spiders always find a way in.

We've used lockdown to clean it thoroughly and we've removed the disgusting mouldy blinds the previous owners left and it's made a massive difference!

Ours is west facing. We have underfloor heating, glass roof and good blinds. We use it all year round but it is too hot in there on really hot afternoons - lovely in mornings and from about 5pm, but tbh dog has taken it over as his bedroom and chill out area these days.

My parents had the roof insulated

Left the original plastic roof sheeting in place but fixed insulation and plasterboard to the underside of it. Now when you walk in it has a flat painted roof like any other roof in the house.

Transformed it for them, still a bit cold on the coldest of winter days and hot on very hot summer days but has made it usable for 90% of the year and has cut out almost all of the rain noise.

Theirs is maybe 4mx4m and has a decent size radiator in it too which helps in the winter.

Not sure on costs but it wasn't hugely expensive for the betterment they achieved.

*Flat painted ceiling, just like any other ceiling in the house.

My biggest problem is every nook and cranny hosts spider you would be removing all day every day yuk so lots it just a bit junk room .

Ours is south-west facing, glass roof with built-in sun filter, ceiling fan and blinds on the dining area side window where we eat in the evening sun. Two sets of French doors opening out fully to garden, which, on a warm day is fantastic.
We use ours all year round. Yes, it gets chilly in the winter and but a small portable heater quickly warmed it up for Boxing Day dinner. We mainly use it April to end Sept.