Tell me about building a conservatory please

[Chickoletta]

We are in the midst of renovating an old cottage and have PP for a (tasteful) big 2 storey extension. With the prices of everything going up astronomically, I’m looking at cost-effective ways that we could potentially scale back but still have enough space for our family.

I am now wondering whether a conservatory to extend the kitchen would enable us to get most of what we want with only a single storey extension on the other side. I’ve never had one though, so don’t have much of an idea.

It would need to be useable all year round, so probably more wall than glazing, if you see what I mean, and a solid roof. Something like 3m x 4m in size.

Has anyone done anything similar recently? Any idea of cost and timescale? I think we could do this within permitted development.

All thoughts welcome and helpful! Thanks

Why do you say this?
Yes, there are alternatives.

That’s just a normal extension with big windows, tbh.

Can you extend instead? I've never come across a conservatory that is usable year round.

I'd never buy a house with a conservatory for the reasons PP stated above. They are hideous too and dated. Why spoil your house with one? A proper extension or nothing imo.

We have a conservatory that is useable all year BUT it very much depends on getting the position right, you actually want it on the shadiest part of your house. Then you need to factor in blinds and heating and cleaning the roof if you can't reach it yourself.

I would never have another .

We have a conservatory that we turned into a garden room with sold panels in the roof. It is usable 9 months of the year but is still chilly in the winter. You do need to put under floor heating in if you do consider it.

I hated my conservatory in our previous house. It was freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer. Honestly I can’t recommend getting one.

I love my conservatory as it is lovely to have an extra room and it’s wonderful on a lovely spring day! I also find it a relaxing place to be.
However, I find it annoying to maintain the right temperature as the sun will come out and it’s too hot then go in and it’s cold! We spend a lot on the oil radiator in the winter to keep it useable and in the summer it has the blinds down all day with the windows open, but is still hot! I would definitely say if there is the option for a proper extension go for it as a conservatory is quite a compromised addition of space in comparison.
We are moving and we would be unlikely to add one again for extra space. That said I will miss is and if we did add one it would be in the knowledge it is a nice addition and it will be a part year room to relax in when the weather is suitable!

I really don’t understand this hatred of conservatories. Yes, the old ones can be too hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, but things have moved on. My conservatory was refurbished last year (floor and brickwork remained. £17k for two new french doors, windows and triple insulated glass roof). It’s pretty much a year round room now and I love it. 3.5m square. Plenty big enough for a 3 seater sofa. We have an oil filled radiator, but rarely use it as the heat from our log burner ( in the lounge) warms up the whole of the downstairs.
It’s my favourite room and has greatly improved my SADs over the winter.

All really useful thoughts - thanks very much.

£20K. You can get insulated lightweight roofs or that thick blue hued glass. Considerably cheaper than an extension as less building required. They used to be a bit twee but have come back since roof technology improved.

We had a supposedly insulated lightweight roof with skylights fitted onto our existing conservatory, it’s still freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer.

I think you need a normal extension with lots of windows.

Have you considered a modular extension?

Actually, what you have described isnt a conservatory at all. If you dont want glass then look at a timber frame construction with insulation inside. You can get a flat GRP roof. Will be loads cheaper than doing it the traditional way.

I adore my conservatory and practically live in it. It's very rare it's too hot for me. However we already had more rooms and space than we needed so could afford the luxury of a room that's not used from November to February.

I really don’t understand this hatred of conservatories. Yes, the old ones can be too hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, but things have moved on.
This. Conservatories have moved on but some MNers haven't.
Have a glass roof, not a plastic one.

We did similar a few years ago- sorry, this is long!
Its technically called an orangery, rather than a conservatory due to having dwarf, brick walls about 1m high. We had 5 companies come to quote, look at designs etc. These are just some of the issues we faced:
-Outside the back door was a drain cover. Conservatory company said they'd build over it, and if needed, add a hatch within the conservatory floor. They'd had this ALL the time and it apparently wasn't a problem at all.
-This was actually a sewer. If it had JUST been from our property, then a hatch in the conservatory would be permissible. Each houses sewer, drained into a larger pipe which ran along the back of each house.
-The company advised we needed to get a build over agreement via the council portal, so we applied, payed the fee etc. Again, this was not the case and we needed to pay to have the entire sewer pipe diverted around the conservatory.

-This added £8,000 and extra time, and if we'd known this from the start- we wouldn't have bothered
-From the start, we said we didn't want a door between the house and the conservatory, to make 1, open planned area. This, again, stumped the conservatory people who had apparently never had this request. We had to get this signed off by building control, but it was still part of permitted development, so didn't need planning approval.
-We got the best, tinted roof glass they had

Due to change in a circumstances, we rented the property out within months! I've only been back briefly, and its hot in peak summer. It is a useable space though, and I 'think' not having a connecting door helps to regular the temp better.
If you don't have a drain to build over, then it will be much simpler than ours!

Ours is, there's underfloor heating, an insulated roof. It works well.

I don't like them and I would never have one but my mum has one and she uses it all year as she has a beautiful garden so enjoys the view.

She has a wood burning stove in there and blinds.

We had a beautiful conservatory built on our old house that was used all year.
Very high glass roof with blinds, two walls part glazed (third wall solid), heating, light & power. It's size & height mean full PP was required.
It was a lovely space to relax and provided a very usable separate room (we just had one, large open plan living/dining room) which came into its own during COVID giving lots of space to WFH.
There were doors separating the conservatory from the living room but TBH they were rarely closed and at one point we did consider removing them completely but in the end decided not to (probably wise because we moved a couple of years ago and would probably have needed to reinstate them).

A well designed & built conservatory can be a usable asset, a cheap & nasty one can be a liability.

Surely it depends what you need the space for? A double storey extension would presumably give you extra bedroom space, whilst a single storey plus a conservatory would give you more living space? I wouldn't add space just for the sake of it.

A conservatory with a solid roof and dwarf walls etc is perfectly usable all year round. I have one with 1 solid wall that's open to my kitchen and it's fine. It is a bit cooler on dull days in the winter and a bit warmer on hot days, but nothing unbearable.

Ours is already on the first floor I guess because our home is on the side of a hill so the back of the house is elevated the orangey has a useful void underneath.

We've dwarf walls, blinds, insulated roof,, underfloor heating doors off the sitting room and a small decking area off to the side to sunbathe with a table and chairs for four to dine in on a nice day.

I don't see it as a seasonal place. It's our dining room, kids play room, somewhere to sit and read.