converting conservatory into normal room

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Has anyone done this? Did you use a regular builder or one of the specialist companies?

Any other advice welcome! We want to knock our tiny kitchen and big conservatory together, trying to work out the best way to keep it warm.

We've done this over the summer, and you need to be aware that if you just knock through you risk devaluing your house, as it won't comply with building regs and will technically be classed as a house without a kitchen. You need to check with your local planning department as you might need planning permission (we did, as we were changing the roof and this could have effected our neighbour's light) and will definitely need building regs to inspect and sign off on it. Ours cost about £21,000 so it certainly wasn't the cheap option we thought it would be, but for us it has made a huge difference as we never used the conservatory because it leaked badly when it rained and was freezing.

We weren't allowed to do this when we put on an extension because of the need for a thermal break between the kitchen and the conservatory.

Oh blimey! £21k! I was hoping it would be cheaper because the foundations etc would already be there and hopefully we could reuse some of the windows.

If the conservatory is being turned into a proper room is the thermal break still relevant?

We have the same problems with our conservatory easy and we need the space so it has to be tackled one way or another.

Atticus and easylife are right, you need a thermal break between house and conservatory to comply with building regs. My friend had to replace her doors between her lounge and conservatory when she sold her house for that very reason (they were internal doors and didn't provide the thermal break)

We demolished our conservatory and built a new extension in its place. We needed planning as our council has removed permitted development rights in our area. Permitted development covers extensions (so you don't need planning) up to a certain size depending on your property type I forget what they are now... Either way you'll need to comply with building regs. Your local council's planning dept should be able to advise you, or a reputable local builder.

Our extension wasn't a cheap option, but has made our kitchen better and we have loads more space, it's also increased the value of our house!

Good luck with whatever you decide. If you're in South Central Hants I can recommend a fab builder!

Oh right I see what you mean... That explains why we still have the external windows doors inside the conservatory.

Hmm. I'll get in touch with the planning dpt then.

Thanks for your advice everybody, very helpful.

And not near hants sadly!

Sorry can't be more help x

We looked into doing this a couple of years ago. Apparently the regulations changed in 2010, and if you want to knock the conservatory and kitchen together, to make the conservatory part of the house, you have to prove that the new layout is more thermally efficient than the old layout was discounting the conservatory iyswim. which is almost impossible.

Whilst you retain the windows/ external doors between the main house and the conservstory, your house's thermal effiviency is calculated disvounting thr conservatory as it's an external structure.

In the end, removing our conservatory and having a proper extension built was not that much more expensive than the very complicated measures we'd have had to put in place if we had tried to make the conservatory part of the house.

We had to replace one whole wall of windows with a proper wall but did use the conservatory foundations (although you need to have them checked to see if they are deep enough to support a proper building and roof, as conservatories are lighter). We have a lantern in the centre of the roof, as it is all to do with the proportion of glass to "proper" building, and lots of really good insulation in the rest of the roof. We also now have internal bi-fold doors between the living room and the new open plan kitchen room, so if we want to we can open them up and have nearly all of the downstairs as one big space, which is really lovely. Although it was expensive (£30k all in with the building work, new kitchen, decoration, furniture etc) it has totally changed the way we use the house.

Thanks for all of the information everybody, it's been really useful.

Although we could afford to do it I'm not sure it would be worth it compared to moving house which is a shame but good to know.