Turning a cold conservatory into a kitchen/dining area - can it be done? How?

[Schulte]

So we have inherited, with this house, a conservatory (more like a lean-to sunroom with three solid walls, one wall of big windows and a glass roof) that is single-glazed, too cold in winter and too hot in summer. We want to turn it into a 'proper' room and connect it to the rest of the house by breaking through to the kitchen, and making the conservatory the new dining area. I have had someone round from Anglian who seemed to think that all we need to do is put in double glazing, change the glass roof to thermal glass (can't remember the exact technical term but you get the idea) and add a radiator, and hey presto we'll have a room that's the same temperature as the rest of the house.

I can't quite believe that - surely the walls need to be better insulated too? Do we need underfloor heating? Has anyone done similar and can you share you experience please? Thanks so much!

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A neighbour of ours has just had this done, though the "conservatory" does have a tiled roof with velux windows, so is strictly speaking more of an orangery. The structure is 14' x 7' on the back of the kithen, formerly accessed by patio style sliding doors. The first thing to think about is building regs as the insulation may need to be increased to get consent. Our neighbours had the wall knocked through and an RSJ put in. I'll be interested to see how it works in practice as with that amount of glass I think it will still be too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

I have a conservatory open to my kitchen via a 173cm wide opening (what was the window). The conservatory is about 3m x 3.5m, has dwarf walls, double glazing, a glass roof and underfloor heating

To be honest, when it is really cold (like last winter) it is too cold, we eat all out meals in there and mostly it is fine, but in really cold spells we don't linger in there!

If I was doing it again I would have a bigger space, with proper walls and roof, but lots of windows. I just think it would make it into a nicer space.

OK we don't have the glass sides etc but in our house the kitchen is in a "lean to" area, it is solid walls but at the same time it is on the external part of the house and was bitterly cold. Admittedly the radiator needed a bit of bleeding but it was always very very cold due to it being not well insulated and with no real foundations so to speak.

Anyway we put in a new boiler (was required) and a new radiator that is quite large and underfloor heating with a tiled floor. During the winter we keep the underfloor heating on on a thermostat, it has been revolutionary it really has, the room is now cosy and the part that we didn't put the heating in is still very cold!

We have done nothing with the insulation as we didn't really have the ability to but this has made a huge difference as has the more modern radiator.

So in short, would look at those options, also get quotes other than anglican if you can, not that there is a problem with that but someone else might come up with a better idea too, before you leap I would seriously look at some other ideas just to make sure what you are doing is what you want to do.

Visited a friend over Christmas who'd renovated their house, and asked her for any ideas as to what she would have done differently. The kitchen is on the back of the house with three external walls, quite a lot of it glass, and quite a lot of the roof is glass as well. It looks wonderful, but her main wish was that, as an SAHM, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen, and she says it's horribly cold as soon as you stop moving around. Although the glass was all replaced and is double glazed, she says she wished she'd had all the walls and ceiling properly insulated, as it puts her off being in there. (Also, to my mind, all the mess from both cooking and playing was permanently on show as you sat down to eat / have a coffee, but not sure what she could have done about that.)

Thank you so much everyone, really appreciate your thoughts. Sorry, bad form to start a thread and then not look at it for a few hours but I was so busy running after the dds. I am not sure we have the budget nor the will to turn the thing into a proper extension - although maybe I should talk to an architect for some thoughts? From other threads I have also read it sounds like we may have to accept that even after work has been done on it, it may be a room we don't use year round after all - so maybe it becomes a secondary dining area plus messy play room.

Seems such a waste of space though.

You might find that putting a solid roof on it with a skylight makes it usable all year round.
I dont know how big it is but subject to size it may not be wildly expensive.

Perhaps talking to an experienced builder would be more help, they are often better informed re building materials than architects, IME anyway.

Yes good point, I am getting a builder to come round for a chat too. It's very difficult to work out where to start with this!

We were told by the surveyor (when we bought the house) that the angle the roof is at means you can't have a tiled roof put in as then the rainwater wouldn't run off it.

I would also be worried about light - at the moment the house is nice and light throughout the year but if we replaced the roof I think the adjacent living room would become very dark.

Would be interested to hear what you decided upon, Schulte. We have a large P-shaped conservatory that is too hot in summer and too cold in winter and which leaks. We are currently also debating what to do with it. Would love to know if anyone else has had/ is having problems with their conservatory and what they decided to do with it?

We had a conservatory with all the usual problems, too hot in summer, to cold in winter, nice on 27th of April and 18th September. The thinking sort of went,

This is terrible, what about blinds for summer.. How much! I could re-glaze the roof for not much more than that.

Re-glase the roof... how much! We could buy a new conservatory for for not much more than that.

New conservatory.. How much! We could have a proper extension for for not much more than that.

Lets ask an architect how much he thinks, ok, so twice as much as we thought, still it will be nice...

Ok the design is done, lets get some quotes from builders.. How much! that's twice what the architect estimated... still we're in so far now...

..and two years later it is very nice, real "Grand Designs" stuff, but a set of blinds looks so cheap