To not install doors between house and conservatory

[CamillaDonald]

https://pin.it/7BV9b3RHM

This is exactly what I want to do - remove the 2 sets of doors on the back wall of our house to create 2 big open areas in the rear wall and then build a conservatory across the back.
Literally the same as this.
How has this person managed to get permission to do this without any internal doors separating the main house from the conservatory?
My understanding was you HAVE to have doors dividing a conservatory from a house, but is that not necessarily the case as this picture shows?
It's from pinterest.

Well once it's built and installed you can take them out and do what you like until it's time to sell. Be bloody cold though.

You do need external quality doors between the house & conservatory for building regs, but that only really matters when you sell up.

However! We spent some 15yrs with our kitchen open to a glass roof conservatory & it's not as fun as it sounds. In winter it sucks all the heat out of the house & in summer the 40°c+ heat out there makes the house unbearable too.

I'd highly recommend bi-fold doors, so it feels open but you can shut it off. We finally got round to it last year & the difference is wild.

It would make the rest of the house really cold in winter surely.

I know someone with this style and they definitely never had any doors (nor is there anywhere to put any).

They do have a door between this room (inc kitchen) and rest of house - which I think building control would insist upon for fire safety.

Why do you think you’d need doors? I don’t think I’d even consider this a conservatory really.

A friend had this and it was absolutely freezing. She ended up getting internal bifolds to separate the conservatory. Could you get pocket doors if you had the space? That way you could have it open plan but the option to close off

We've done this but we had to get a fully insulated roof on the conservatory (so not glass) and central heating fitted. It wasn't cold at all through winter, but it was before the roof replacement.

This person talks through the design and heat/cold questions here:

www.aliceinscandiland.com/blog/2017/03/12/how-to-extend-your-home-with-style-for-less-than-you-might-think

Our conservatory has reached over 50C in the summer, and doesn't reach 10C for weeks in the winter. It's all double glazed (no plastic windows) We are very grateful for the doors between it and the rest of the house.

Lots of people do it , it can make temp control very difficult and you need to check that it doesn’t invalidate your house insurance .

Mine was built just before the regulations changed, so I had it without doors which was compliant at the time.

It was like that for years, we did have a curtain (which you can see to one side of the no-doors pics) after about 10 years which then got closed overwinter (and only really opened at weekends in those midwinter months when you go to work and come home in the dark).
The opening definitely made the adjoining kitchen colder, and wasn't helped by the tiled floors originally in both rooms.

I had the doors made and fitted a couple of years ago.
They will fold back against the side walls in the conservatory so we cam have the full opening, but mainly just have the two middle panes open from say March to November, and then closed and the conservatory not really used apart for sunny weekend days over the winter.
If it is really hot they also get closed during rhe day in the summer to keep the kitchen cooler.

Leave the doors open all the time. If you still want to do it come next Summer then crack on.

Your heating bill will go up and you may need air con in summer. We have a 1.5 m sliding door. So a 3m wall if glass which gives flexibility of closing off but feels continuous

We have this, we have radiators in the conservatory and honestly it’s not that bad . If it’s an issue when we come to sell I’ll just put some doors in …..

We’ve never had a door between our conservatory and rest of house (purchased it like that). However, we did have a heavy duty curtain which we pulled across in winter to keep the cold out and in summer to keep the heat out. Last year we put a new solid roof on the conservatory and it’s usable all year round now.

To not have doors you would need to comply with the building regulations for an extension.

Large glazed areas are allowed if the additional heat loss is compensated for elsewhere. This can be demonstrated by an area weighted u-value.

For example, you maybe have one brick side wall with more insulation in it than you would usually need, more insulation in the floor than you would usually need and the most thermally efficient glass that you can afford and you might be able to get it to pass.

I doubt a conservatory company would do the calcs for you. An architect or energy assessor would be able to.

You could have it open plan if you had an insulated warm roof put on. Building regs would sign it off if it’s done properly.
No way on earth would I have it as is in your pics. We’ve got a traditional conservatory with wooden bifolds and it still makes the adjoining room freezing in winter. We’re about to have it knocked down and redone with warm roof, built up walls etc and I can’t wait.

We were told our insurance would be invalidated if we did this when we had our extension/conservatory.

Ours was signed off and we only have sliding doors on the living room side not the kitchen side, I specifically asked the building regs guy and he said it wasn’t a problem.
We use ours every day for eating and sitting to have a coffee. We have UFH for the winter and open up the doors in Summer.

Ooh very interesting replies, thank you!
I want an insulated roof, not a glass roof, are they genuinely a game changer?

This.
You will pay through the nose during the winter to heat.
Whatabout the heat in summer, whst is the aspect?
The cold in winter can be Baltic.
I have a gorgeous garden room but it is used about 8 months of the year despite it being possible to heat, we just don't need the space.
It is very well insulated, but they do get very cold.

Proceed with care. The noise of heavy rain isn't for everyone.

Nobody is going to arrest you if you remove them but your house will be freezing

I wouldn't want to have a conservatory without doors.
Too hot in the summer.
Too cold in the winter/ at night.
Too noisy in heavy rain or when the pigeon drop shit on it.

You would need them on for building regs then remove them but keep them for when you live as you would have to put them back on.

but won’t it get cold in winter and hot in summer just normal with a conservatory. You would be better boing for a proper extension with roof and perhaps skylights and bifold doors on the outside

Funnily enough it's the rain sound I miss with having the doors in now, I loved being able to hear it so clearly in the house.

But! 15 to 20 degrees difference in heat between the conservatory & the kitchen trumps rain for sure. I don't know how we put up with it for so long!

In our previous house we had a beautiful (glass roofed) conservatory built that defied all the current thinking about them being too hot in summer, cold in winter etc. it was a fantastic space that could be used all year around in absolute comfort.
That said, we did consider removing the doors into the house proper but ultimately didn't and do not regret that decision. It was large enough to be a room on its own so we left the doors in place which gave us the best of both worlds, leave the doors open for a large, open plan space or closed to provide somewhere separate, quiet and away from the rest of the house.