To ask you about conservatory

[LolleePop]

I'd like a small conservatory on the back of my house exactly like the one in this house. But how come I've been told I have to have doors in between the house and the conservatory?
I want to knock the back of my house out (super easy job as the whole of my back wall of my house is upvc framed glass patio doors and windows) and add a conservatory EXACTLY like this, same style, same depth, same size.
My house is the same proportions.
So why is this house marketable with an open plan conservatory, yet I've been told by 3 different builders that I can't have an open plan conservatory and if I went ahead and got one I'd have to find someone who was willing to do it against building regulations and that I'd never be able to market my house for sale????
Why can't I have exactly what this house has?
Can't afford a traditional brick extension, hence looking at conservatory.
I only want one that's 6 foot deep!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144790955?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

Honestly OP if you can afford to do a bank loan get a proper extension done. With velux windows in the ceiling rather than a conservatory roof.

The issue with conservatory is the solar gain and lack of insulation.

It's honestly not worth it. Go for a proper extension.

Is there a need to be obtuse, its obvious I mean what are the circumstances as to why someone thinks or has lots of noise in the rain

We have a glass roof, ours is not noisy in the rain

That is not a conservatory . It is a brick extension with large windows on one side and a translucent lean to roof .

6x18 feet isn't worth doing op - deffo go wider than 6' if you want to make it a proper room, even if open plan.

My new conservatory has a door but iirc you might need planning permission and/or building regs for an open plan one.

We have a glass roof, we often have to shut the door or we can't hear the telly in the front room. I suppose it depends on how much rain you have where you live.

We had a conservatory which had no separating doors.
It was the main reason we moved out.

It is a conservatory (it’s the percentage of walls that are glass that I believe defines it as one) but some conservatories need building regs due to size, lack of doors etc. We bought a house similar to this, it was built by a conservatory company but has building regs.

From personal experience, go for a solid roof (you can have glass/windows in the roof still) or look at the cost difference between what you want and an extension. We’ve had a solid roof put on ours now (was a glass roof) and I’d strongly recommend it - it didn’t get cold in the winter as was very well insulated but still got too hot in the summer due to the volume of glass. Glass roof also constantly looked dirty due to moss etc falling on it.

I would strongly recommend saving for a proper extension, or keeping the doors.

Our conservatory has an insulated solid roof with a sky light, and is half brick. Looks similar to your example. It's north facing and freezing 10 mo of the year. We almost never use it. Without the doors we'd spend a fortune on heating.

I really wish we'd put in a proper extension instead.

I love them! maybe more suited to a riverside park but they're lovely

Google Alice in Scandiland conservatory and you get all your answers @LolleePop

I don't think it's an extension or a conservatory. Looking at the next door house having the same I would say it was part of the original build.

We had a conservatory on the back of our house when we bought it. It had a sliding uPVC door separating it from the living room, but the door broke early on and had to be removed, and it was one of those jobs we never got round to sorting, so we ended up having an open gap between sitting room and conservatory

It was AWFUL. Whatever temperature the conservatory was (either baking hot in summer like a greenhouse or freezing cold in winter even with a radiator in there) it affected the whole of the downstairs. It honestly was really, really, really bad!

A couple of years ago we pulled some of the equity to afford turning it into a proper extension and it’s amazing. The whole of our downstairs is warm in winter and cool in summer. It was particularly eye opening when they were partway through doing the building work in February whilst there was snow on the ground and our sitting room was warmer and less draughty when they’d ripped the conservatory out and just boarded up the opening to the sitting room with a bit of plywood!

So short version - the house with open conservatory that you’re admiring would be absolutely awful to live in, and listen to the builders who say you need a door! Or better yet, save up for an extension rather than get a conservatory. Having lived with one I’d never, ever, ever buy a house with one again!

Yes. My mum had one. What a racket in heavy rain.

I hated my conservatory when I moved in to my house, we alway had the door closed in winter as it was mainly freezing, humid and expensive to heat. To hot in summer and anyway who wants to sit inside on a hot day .

When I got some redundancy money I had a proper roof put on it and now we all use the room all the time with the door open. It has a radiator and heats to a nice toasty temp along with the rest of the house. I WFH in it and l love looking at my garden through the seasons.

I would be very careful about what roof option you went for and you might be better with an extension.

Ours is noisy in the rain.

I guess from when some people had cheap plastic panels for the roof?
A proper glass roof is not noisy at all.

My glass roof was a fortune ,it's still noisy when it rains hard.

That's not a conservatory, it's an orangery, more wall than glass and the planning is different

I just came on to say this. She has a very detailed explanation of how she got her conservatory to look like an extension. It really is lovely too.

I read recently that conservatories can now actually reduce the value of the house because they have so fallen out of favour. Freezing in winter and way too hot when we get a heat wave.

Having said that my sister used to have a lovely one that they could use like an extra room in the house all year round. However, I think they spent quite a lot on it and it was heated.

It doesn't pass building regs as conservatories are awful
At heat loss so it makes the house less efficient if you can't shut it off with a door. You can google the exact part of the buildings regs but that's why you should have a doos. Plus from experience trust me you want a door. They are freezing in winter and you will want to close it off from your home they loose heat like you wouldn't believe you won't be able to heat the room it's connected to if it's open plan 😬

That's not a conservatory.

To be that noisy I presume it has a shallow slope?

Our conservatory was beautiful and really opened up the ground floor, there were doors between the original house and the conservatory but they were rarely (if ever?) closed.
Very tall (at over 4m high, full PP was required), the glass roof was heavily sloped so maybe that is why rain was rarely heard? Brick wall down one side, dwarf walls on other two, fully heated, roof blinds, furnished with a sofa, chairs & table it was usable 365 days of the year and believe me, it was.
Nothing nicer than on a clear night than opening the roof blinds, laying back on the sofa and watching the stars or on a stormy night, the lightening. The Dcats & Ddog loved it for looking down the garden at the birds, squirrels and (occasional) muntjac, usually the Dcats were on the windowsills and Ddog on the back of the sofa.

It's like many things, a cheap conservatory added onto the back of a house to create immediate space cannot be compared with a purpose designed and well built one.

It’s more of a lean-to.

@FluffyDiplodocus this sounds a bit like what we want to do, but have a double glazed sliding lockable door that separates the kitchen from the conservatory.

We have one solid all-brick wall to the left of the internal doors, with an actual proper extension room on the other side of it that we use as an office to wfh. That extension was originally used as a playroom by previous owners and was joined to the lounge / dining area.

The other walls in the conservatory are brick from the ground, a few feet high then all double glazed windows above that. It has a upvc back door to the garden and then a very rubbish plastic roof. There a central heating radiator in there too, and for the life is us we can't understand why the previous owners didn't just have a proper extension like the room on the other side of the wall that we use as an office. I guess at the time conservatories were very in. It probably took some time living with it to realise the thin plastic roof made it too hot or cold to use most of the year! We've got the original design plans they left and it was always going to be the cheapy plastic roof. If only they'd had a proper roof instead!

The kitchen the conservatory's joined on to
is a very small galley kitchen and we'd love to remove the sliding doors, and open the kitchen out into the conservatory, have a completely new kitchen that extends into the current conservatory space, and have a space for a sofa, TV etc as well.

Am I right in thinking this would need building regs and be classed as an extension, even though the conservatory space is already there? We'd love to put a proper roof on and patio / bifold doors too, and put the space to use as an extended kitchen in the future