If you have a glass conservatory roof what does it look like now?

[mummysmellsofsick]

Can you post me a photo? I only know how nice they look when new on the sales literature. Do they need a lot of cleaning? Do you get loads of bird droppings etc?

The birds leave a mess all over ours and they love to pick stuff out of the gutters and drop on the roof of it.
It drives me mad but I love how much light it gives us and we do have a fab window cleaner who cleans it for an extra charge

Forgot to say we have it cleaned once a month in the spring and summer and less during the winter

Ours is self clean
Have never cleaned it in 5 years

I don't know how old ours is , it was here when I bought the house- at least 2 years as that's how long we've been here. It definitely needs a clean and the roof leaks in a downpour .

We used to have a plastic roof and it was horrible with general dirt, green growth (like algae) etc., despite cleaning it 2 or 3 times per year. (Not to mention very noisy when it rained and too hot/cold depending on weather).

We had it replaced and now have a glass roof (can't remember the name of it), but it was a couple of thousand more compared with a plastic one. It's got a "self cleaning" coating on the outside and some kind of film between the panes. It's been there five years so far, and outside is as clean as day one - no dirt, algae etc. It doesn't overheat anymore as the film reflects the sun away and the double glazing keeps the heat in. Best thing we ever did as it's now useble again in all seasons and we're not constantly washing it down.

Is the glass roof clear or opaque ? I might look into getting mine changed - I'd like it clear so as to make it brighter in my lounge .

Hope this attaches! It's my kitchen roof right now. Clean with a few raindrops. Everything slides off. It was mega expensive though!

That looks lovely Bojo

To be honest, corrugated plastic just won't last. It is best to have double glazed glass which can be treated to keep off glare and allows everything to slide off. We get the odd bit of moss and leaves in the autumn but they don't stay there for long. The whole structure is oak and was expensive but you get what you pay for I'm afraid.

Dirty! Because 2 months ago my dad gave it a "clean" thinking the rain would wash it down . It didn't! I need to get the pressure washer out and give it a proper clean, I do it every couple of years, could maybe do with every years. It's 14 years old and could probably do with the inside of the roof cleaning, but that's unlikely to happen.

i currently have the original polycarbonate tinted roof panels which are stained and dirty and awaiting a quote from the glass people to change them over for glass panels instead.

Cant wait to change them!

I love the sound of the rain, but they are noisy.

we have a glass roof over our terrace. It does get very dirty but DH gets up there with the jet wash every now and again. Spring is bad because of the pollen, autumn is bad because of the leaves.

Oh thanks for all the replies so the self cleaning stuff seems to actually self clean and the older examples get filthy it seems. Interesting! Does anyone have a kitchen in theirs? I know it isn't allowed but people do, maybe that's for another thread...

tiba we have the polycarbonate too and it's horrible! Also very old leaky chunky plasticky window frames

Oh bojo I've just read properly and figured out it's your kitchen. This is what I want to do... how did you get around building regs? And is it too cold in winter/ too hot in summer?

Yes. It is a kitchen in an orangery - technically! No problem with building regs other than what is normally required for an extension.

The kitchen has two walls which were the external walls of the house and the glass walls are two sides. The frame is oak and the glass panels go round two sides. The only building reg issue was ventilation for the hob because it is in an island. The structure has very deep foundations (2m) because it is near an oak tree and we are on clay (you can see a branch in the pix) but basically this is an extension and needs appropriate foundations designed. DH is a Structural Engineer so wall openings have appropriate beams.

Regarding heating and cooling - we have wet underfloor heating. It works well. We have manual vents in the roof and opening doors and windows to the garden. It gets a bit hot occasionally but we eat outside a lot. There are large openings in the other walls because this part of the house is semi open plan. Air circulates! For the vast majority of the time it is wonderful and I love the light and the sky.

If you are concerned about a large glass roof you could have a standard roof with roof lights. There are heritage ones that are more discrete than Velux.

I'm tempted by a glass roof on the whole of the extension justbso that we don't lose too much light in the dining room. Pretty sure extension with proper roof and velux windows would make our already dark dining room too dark. Yours sounds wonderful bojorojo feel free to post more photos, I'd love to see them. I've been told we can't have an area more than 25% of the floor space in glass, which isn't all that much which is why I was curious re yours and regs

Don't have a pic but ours is v clean, can see through, the odd bird dropping but nothing that affects the look at all. We clean it about once a year (on a ladder with a mop and a hose. Ha ha but it actually works and better than paying a fortune for it to be done by someone else!). Was worth every penny - we replaced a plastic roofed one with this glass one and it was the best investment we made in the house.

MotherofBoy is yours new fangled self clean glass then?

Ours is currently a conservatory with a plastic roof but with very deep underpinned foundations and I'm wanting to make it into a kitchen

I don't think it's self cleaning... it has that blue tinge to it as it is meant to be UV reflective I think A+ of that means anything? It was pretty expensive!

Ours is meant to be self-cleaning and by and large it is. "Things" just slip down it!

We had a glazed roof in the last house. It was usually pretty clean as the window cleaners came every 4-6 weeks (I think). I'm sure it'll be fine as long as it isn't under a tree favoured by pigeons.

It looks like shattered remains as we knocked it down last summer!

It was disgusting though, covered in shit and moss.

which way will it face? We had self cleaning glass. it worked and was clean. but the room was too hot in summer too cold in winter. we replaced it with a guardian roof system which is still classed as a conservatory. looks like this and is brilliant.