Conservatory: too cold in winter - should I get rid of it and build an extension?

[TheSweetLittleBunny]

Has anyone got a conservatory that is useable all rear round? DO they exist?

Our medium sized UPVC lean to conservatory is unusable in winter - but OK in summer since we put special inserts in the roof. It is about 10 years old and was here when we bought the house. There is a radiator - that is OK for milder days but pointless in midwinter. The is no door between the conservatory and the rest of the house - so in winter we have to have thick curtains drawn all the time because it makes downstairs freezing cold. I hate it.

We were thinking of replacing it with a brick built conservatory which is cheaper than an extension. We want to use this as a year round family room/study/play area.

Our roof is polycarbonate but it's crap.

Our conservatory is just about the length of the back of the house - so a decent size and we have a stand alone heater which does make it nice and warm even on the coldest days.

The problem I have is in the summer as it is like a hot house - we are south facing and it is unbearable.

Have considered getting roof blinds but was quoted around £3000

We replaced our conservatory with an extension-best thing we ever did!

Something with a proper roof would be more useable than glass roof .

like this

ggirl - did you have to knock the whole thing down or did you use the existing glass etc?

We have had ours for 5 years and paid an awful lot of money for it. In hindsight, we should have had something like your link to start with.

no-we ripped it all down and had a double storey extension on the back of the house

Thanks everyone..ggirl, that is really nice..will show that to my DH, it's a brill idea and very attractive.

I wanted an extension to begin with but i'm not very good with mess so that's why we were thinking conservatory for the ease of build really..but we are very concerned about the heat aspect because like i said it does get really hot in our room. If we're going to do it then we want to do it right and not regret it. Ta everyone for all your advice. x

I love my conservatory.

I have radiators in it and it opens off the living room so heating is not a problem.

It's like my own personal cure for SAD disorder. It's so bright in there that when I sit in it I always feel better and theres no better place to snooze in the afternoon when the sun warms the place up even more - even a weak winter sun has a heating effect. Bliss!

I would like my conservatory/extension to go right across the back of the house, but that woudl mean that the kitchen would become an internal room. Do you think that would be a problem.

We have no wall between kitchen and dining room - a breakfast bar separates the two. Dining room is in between conservatory and lounge - again with no doors between each room.

Sounds like it would be lovely littlebunny. It would lighten the whole space up and the heat from the rest of the rooms would spread into the conservatory and vice versa.

When i say internal room I mean that at the moment I have a kitchen window and the coooker vents to outside. If I had conservatory all the way across that would go across kitchen window - turning it essentially into a serviing hatch and I would have to find another way of venting the cooker. I hardly ever open my kitchen window anyway - because I can't actually reach it!

The cooker extractor vents to outside through the wall not the window.

Oh I see. So if you built all along does it mean you wouldn't have any windows from your kitchen to outside?

If so that doesn't sound the best option. I'm trying to think of any kitchens I've had (and I've lived in a few places!) where I've not had a kitchen window and I don't think I have. It might even be a building regs thingy that you have to have one.

Could you consider knocking down the outside kitchen wall so your kitchen is incorporated into the new conservatory?

Ohhh I have knocked that wall down 10,000 times in my head - but DH says it will be a pokey galley kitchen (which it would not actually - it would end up L-shaped whereas at the moment it is square.

I think I have seen windowless open plan kitchens where the room the kitchen opens out to has wondows. Our kitchen is open plan to dining but dining room is a middle room which links conservatory and lounge.

Perhaps I'll move

Please tell me what brand yours is, sound fabulous