Kitchen in orangery?

[TeeTwenty]

We are buying a house that has a properly insulated orangery (not conservatory) added to it. The layout is that the lounge opens into the kitchen which is large enough, then the kitchen opens into the orangery. The dining table (the green rectangular) is between the kitchen and the orangery.

If I can take down the wall between the kitchen and the orangery (the red circled bit), this would become a big open plan kitchen-diner and small sitting area that opens into the garden.

Instagram is full of pictures like this, but has anyone here ever done this? Do you think this is achievable? Or am I hoping for too much here?

If I do want to go ahead with this, who do I get in touch with? Structural engineer is a must as taking down load bearing wall, but who draws the planning and take care of the design etc?

Any estimate on costs would be helpful too. Thank you!

If this essentially means that your kitchen ends up being in your comsed

conservatory, for want of a better word, future people might struggle to get a mortgage on it. Pretty sure lenders aren't up for kitchens being in conservatories (or orangery).

So, look into that if a future sale is important.

Whats the difference between a conservatory and an orangery?

properly insulated orangery (not conservatory)

😀

A conservatory is a glass structure with a brick base and a pitched glazed roof.An orangery is a brick structure with large windows and a flat roof with a glass lantern.

Sounds like theres no real difference to me, we have brick walls in our conservatory, you can have all different types of roofs in conservatorys

Would it get very hot when cooking?

Is there currently a door between the kitchen and orangery (where the dining table is?)

Why not open up the wall between the living room and the kitchen instead? Then use the orangery as the dining room?

Have you visited the house and stood in the orangery in the middle of a hot, sunny day to check how hot it gets?

Although not the same, we have recently renovated, remove supporting walls, had steels put in etc. The price of steels was going up every 7days- and this was over a year ago! We opened out the kitchen/diner. Everyone was saying get an island. We got a large peninsular instead and it perfect. We have more space to move around-so don't be swayed to get an island unless you really have the space.

Thank you for your reply. That gives me an idea of how expensive things are going to be.

There isn't a door between the kitchen and orangery at the moment. I have been there twice, admittedly it wasn't that hot on those days, just sunny. The windows and the bifolds were open and I felt neither hot nor cold.
BTW, the walls are brick and roof is brick and glass, all glass and windows are double glazing, why are the orangery / conservatory so different from an extension?

Which way does the glazed extension face? You need to understand how much sun, if any, the extension will get throughout the year.

My kitchen opens directly into a conservatory (albeit one with a top spec blue glass roof) and it works because it faces north-west, with trees proving shade in the summer.

Condensation from cooking is an issue, and it can be chilly on winter mornings, although it's on the central heating.

I love it!

The massive expanse of glass, even if it is triple glazed will usually cause much more heat leak than walls.

I didn't think building regs allowed you to build a kitchen/conservatory but happy to be corrected.

I didn't think building regs allowed you to build a kitchen/conservatory but happy to be corrected.

My parents looked into having a glass roof in their kitchen extension, it either wasn't possible to do under the building regs as they were then (10ish years ago) or prohibitively expensive.

When we were looking at properties we saw a few that had the kitchen open to the conservatory but none of them actually had building regs for that layout. They either had just taken a wall/doors down without informing building control or had doors on to get BC sign off then removed.

One of my friends just moved out of a house where the kitchen was open to the orangery as it was freezing in winter and roasting in summer. The new owners have put a solid roof on it and built a wall between the orangery and the kitchen to make it usable. It was fully insulated and heated but glass has different thermal properties to wall I guess