Orangery vs conservatory

[nondomesticgoddess]

As part of our house renovations/extension, we want to knock down our current conservatory and get a new one twice the size. Our architect has talked about the issues with conservatories (losing heat) and has suggested an orangery type structure instead. What exactly is the difference?? And what would the impact be on light and cost?

An orangery has a solid roof sometimes with a large lantern, a conservatory has a transparent roof. Orangeries are classier .

Orangeries cost more than a conservatories - mainly because they are called orangeries.

A MNetter who builds them posted that on another thread recently.

morebeta
Call it a sun or garden room then when getting quotes!

An orangery structure is likely to have some insulation in the roof and has a chance of beinf built to meet building regs. It is therefore more complicated/expensive to build but actually forms a usable room - whereas a conservatory just creates a liability imo

My daughter has an orangery, but they don't put up guttering, and the rain collects and doesn't drain off in the middle at the back adjoining the house wall, where it collects. She has to climb up and sweep the water to the side she has a wall. I wouldn't have that and don't think it was done properly.

An orangery is more of a proper room. It would add more value, but cost a lot more to build. We have an extension that has a roof lantern and lots of windows; some people would call it an orangery.

We went for a sunroom in the end, proper foundations, pitched roof with tiles, insulated, basically it's a single storey extension. Cost more initially but it will add value to the house as its a proper room unlike a conservatory.

Wll it only has a floor at the moment!

I have my citrus plants in my greenhouse, my tropical and subtropical plants in my conservatory and my furniture in the house
know I'm odd

If we had an area of water in our conservatory, DH would fill it with tropical waterlilies and fish ....
the table and chairs have turned into plant stands :-)

Fancy adding a bath to our conservatory. We could extend the bath outwards to the pond, so we could have close encounters with our fish, while watching TV or playing on the PS3.

Funnily enough I had a quote for an orangerie done today. £20,000. For essentially 3 walls, a teeny floor and a roof. I was and all at once.

Antoinette - I have heard the quotes are often based on a percentage of what the builder thinks your house would increase in value by if you had the work done.

Not the actual cost of doing the work.

Added a 'sun room' to old house - we designed an outline and had archi draw up plans etc. Like a conservatory with a small dwarf wall, then had wooden windows and a slate roof with leaded flashing, put in tiled floor, double doors opened onto the garden 'twas lovely - looked great and used it all year round, still miss it now.

An orangery is where you keep you oranges.
A conservatory is where you keep your jam.
HTH.

And you keep your car in the garage. NOT your utility room, like my friend does.

The inside of the ceiling was a bit valulted in a hexagon type, builder found it a bit of a pain to sort the angles and get it looking right - but the building regs we had to fireproof it despite there being nothing above it, except the insulation and the slates, a minor issue. Think solid roofs are better and you don't loose much light but its cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

MoreBeta that's really interesting...so £20k would suggest he thinks it would add quite a lot more than that to the value of the house? We're not planning on moving for a long time but it's always nice to know...

Antoinette - with people increasingly doing extensions rather than moving I have heard that small builders are generally taking this approach in bidding for work. They know how much houses of different sizes are worth in an area and they know that you will gain value by having the work done.

Question is how much you think you will increase the value of your house and whether it is worth it. Also I am sure you are obviously getting competitive quotes and recommendations from other people who have had work done by good tradesmen.

We're getting 3-hopefully they'll all be sensible!

We are getting an orangery, build is starting in a couple of weeks.

We wanted a new room which was very light but which we could use all year round. It is going across the back of our house and we are knocking through the lounge and kitchen so its going to be open plan.

They are much more expensive than conservatories (eye-wateringly so). The reason for the cost is the roof lantern which provides the insulation so that the room is usable in all weathers. It was explained to us that the insulation in the orangery is so good, that even though we will be knocking through the house to open it up, our energy loss will actually reduce overall. It will have underfloor heating, but from speaking to another customer, he barely uses it because the insulation is so good. It will have bifold doors across the back leading to the garden so we can open it up to the garden. I am v excited about the fact that its actually starting soon!

digerd - it sounds as though your daughters' orangery wasn't finished properly. I know we will have hoppers to collect and drain the water away from the roof. The roof slopes so that the water drains towards the hoppers.