Conservatory - refurbish or replace

[burdog]

We have an old conservatory at the back of our house. It fits directly on to our tiny dining room and is abou 8 feet by 10 feet.

It was built in 1998 so is pretty old and grotty. We bought the house 2 years ago and never use it. It's too cold in winter and too hot in summer.

Two of the windows have condensation inside them, the floorboard have shrunk and I think the roof leaks (we never use it so not sure but the floor is stained in several spots). The window ledge on the inside needs re-painting or revarnishing. The light fitting/fan is straight out of 1998 and ugly. It needs a lot of TLC.

Can anyone share their stories of what they did with old conservatories? Did you knock it down and rebuild, refurbish, put a solid roof on, what did you do to make it habitable? I think ideally I'd like to make it into a garden room that fits on to the back of the dining room and in the same footprint so we have a bigger dining room but I've no idea what sort of permission we'd need for that.

Had an old leaky conservatory, spent a lot of money fixing it up and making it good, and it was fine for a couple of years, but it was too old and crappy and we ended up having it replaced.

A new one could have insulation under the floor, you can get insulated panels to put on any walls that don't have windows (or build solid walls)

That's a good thought Potatoes, doing it up could be sending bad money after good.

I think it would be a waste of money. I think I'd take it down and start again. Would you have the same footprint? Can it be an extension rather than a conservatory?

Definitely remove it. I would d tend the house conventionally and not have a conservatory.

Having said that, I have a very expensive oak framed orangery. We use it all year round - it’s the kitchen. However it cost s small fortune but our house is worth a lot too so it’s fairly wow! If you have a standard house I would start again with a highly insulated standard build in keeping with the house style.

extend the house..,,

Out in interest how much do extensions and conservatory's differ in price?

Good question op-we are in the same position! I’m thinking we may go down the extension route.