Do you actually use your conservatory?

[HairyPits]

We’re looking at buying this year and I really want a conservatory.

The way I see it - it’s an extra lovely room, the dog can stay in it while he’s wet and muddy and if I do dog boarding, which I hope to, it could be a room (along with kitchen/hard floor areas) the dog(s) are in, without the rest of the house getting muddy and totally dusty.

However, I am also conscious that many are roasting in summer and freezing in winter. How to you make sure this doesn’t happen and how much do you actually use your conservatory?
Do you love it or regret it?

Mine is halfway between an orangery and conservatory- fully glazed roof and two sets of French doors and two windows.
I use it every day- it's like my day time reception room. It is west facing and gets sun all day, but j just open the doors. It is heated in winter. It's my favourite room.

It’s a giant porch, very useful for storing boots,keeps the mud out of the kitchen. Dogs love it. Children play in it and washing is dried.

How to you make sure this doesn’t happen
Have a glass roof instead of a polycarbonate. Modern glass rooves are quite technical: they reflect solar glare, they let in more light, they conserve heat, they self-clean, they are quieter when it rains.

Very rarely. We are actually converting it into a proper extension this year as the conservatory is a waste of space. Too hot in summer too cold in winter. Before we decided to do the extension and convert the conservatory we were looking at moving house and I scroll past anything with a conservatory as I just think it'll cost money to turn it into a proper usable room.

Ok, so basically you need a decent quality build and glass for it to be a useful room.......

Handy space for storage basically.

We use ours most days; it’s north facing so never gets too hot in summer and we heat it when we’re in there in the winter. I wouldn’t be without it, it’s a useful second lounge and great for watching the birds in the garden.

Ours can be quite a good 'drying room' for coats and stuff that won't go in the tumble dryer, on days when there is some sunshine even with showers between or when it is cold.
It is used to store a lot of stuff (our recycling boxes, the vacuum, the ironing board, the hostess trolley, various stuff people have dumped).

But no, it is either too cold or too hot to be used as a room for probably 90% of the time. Ours came with the house. I'd never pay for one.

I wouldn't.

My parents got rid of their (expensive/high quality) conservatory a few years ago.

Too hot in summer and too cold in winter (east facing). It just became a dumping ground.

They built a proper "garden room" extension instead which is lovely (proper roof/walls but lots of glazing and french doors to the garden).

We love ours, it's huge and currently has ds football goal in there! It's used as somewhere to leave shoes etc and is a great space (pre covid) for parties/gatherings.
I also turn it into a winter wonderland every Christmas

Mine is more of a sun room, in that it has a ceiling like a normal room but is glazed all round apart from the side that adjoins the house. It's south facing, so can get hot in summer during the day but is lovely in spring & autumn.

It's heated, it opens into the garden and we use it all the time. Over the years it's been a playroom, a gym, and now the kids have flown the nest it's a lovely space to sit in, with table and chairs and nice lighting.

If it had been a traditional glass conservatory it wouldn't have been as versatile, I don't think.

A conservatory was one of the reasons we chose our house . We use it a lot , it does get hot in the summer and I have thought about getting some blinds for it but that's not happened as yet. It's used a lot more the rest of the year as its heated and has a very comfortable sofa. The downsides are it's very noisy when it rains , the roof gets dirty, and my very comfortable sofa has faded terribly. (Another reason to have blinds)!

If you leave dogs in the conservatory with the doors closed it is very possible they will die, it’s the same as leaving them in a car on a hot day.

We don’t really use our conservatory.. it’s either too hot or too cold. We’re thinking about getting a proper roof put on and insulating the walls.

We had a conservatory in our old house, very rarely did we use it. But having said that it was a very large house with just us 4 living there, so we didn’t need the space. But yes again, too hot in summer closed up for a dog, and freezing cold in winter. We have now downsized, I wouldn’t put a conservatory on our new home if I am honest.

We knocked ours down after a few years as it was too cold or too hot, like you say. We replaced it with a proper extension, but with huge windows and French doors.

We've been forced to use ours as a home office this past year. Freezing in winter too hot in summer. Before then it became a dumping ground. It came with the house. Saving up to get rid of it and use the space for a proper extension.

Ours is Victorian : cast iron frame with stained glass panels but It’s too cold in the winter as there’s no heating in there. I guess one day we may do something about that, under floor heating would be good but we’re not pushed for space and there’s other things I need to do first, like restoring original sash Windows.

@senua

How to you make sure this doesn’t happen Have a glass roof instead of a polycarbonate. Modern glass rooves are quite technical: they reflect solar glare, they let in more light, they conserve heat, they self-clean, they are quieter when it rains.

We did that. Still replaced it after a few years. Waste of money.

We are building a conservatory onto our new house because we need the extra space for a playroom/toys, and can’t afford an extension plus nursery fees etc.

I was dubious when DP suggested it, but I know several people who use theirs all year round - including one childminder who uses it as the main room that her charges eat/play/learn in. What these people all have in common is that they went for a proper roof, so that’s what we’re doing.

We had an orangery as part of the kitchen-diner - so there was an arch between the kitchen and conservatory, rather than doors. We did have very heavy thick curtains we could draw across the arch. We bought the house like that 5 years ago. It was lovely in spring and autumn, on summer mornings and sunny winter afternoons. Otherwise it was freezing in winter and roasting in summer, and because there were no doors between it and the kitchen, it made the kitchen too hot or too cold too. We recently had it roofed over, with a couple of veluxes, and it’s brilliant now. We had it done this winter and it’s really made a difference to how cold it gets - the next test will be summer heat. Because two walls are glass and we had the velux windows, it’s still light enough in the kitchen, but another advantage is that it’s no longer really too bright in there - we used to have to pull the table through into the kitchen bit to eat lunch on very sunny days but don’t now. I love it.

Because of the heat issue especially I’d avoid keeping dogs in a conservatory in summer.

We just put a proper roof on ours and now use it all the time as a second living room.

We loved it when it rained though! We used to run in if it started raining heavily to listen!

Another point is that ours wasn’t heated - as it was ‘part’ of the kitchen I suppose the original owners thought the kitchen radiator would do the job but it’s really near the kitchen door (opposite side of the room from the arch to the conservatory) and wasn’t up to it. If we’d been using the oven to cook a big meal, that used to warm the whole room up though so it was fine even in winter if we entertained. We have integral blinds in the glass walls and french doors which helped keep the glare down a bit.

It depends how much you need to use the space all year round. I love ours in spring and autumn and just leave the doors to outside open most of the time in summer. Our house isn't huge but we don't need it as a main living room so it works well for us when it isn't quite warm enough to be outside. I had a little sleep in there yesterday.

Just taken out the 20 year old one that came with the house. Replacing with an extension. Loved the light and watching the birds, ace in spring and autumn. . But it was open to kitchen and snug and had a radiator that was like heating the garden. Freezing in winter, roasting in summer. South facing. The noise when it rained!

We couldn’t have left the dog in there.

New extension will be darker but underfloor heating, triple glazed...

@HairyPits

Ok, so basically you need a decent quality build and glass for it to be a useful room.......

Yes. We had an old one when we bought our house and couldn't use it. We replaced the plastic roof with glass and all the windows, all with modern glass, coated to stop the glare, triple glazed (I think). Can't remember the technical name for the glass. We now use it every day. It's the old/cheap ones that are the problem.