Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Changing conservatory to sun room

14 replies

MaybeMaybeNotJ · 25/02/2021 22:41

Hi everyone
We’re looking to replace our conservatory with a sun room (if that’s the right name)? So knock it down and start again with a decent roof.
My DH would like bifold doors, does anyone have opinions on them, good or bad?
Would you suggest half brick or full height windows in your experience?
Can anyone who wants to post a photo of their sun room for inspiration please?
Thank you ☺️

OP posts:
Sisiwawa · 25/02/2021 23:06

Hi, we have a large set of bi-fold doors. They are excellent and im so glad we got them. Great quality and customer service. Never had any trouble with them in 7 years. They 'make' the room. Try 'UK Bi-Folds'. Buy the best you can afford i would say.

Arboria · 25/02/2021 23:09

Bi-folds are going to look very dated very quickly and will be very expensive to replace.

Midlifephoenix · 25/02/2021 23:21

Hate bifolds. Had them, never worked properly, and rarely opened to full width. Plus I think they are dated if uPVC.
I would call it a garden room, not sun room.

MaryIsA · 26/02/2021 08:18

We are just doing this. Going for sliding doors rather than bifolds. It’ll be a fully glazed corner. Sliding partly to give us more floor room for stuff but also live in north west and number of times we’d have them fully open is limited.

But know lots of people with bifolds who love them.

Ours Is costing £80k to go from conservatory to bigger extension. There’s a lot of groundworks and a very very big steel needed though.

Sunflowergirl1 · 26/02/2021 17:46

I assume by saying building a sun room, you mean a proper extension which has building regulations approval? If so, you will have a much superior room that is classed as part of your house as opposed to a temporary structure.

We have a single storey rear room...proper sloping roof with 4 Velux windows. Large sliding doors for 4.5M and it is fabulous. Warm as anything in wjnter...even at minus 5 degrees 2 weeks ago. This morning with a little bit of sun the temp was 26 degrees and bright...just opened a window to cool it.

Don't surround the thing in glass as it will glare it out...the doors and windows will be fine depending on which way you face

Is a sun room is another version of a conservatory without building regs, don't bother as they are utter rubbish

Original poster
MaybeMaybeNotJ · 27/02/2021 11:23

Thank you everyone.
We’re costing up knocking down the conservatory and building a sun/garden room with the insulated roof and also a full on extension.
We don’t have 80k so that might be interesting.
I’ve heard such mixed reviews on the bifolds. Maybe as PP said it’s all down to what quality you have. We would be getting aluminium as I’ve heard bad things about UPVC bifolds but the structure would be UPVC.

OP posts:
Original poster
MaybeMaybeNotJ · 27/02/2021 11:26

@MaryIsA

We are just doing this. Going for sliding doors rather than bifolds. It’ll be a fully glazed corner. Sliding partly to give us more floor room for stuff but also live in north west and number of times we’d have them fully open is limited.

But know lots of people with bifolds who love them.

Ours Is costing £80k to go from conservatory to bigger extension. There’s a lot of groundworks and a very very big steel needed though.

I am fully for sliding. It seems more practical as we’re not on a massive plot, but DH is very keen on bifold. We can’t decide whether to get two of the three walls fully glazed or go for a small wall on one of the two open sides.
OP posts:
MaryIsA · 27/02/2021 17:01

Walls are helpful for furniture placement. But you can get a very striking look with all glass.

Sunflowergirl1 · 27/02/2021 17:23

We had the same dilemma. As long as it is a decent sized opening (ours is 4.5m then sliders are so much better. Our neighbour went for bifolds and bitterly regrets it for several reasons but the better view from sliders is just one. However if say 2 m then I would suffer bifolds.

Original poster
MaybeMaybeNotJ · 27/02/2021 17:48

Thank you for your help :)
It’s looking to be 3.4
We were hoping for 4m but there’s a drain where the foundations would go and protecting it would be quite expensive.
I’m hoping sliders would still be ok though.

OP posts:
Original poster
MaybeMaybeNotJ · 14/03/2021 09:30

Hi everyone
We’re pretty sure we’re going for a cosy roof type with one brick wall and two glazed walls.
Can anyone tell me their experience with blinds or similar?do we need them?
Thank you 😊

OP posts:
didireallysaythat · 14/03/2021 09:42

@MaybeMaybeNotJ

Depends which way you face. We have bi-folds with built in blinds as we have direct sun into the space in the morning, and to help offset the heat gain we have an overhang (can't remember what the proper name but think peak on a baseball cap). I'd assume a sun room gets full sun 6+ hours a day so I'd want them if you take the glass floor to ceiling

Jobsharenightmare · 14/03/2021 09:49

My doors slid all the way back and we used them fully open every single day of summer every year we lived there. Like this but my house wasn't quite as fancy!

images.app.goo.gl/5ASdyisEruxNKHcKA

Think carefully about position and lighting inside...really plan out how you'd want to use the space so that it is built and fitted to suit. My neighbour did one but the angles were all wrong and they barely used it.

Original poster
MaybeMaybeNotJ · 14/03/2021 09:52

Sorry I should have said, the glazed side is east facing and the glazed side with the doors is south facing but doesn’t get much direct light due to other houses.
I’m not quite sure how to plan around the light, I need to do some investigating I think.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page