Conservatories are they worth getting

[kylie122]

How often do you use yours ? Am thinking about getting one

I dont' know anyone that uses them. When my v elderly grandmother useed to visit she would sit in the sunporch to enjoy the sun and have a cup of tea but apart from that, no not used ime.

Ours is used daily by everyone. It's a playroom/storage for all toys etc, and DH also has his desk in there and uses it as an office during the week. It's a bit chilly in there in the mornings this time of year but there's a radiator and also a plug in heater so is fine temp wise.

Replaced ours with brick. It was either freezing or boiling.

if you have space for a conservatory have a proper extension but with glass doors etc

Do a proper extension if possible - you will use it far more
The people I know that had conservatories either knocked them down or put a proper roof on

Mine (open to the kitchen) is used year round. It has our kitchen table in it.

From Nov/Dec to Mar, it is cold in the evenings - we have a thick curtain over the opening - and we don't use it at night. On bright winter days it is lovely during the day, on dull winter days it is on a par with the rest of the house. In very cold periods I keep the curtain shut.
Every winter I consider getting doors for the opening.

In summer it is lovely. On the very hottest days it can be too hot (and we shut the curtain in the day), but that isn't standard. It loses the sun by midday.

Despite the above, if I was doing it again or needed to replace it (it's 19 years old) I'd get a proper extension.

What @Reluctantadult said it's either freezing cold in winter (even with a heater) or in the summer it's boiling the sun is in everyone's eyes. It's a waste of a room. We want to take it down and have a proper extention.

I’m sitting in mine now; it’s beautiful, warm and light. However we spent a lot of money on it. It has underfloor heating and tinted glass sides and roof. It’s also grey not white. An extension would have been cheeper but not what we wanted.

I absolutely love mine & it's used year round as our dining room/additional living room. However, it does have heating, an insulated roof & is cut off from the rest of the house via glass sliding doors.

Really wouldn't recommend having one open to the rest of the house due to cold in the winter & heat in the summer

Not if you need to use it all year round. We have one which we use in the spring and summer as long as it isn't hot hot (it can get up to 50 degrees C).

It also depends which way it faces. If it is south or west facing, it will get very hot.

We have one in an awkward corner. It has made a cold room a lot warmer, and is used as a greenhouse in the spring, a breakfast room in the summer and autumn, and a boot room all winter. It does get vv hot in the summer, but I put up some fabric to shade it, and it has lots of windows, so that can be managed.

I really like ours.
When the DDs were younger it doubled as a playroom, and made access to the garden easier.
Over lockdown it got a lot of use too.

Yes it doesn't get used over winter, though it heats up quickly with a fan heater, but it does act as extra insulation for the main house.

We wanted it as a room in the garden, not an extra room in the house.

If you can afford to have one which you can keep warm in the winter and prevent from getting too hot in the summer then I think theyre definitely worth it.

@SeasonFinale

if you have space for a conservatory have a proper extension but with glass doors etc

Agree. We did this, glass doors, skylights etc.

If an old property I would not use materials not in keeping (eg pvc). Again in lots of cases how useful are they?

We bought a house that already has one and I would not recommend it. As a local conservatory company told me, people don’t realise that traditional conservatories are seasonal rooms - ok for Spring/Summer but utterly freezing/boiling hot otherwise. Not usable unless you add in more heaters on top of the radiators or have large doors:windows that open in the heat. Then in summer they can be unbearably hot. You also must have doors that prevent these hot/cold temps from moving into the rest of the house.

These days however you can have a proper roof put on them instead of glass which helps with insulation, plus underfloor heating etc.

Quite simply - don’t do down this route with a blinkered view of a conservatory being a cheaper option to add more living space. Save more and invest in proper insulation as mentioned above or the more desirable option of a proper extension.

Friends to have them don't use them for most of the year and have put in expensive air conditioning for the summer. I'd not want one, but if you are lacking a specific space (e.g. dining room) you may feel it has some value to you. However - I'd look at a permanent year round solution.

We use ours all the time but it does have a full height brick wall on one side and a small wall around the rest with a big radiator, the only time it's ever an uncomfortable temperature if it's a very hot day and the outside door is shut , its not open to the house it has double glazed sliding doors, we use as a playroom and I have the tumble dryer in there with a worktop to fold clothes and keep laundry stuff , so nice to be able to have a room just for laundry and toys, I like that there is also a room between the garden and main house , kids garden toys , swimming costumes/paddling pool items can be stripped off/dumped in there if I could choose an extension I would have but this came with the house !

I'm sat in mine now, drinking coffee in the sun. Absolutely love it.

We have a hybrid between a conservatory and proper brick extension.

It used to be a bog standard conservatory but we had a builder take down the roof and sides, put in brick pillars, a proper roof and large windows. It's fab now, a proper room which can be used all year round.

It used to be the DCs playroom but it's now a second lounge and was my office, when I worked from home.

My mum has one, boiling in summer or freezing in winter complete waste of time.

Depends on what you intend to use it for.

My parents were keen gardeners and would sit in their conservatory pretty much all day looking at the garden - spotting tasks, watching the birds, then kicking back with a cup of tea/g&t after doing said tasks. They loved it.

My in laws got a much bigger conservatory but didn't really know what they wanted to do with it, made an attempt at making it into an extra sitting room but the temperature issues were problematic. The design of it means they can't see the garden when sat down too. It briefly got used as a playroom for grandchildren but it ultimately became a dumping ground. They just use it to dry clothes now and massively regret building it.

You need heat and decent sun shades or they're usable about 2 days a year.

I love mine, but I do consider it to be an extension of the garden rather than the house.

We have a south facing conservatory (it was here when we moved in). It's an oven in summer, totally unusable. Cold in winter, and I can't really justify the extra expense of using the electric heater in there So it doesn't get used.