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?

Ripped mine down and replaced it with a proper extension last year. Best thing I ever did. Hate them! Too hot or too cold, prone to mould, ugly etc. Don't do it OP!

Ours is a brick one with proper roof with French doors and I rarely use it it’s my son’s play room, deep freezer storage and ironing area.

I love mine. I like to sit and read in it and watch the birds in my garden. In the winter I just wrap myself up in a quilt to stay warm.

I have a conservatory, the layout of the house means you don't have to go through any other rooms to get to it.

It's nice for about 4 months of the year. In winter it's freezing, in summer it's baking hot even with roof blinds and doors open, although doesn't help it's south facing into the garden.

Loved the idea when I moved in, really not fussed about having another one!

I don't personally but my dad has. He absolutely loves that room. When mum was alive it was always too cold in winter and unusable. I put an electric radiator in there on a timer switch last autumn and it made all the difference - he was able to go in there and read his papers etc every day throughout the winter. And the spiders didn't take up residence either. He just opens the doors in summer. It does have roof blinds.

@Purplewithred

Too often conservatories suck all the light out of the room they are built on to - personally I hate the damn things. MIL has just forked out the best part of £10k to get the roof of hers properly insulated to avoid the freezing/baking/noisy problems of her east-facing 80s conservatory. I’d have spent the 10k knocking it down (and the useless garage with it) and building a nice west facing sunroom instead.

I am sure they can be good extra rooms if well planned and well built, and are less expensive than a proper extension, but I still hate them.

I doubt you’d get a sunroom built for 10k tbh.

I bought my house because it had a conservatory. What a disappointment it was! Cold in winter boiling in summer. Damp, mould, condensation on floor!! are just some of the problems. I knocked it down and built a proper extension - best thing I ever did.

The conservatory at my previous house was East-facing, so didn't get the extremes it might have if it had been north or south-facing, and I bought blinds to go in it to make it more useable.

I used it as a sewing room as the light was much better than in the main house.

I really wanted a conservatory when we moved house but it was too hot/too cold all the time. We've put a solid roof on and now it's a playroom and gets used loads. Still gets pretty hot on sunny afternoons though.

We built ours couple years ago and use it every day spring to probably November
In winter it is cold and it’s not cheap to heat but we still use it most days as need to go through it to get to garden

Ours was there when we moved in. We use it almost every day except in the depths of winter, when its mega hot (rare) or torrential rain. It's north facing but on a bungalow so gets a fair amount of sun year round. We have heating, ceiling fan and vertical blinds for comfort. A proper roof would be lovely but our neighbours had one put on theirs recently and it was silly money and ours is quite a bit bigger so I dread to think how much it would be.
We use it for formal dining, breakfast with the papers(my favourite), drying washing, storage. When we had our living room plastered recently we just decamped to there for a couple of weeks. It's so light out there, it's lovely.

Ours came with the house. Its East facing and has tinted glass roof and roof /side blinds. We have an electric wall heater and a roof fan which help in summer/winter.

If I was buying one now I'd want top spec insulated glass units and integrated blinds or even a solid roof, insulated floor too.

@SilverGlassHare I love to hear the rain in our conservatory too 😊. Just amazing!!

Ours is east facing and is only really used as a nice space for the cats to lounge about in (the window is left permanently open for them to go in and out to the garden) and as a glorified greenhouse. The tomatoes and cucumbers love it there! I wouldn't really rate it apart from this but think a proper orangery would possibly be more useful.

We have an Ian framed one and it’s my kitchen. It was very expensive but I use it year round. If you don’t have proper heating, argon filled glass and a high class build, they are poor value for money as you cannot use them.

I would not leave my dog in mine though when it’s warmer. It would be horrible for pets with the doors closed in summer! Way too oppressive. I would have a standard extension with a roof light if you cannot afford a top end conservatory. Anything less than top class means it’s a temporary building with all the problems associated with that.

Ian??? Oak framed

@Pyewackect

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.

@Pyewackect - Yours sounds like the stuff of which my dreams are made!! 😍

Mine is not Victorian, it's a 1990s lean-to with a plastic roof, reaching the end of its life but I've made the best of it with fairy lights and lots of plants (mainly cacti, that's all that can cope with the extremes of temperature!). It's got a door into the house, not an opening - which is think is really important.

It's really lovely out there at this time of year when it not warm enough to sit outside. We don't even attempt to use it in the winter or on hot summer days, though now we're working from home it's easier to regulate the temperature for the plants as I can leave the doors open all day when the sun is shining down on it. Left closed if can easily go over 40 degrees (south facing) so definitely no good for shutting dogs! As a PP has said, it's not kind to textiles either which fade and rot in the extreme sunshine, so I don't leave anything precious out there.

We didn't want a conservatory for that reason so have a room with corner bifold doors which opens up into our garden when we want to, and use as a room (lounge/entertaining room and currently an office fir me due to Covid) when we don't. It can still be quite warm / cold but not as extreme as a conservatory or orangery

@imaginethemdragons

Loads. I love it. I have an air con unit in it. Blows cool in summer, warm air in winter. Remotely controlled. Wasn’t expensive,easy to fit. Huge sofa, massive telly, wooden floors, love love love my conservatory.

Sounds lovely. Could you share a pic??

The conservatory is my favourite room. Perfect in spring and autumn when it is sunny but not hot enough to sit outside.
We have double doors to the patio so these are open in summer.
In winter we heat it. Lovely to sit in to get some sun.

It is my room away from the clutter of toys so have comfy couch and a tv and nothing else.

I was just going to say - IME I never see anyone using their conservatory - who sits about in a room without a tv, except maybe if guests in or something, then previous poster admits having a tv in it.
I do read books etc but the chances that a conservatory would be the perfect temperature when I wanted to sit and read for an hour is unlikely.

We don’t have a conservatory tv we use it for reading, kids playing and dh looks for birds flying over

I think all the negative comments refer to cheap conservatories that are not fit for purpose in terms of everyday living. If you pay for high quality technology and heating your will be able to use it year round. What’s the point of having a room you can hardly use? Pay up and get something usable. If you cannot afford it have standard construction with a roof lantern and glass doors or bifolds. However you must have effective heating. That costs! Mine is open to the hall and drawing room and cannot be closed off.

We use ours a lot, even though it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter!

It’s perfect in between and I really like the light in there. I eat lunch in there, we have pre dinner drinks there and eat there quite often too.

We have a large conservatory fitted 10 years ago and use it as a dining room, there are a couple of comfy chairs there so we can sit and chat, kids do their homework there, we use it all the time. Garden is North east facing so it rarely gets too hot, but we have two roof-windows that allow hot to escape. We have two super efficient electric heaters from this company www.fischerfutureheat.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkqnQ4NKv8AIVFsPVCh09NwgLEAAYAiAAEgJmlfD_BwE and they are cheap to run.

We have super efficient all over underfloor heating which takes up no space.