Conservatory Ideas

[JediStoleMyBike]

We bought our first home this year and it has a lovely conservatory leading off a very small kitchen. The house was all we could afford at the time and we are glad to have bought but we need to get everything out of the space that we possibly can as we have one DD and another little one on the way.

Try as we might we can not squeeze a dining table and chairs in the living room or the kitchen and so we have no real option but to utilise the (admittedly quite big) conservatory. This is where I could do with some help as it's so flipping cold!

We are on quite a tight budget so can't afford to knock the conservatory down and extend or anything like that. Does anyone have any suggestions of things that can be done to help hold the heat a little better once the radiator is on?

It looks like the floor is stone/tiles? That probably won’t help! Can you replace it with something a lot more insulated?

Tiles. I was considering a big rug that we can lift in summer perhaps?

Never mind a rug I'd fit deep carpet.
We have a very large conservatory. The dining table lives in there from March to October but we just shut it in winter except for maybe Christmas.

Underfloor heating is the best way to heat a conservatory. Even then, with double glazing you are still trying to heat the sky. My neighbour has underfloor heating and ceiling blinds and hers is in year round use.

I'm not sure budget would stretch to underfloor heating though will try and get some quotes just in case. Maybe roof blinds are worth an idea but I suppose they are also expensive?

You will find that the heat will escape unless you have ultra expensive double glazing. It’s so annoying having a room that’s unusable at times. Even with a carpet the walls and roof will let a lot of heat out. You will find your bills are very high as a result of this. I don’t really know what to advise but I would try and save/borrow and replace it. Sorry.

Sorry but they are useless - we have a massive one I was hoping to use for a playroom. Too cold in winter and too hot in summer, with the windows / doors open.

We are looking at two long term options - putting a solid roof on it or knocking it down and building an extension. I know you say money is tight, so think long term. We are using it as storage at the moment - big plastic toys etc and some boxes we are yet to go through from moving.

Same as May - we have one off our kitchen and it's simply unusable as a room. It's freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in winter, and the electric underfloor heating is useless. So, conservatory stores our fridge, bin and acts as a laundry room. That's it

We're about to knock ours down and build a brick room on the same footprint - should be much better and will actually feel part of the house.

If replacing isn't an option, could you do something with the roof? There are companies that can tile the roof and fit a proper ceiling under the eaves, making the space a lot warmer (or cooler!).

I will look into roof replacement. Is there a ballpark figure of how much we'd be looking at?

A neighbour at my old house recently had his roof replaced with a normal tiled one. Don't think it cost anything over £3k (can't remember exact figure, sorry!)

We had a large conservatory at our old house with the usual polycarb roof that was freezing in winter and too hot in summer. We changed the roof for a glass one that had some sort of coating that they claimed would reflect the heat away in summer and keep it warmer in winter. It was bloody brilliant. Just as warm as any other room, and we kept our lovely conservatory.
We moved recently and there is a conservatory here. We're going to change the roof again to a glass one.

I do actually have my kitchen in an orangery with 2 glass walls and a glass roof. However it was mega expensive and it is high tech glass and underfloor heating. It can get a bit hot in summer due to sun shining through the roof. I do think you need to plan long term and use this room as a temporary one. My kitchen is fantastic but not cheap!

We have an oil filled radiator in ours which we turn on when were8about to use the room. It cost £40 In Lidl and gives out lots of heat whilst being cheap to run. It makes our conservatory useable in winter

@bubbles ooo I’m looking at doing this as we’ve got a large conservatory that I’d prefer to knock down, change it to an orangery and make that & the old kitchen into a kitchen diner. When you say expensive do you mean the type of expense which would involve selling off your family heirlooms!?!