What would you change on your conservatory?

[Elouera]

We are looking into a glass roof, dwarf walls and open to the rest of the house- the internal door will be removed for a more open plan feel.

What do you regret not installing or considering? What would you change?

We built an extension instead. Big windows and door leading out into the garden, but properly part of the house. Far more usable than the old conservatory.

I would never install one. I’m desperate to get rid of the one we inherited. It’s decent standard but still awful

Mine comes down Monday to be replaced with a proper extension and I can't wait! Horrible thing!

Our house came with one - dwarf walls, all double glazed, but a crappy polycarbonate roof.
Thinking we will upgrade the roof to a glass roof but haven't ruled out a solid roof yet.
Doesn't the solid roof exclude a lot of light into the adjoining room?
I like the conservatory much more than I expected to. Great in cool or windy weather - most of the year really. Just really cold or hot for a couple of relatively short periods in the winter and summer.
I think the aspect is really important in terms of this. Ours faces east so is warmest in the morning (when it's sunny) and cools during the day.

My FIL has a very large conservatory made of wood and glass throughout. It’s beautiful, light and airy. It has air con though and that seems to make all the difference.

Got short walls and tiled roof. Best thing we ever did - no way we’d be able to use it with a glass roof, it would be too hot. Got heating for the winter too. My fav room in the house.

Is tiled roof more expensive than glass?
I'm wondering if with glass you'd need to factor in cost of blinds as well

We had one built two years ago and use it all the time. We have a blue tinted glass roof with 'self cleaning' class. It came with a very efficient modern AA rating air conditioning / heating unit. It's so good that during hot weather we've crowded into the conservatory as it was the coolest room in the house! We don't use the a/c often but I'm very glad we got it as part of the deal. The heater has proved useful on nippier winter days, though the rest of the house tends to heat it up.

I think people are discussing very different conservatories here. Some s clearly cheap rubbish and certainly are not usable and don’t add value. So get rid. Even w new one with a moveable radiator hadn’t added value. Who wants a room with no effective permanent heating? It’s very Victorian!

Pay for a decent one. This should have under floor heating. It’s the only effective heating with big expense of glass. If you cannot afford to run this and buy the highest quality glass, get a standard room. Having big roof lights put in is effective and won’t make an adjoining room darker.

In addition, a decent conservatory needs foundations. You may not be able to add a roof without considering the structure and the foundations. A roof will join the existing building somewhere and if you get movement you will get leaks. The best advice is to build an extension and if you want a conservatory, pay at least as much for a high quality one with ventilation, under floor heating and high insulation/sun deflecting glass. Anything less is a waste of money. Facing East is great. South - not for me.

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts. There does seem a vast difference between conservatories built years ago, even 10yrs ago, in terms of materials and coping with extremes of temperatures.

We are looking at the best thermal, self-clean glass they have, or a solid roof. Both side walls will be solid, and its only got windows at the far end, and possibly the roof. Its being built more like an extension, and including a cloakroom toilet in 1 corner.

You can get very large glass roof panels and they do let in light. You can also go for glass on one part of the roof.

My conservatory is now 10 years old. It’s oak framed and it cost £65,000 then! Yes, it is large but it would have been cheaper to build a standard extension but it’s a wow kitchen and suits the house.

It’s a great idea to have two solid walls attached to the house. Ours has. We have large openings to the lounge and an informal dining area and to the hall. It’s not open plan. It’s a halfway solution. If you want light and a feeling of space, I think this works.

I love my conservatory it has dwarf walls and very thick underfloor insulation ( we had to dig down further). Underfloor heating and glass roof which has a blue tint.

It faces WNW and is comfortable for most of the year (except when temperature is -10!)

It’s vital that all the side windows open.

The neighbours it's located next to. Main reason I move out of ours is when the guy next door is being a gobby DIY obsessed prick in his garden and I don't want to listen to him.

I use mine as an office - especially now we're in the era of working from home and it's decent enough as extra space - was the best solution we could get for our house and finances.

Building regs allowed us to open it up as part of the kitchen by increasing insulation everywhere else. We have thermal glass and underfloor heating. We use it as a seating area with sofas. If we were starting from scratch I would build with a tiled roof and no box guttering showing which would make controlling the temperature easier. Best part is the amount of light it brings to that side of the property.

We already had high insulation everywhere else. All of this should be factored in when deciding what to do. Money is key though. Can you afford a spec that means it’s usable all year? If it’s not possible, I would go conventional build with roof lights.