Conservatory quandry....

[Becaroooo]

....we bought a house in December that has a conservatory at the back.

I dont like them. Never have. Freezing and winter (like today!) and too hot in summer. It wasnt a big selling point for me, put it that way!!!

Anyway, I need advice from those of you who have them and like them and use them on a regular basis...

Atm we have our dining table and chairs in there - the idea was to use it as a dining room. This is not working...it just so very cold, even with the oil fired radiator on (which kicks out a hell of a lot of heat!!) When the sun shines by comparison, it gets stuffy and unpleasant (we have a fan we can bring down in the summer but not sure how much help it will be tbh).

We have a large front room luckily - nearly 23 ft long - so am re-jigging that and have just bought a space saving table and chairs from ikea to use in there.

What on earth can we use the conservatory for though???

Atm it has got a bookcase and dresser in it and the coat stand. It is 10ft by 10ft so decentish size. Half brick built with windows all round. Its approx 14 years old.

Need to move some of the dc's toy storage units and toy box in there and probably ds2's play kitchen but feel bad as it really is a cold room...painting it a warmer colour has made it look better but it doesnt feel warmer.

It has wooden venetian blinds at all the windows. Is there something I could do over the (large) french doors into the garden??

Help!!!

We had ours built in the summer and so far are able to use ours all year round as it has underfloor heating (I'm sure it's expensive to run but I don't care, the conservatory was cheaper than a full-on extension), and it has special windows which reflect back the sun a bit (definately never got too too hot in the summer). Ours currently houses the dining room furniture, when the kids are older and have less toys around I plan to move that back in and have it as an extra sitting room.

I don't think you can use it as a year-round habitable part of your house though unless you spend some money on it.

For the sun:

• Blinds must keep the sun out I am sure (expensive)
• You can change the roof so that it is a special glass to keep sun out

For the winter:

• our underfloor heating cost about £500 I think, but obviously had it done at same time as laying the floor so no extra cost for new flooring
• get a radiator put in there

What about using it as an indoor garden and planting herbs, lemons, vegetables etc in big pots?

You could also perhaps have a hot tub in there

Hmm I do love our conservatory, we use it alot as a family room/study. The only annoying thing is that on a sunny day it is very bright but if I got off my arse and put some blinds up that would help! But as we're moving at some point this isn't going to happen (thanks for you comment on my other thread). When, if, we move, I will miss it.

We have the kids toys, a sofa, desk with PC and quite often an airer full of washing out there!

I'm not really sure what you can do with yours to make it more comfortable as it does not sound like it is well insulated. We heat our will an electric radiator and it stays quite warm. My mum's is the same as yours either freezing or boiling, and it's over 20 years old. We built ours 5 years ago and it has a glazed roof which keeps the warm in in the winter and stops it getting too oppressive in the summer. As a lot of the cost with conservatories is digging the foundations, maybe you could get some quotes to replace the glass bits. once you've sorted the temperature problem it'll be a lovely extra space for you.

Not much help am I, I always seem drawn to spending lots of money as an answer to everything !

hahahahaha like the idea of a hot tub! (and pots with plants in!)

We were put off underfloor heating in our old house as the plumber told me it is v v expensive to run (?)

We will have to use it as a playarea/extra space til we figure out what to do with it...just spent £3k in January putting right all the issues the previous owners left us so spending money isnt really an option .

at howlongs underfloor heating, I wish I had thought of that when we built ours

We had one in our last house and like you it was freezing in winter and boiling in summer.

We put a massive rug down to help insulate the floor, and we installed roof foils that are like strips of metal with holes and they are inserted into the polycarb roof (assuming you have a polycarb roof) We managed to get this done for under £300.

We fitted bog standard roller blinds rather than conservatory blinds as you could build a new conservatory for the price of the blinds The roller blinds were about £160 fitted by local blind company. Ours was 10ft x 10ft.

We had a De'Longhi convection heater that had a built in timer as we used the conservatory as a playroom. I am a SAHM so I was at home a lot with two little ones.

Long term, (as I know you don't want to spend any more money) you could do what others have asked about on here which is to put a false ceiling in, my mate's husband did hers with just insulating plasterboard and they also covered up one wall (depends on the shape of yours) they removed the windows from one wall and bricked it up as their view from that side was of their fence 3ft away

Hi fizzy We have a delonghi oil fired radiator in there which is good and that does help. Atm its very sunny so its lovely in there!!!

The ceiling has a sort of pannelling/cladding on it (?) so it is warmer than most conservatory roofs I guess.

Am moving the large rug from the 2nd sitting room in there (its too big for where it is now tbh) We havent really had cause to use the blinds yet...

My parents gave up and just had the whole of their conservatory re-built to a reasonable standard (cost about £20,000)! It's now actually very nice and they genuinely can use it all year, but it was absolutely grim before.

Maybe you could just use it as a playroom in spring, autumn and rainy days in summer? That's still pretty useful, isn't it?

I'd love a conservatory - but only to grow more plants in!

It is useful, yes, but this cold snap (and the leak in the roof we had to fix!) has made it pretty unusable since we moved in.

Give it time, you might feel differently in the spring. Our's is freezing now (and so is the kitchen, as we had the 'clever' idea of making it an extension of the kitchen with no seperating doors) but, for 3/4 of the year we love it and use it as a dining/living room. IMO, unless you're prepared ridiculous amounts of money on heating, there will be 2 or 3 months that you won't be using it.

Is it actually part of your house, IYKWIM, or is it attached to the back?

I was assuming it was open to the house, but now I'm thinking it's just attached to the back with doors through. If so, does it matter if it isn't usable in winter? I'm guessing it was probably a cheap way for the previous owners to get a little more space, but if it's just glass, then I can't see there's any way you can get it warm enough to use in winter - it's basically just a large greenhouse, and greenhouses aren't frost free in winter. Have you checked how much your Delonghi is costing you in electricity? You may get a nasty surprise (we did, and we were heating a 'proper' outside room).

You could knock it down and use the extra garden space, I suppose...

...I would knock it down like a shot tbh...but dh wont hear of it!

We dont use the heater much (which I am glad of now you have mentioned the cost!)

We have had a move around and its better...got all the dc toys/extra furniture/craft table in there.

Thanks for all the replies