Would you knock down a £40k conservatory?

[Killerqueen2244]

Got a big ole do-er upper, which needs a lot of more important work doing to it first however in the back of my mind the conservatory is bugging me. It’s large and feels like a

We love ours but has solid roof. Double door to kitchen and double door to lounge. Great space with all doors open. We use it all the time in Summer. I would advise to live a Summer in the house first before deciding what to do. Ours is fab from April to October so maybe give it a chance.

I wouldn't get rid.. I still miss the wonderful conservatory from my previous house, where I would sit in the evenings, rain or not and listen to the birdsong and watch the sky grow dark..I would certainly get some kind of doors between it and the house, though.

We’ve replaced the roof on ours with thermally efficient glass and put in underfloor heating. It makes an L off of our kitchen and has let loads of light in there. We use it all the year round and love it. I would put the door in, get a couple of rads with thermostats and use it for a year before you decide. As it’s hardwood, I certainly wouldn’t just knock it down. Hardwood is far more beautiful than the modern glass boxes imo.

We have a 5 m by 6 m conservatory and love it. It is south facing and we live in the south of the U.K.
it has two solid walls. Two glass walls. Glass roof, the best we could afford. We have homemade roof voile blinds that we use six months of the year. No window blinds.
On the hottest day of the year - today, it is 32 C outside and only 35.5 inside the conservatory. Doors and windows are open.
If we are away and all is closed it will get hot on a sunny day. But when Home you regulate it.
Also it is great in the Autumn and Spring, you can sit there without heating, whilst the house is cold. So you save heating.
On a sunny winters day, you can sit there with no heating.
It depends on the house whether to add a conservatory. We love it. To sit and feel as if you are in the garden is great. We don’t feel that in a sunroom.
For us, a well designed conservatory every time.

The previous owners of ours fitted an insulated ceiling with recessed spot lights and light weight roof tiles. It already had radiators. We widened the conservatory doors to a full with opening and got cheap wooden bifolds for obtaining the building control, then promptly removed it and stored them in the garage ( should any future buyer require them).
We then raised the floor level in the conservatory to match the kitchen and used the same tiles to make one big continous room which is now the family room. It as warm as any other room in the house in the winter and not too warm as long as you open some of the windows in the height of summer. Functionally it’s like a purpose built extension for us but only cost about £4000 to convert ( ceiling and roof was already done) including RSJ for the bigger opening, the redundant bifolds, and boxing in the tracks for the bifolds.

I would love a conservatory! I'd fill mine with plants (isn't that what they are intended for after all?).

I have one and it was double £40,000. You get what you pay for I’m afraid. Our has the kitchen in it and it’s warm all year round and ventilated in summer. It has underfloor heating. It’s the only solution to get all over warmth. You also need high quality glazing and self cleaning glass in it. It’s always usable and I too love the evenings with the lighting system. I can see most of my garden and it’s certainly enhanced the house.

I loathe ours. Really wish instead of rebuilding it, when we moved in and doing renovations, we’d knocked it down and built a proper room. South-facing so unbearably hot in summer. Doesn’t get too cold during winter tbh but who wants to sit in a glass box? We don’t have neighbours so it’s not a privacy issue it’s just a weird unwelcoming waste of space. Never again.

I love sitting in my glass box. Except I have oak beams, a kitchen and a great garden to look at. Plus views and woods and no neighbours. If the conservatory doesn’t enhance the house, it’s not worth having. However, some do and are lovely.