Is an orangery/conservatory cheaper than full extension?

[OrangeryOrangery]

Does an orangery/conservatory work out less than having a proper extension?
From a supplier such as Westbury Garden rooms or David Salisbury for example.

Yes. But it is also a lot less usable. I.e. too hot in Summer and too cold in winter

Would you say that is true for an orangery as well as a conservatory? An orangery would typically have more brickwork and a lantern roof. My understanding is that they are different from conservatories.

A triple glazed conservatory/ orangery is much more insulated against the outside , without losing light. We had a triple glazed conservatory with two glazed walls and.a Hipped glass roof, we used it as a dining room all year ( it had two decent radiators connected to the ch with thermostatic valves).

I don’t know about the cost differences though, we set out to have a year round room which wouldn’t take too much light from the room behind it.

Not if you want it properly integrated to your home. I believe it comes down to the amount of glazing that distinguishes a conservatory from an orangery, but if you want it heated and as part of your home you need to adhere to building regs and so not that much cheaper, though a conservatory probably still needs outside locks on the doors and glazing is cheaper than laying bricks/solid walls.

I would never have a conservatory again.
We had it replaced with a single storey extension with lantern lights and it's so much more useable as a room now. No seasonal cold or extreme heat

This is probably an extreme example because our rental seems to have been constructed and maintained to a particularly poor standard - but it’s a recent example so I will tell you anyway.

We have a 12 x 16ft south facing conservatory off our living room. 3 sides wall to ceiling glass. Solid roof. No doors between conservatory and lounge.

At 8.30am it’s 11 degrees and by 10.30-noon it’s 34 degrees (if you shut the curtain in between rooms - if you don’t, it gets to 26 degrees). This is in Dec, January, Feb. Who knew that conservatories can boil the skin off you in winter? Well, now you know.

It makes the entire open plan part of our house uninhabitable when the sun comes up and it’s not cloudy. You mostly can’t sit in there from 9am til 2.30pm if that’s the case because the sun is so bright that it is blinding.

Of course, sensible people put doors in between and build blinds in.

So, think hard and long about getting a conservatory and talk to lots and lots of people about how to make it not painfully uncomfortable.

Definitely don’t design one that goes from 11 to 34 degrees in the space of two hours because that would just be fucking stupid.

We have a fabulous conservatory with half walls - so an orangery? Just a poncy name like boot room I think. It was a conservatory when we had it built 20 years ago.

It has some sort of silver roof that helps it not get ridiculously hot and that does work. Every window can open but no roof openings. We also have proper double glazed double doors between the house and it.

It's a lovely link to the garden in spring and autumn and windy summer days. We use it as another sitting or dining room when people stay.

I'd have another in a heartbeat for what we paid for it 20 years ago. But it's definitely not like an extension.

Not always but they are classed as temporary structures and have limited life along with limited use. Don't do it is my advice having inherited one in our house and it lasted a year to be replaced by a proper extension although designed in a similar way which we can use all year and has insulation to the max

We're having an orangery designed by one of the companies you mentioned! It'll probably end up coming in as more expensive than the original brick extension we'd planned, but it feels much nicer for the character of the house. Ours has quite a bit of brick in the design and you need to budget for the foundations/brickwork separately.

PIL changed their conservatory to an orangery - massive improvement. Solid roof, not glass, and put better flooring and heating in. Now it is fine to use all year round.

Don’t even think about a conservatory. We’re starting to look to buy and anything with a conservatory we don’t see as an advantage- instead, we’re estimating conversion costs.

And yes, as PP said, it looks nicer than a rectangular extension like ours.

We added an orangery to a previous property. We wanted it open to the main house, without a door in between. Conservatory companies seemed to have never done this, didn't think it could be done etc. It can, you just need building control to inspect it. Ours had 1, solid, brick wall running along the fenceline, then the other 2 walls half brick and windows. For the roof, we bought the glass that cut out the most UV they had in the shop. In hindsight, I would have preferred an extension with a large lantern, instead of the entire roof being a lantern. Despite insulation and 1 wall being brick, it was still hot in the summer!

I can't compare prices with an extension. After works had started, they realised that the main sewer was running underneath the conservatory. They advised us to apply for a build over agreement. This was wrong advice because it was the whole streets sewer, not just our house. Eventually, the sewer pipe had to go around the conservatory which added £0000 to the overall cost! This company was in the SE, but I wont mention them as we are still in conversations about why they advised us incorrectly on multiple things. I've never heard of the 2 companies you mentioned OP.

Never really understand the hate for conservatories, I love ours. triple glazed with solar glass, we're warm in winter because of oil filled rads and it doesnt get too hot in summer bar a few days when the temperatures are really high. Its north facing though.

We had a massive 20ft conservatory at our old house that we inherited. Just as others have said, huge temperature extremes and also made the kitchen and living room that it joined on to, really hot/cold too. It was always full of spiders, ladybirds and cobwebs and had a weird 'conservatory smell'. I HATED it and we never used it.

The house that we're in the process of buying has one (a normal size) and I couldn't be less excited about it. I don't even include it in my thoughts when I'm thinking about the floorplan of the house. It may as well not exist, and as soon as we have the means, we'll make sure it doesn't. It also had the same smell as our old one.

My in laws have just knocked down their large conservatory and replaced it with a fancy, very costly, orangery. So far, it seems lovely and much more usable. They've put in underfloor heating. We had Christmas Day in there this past year and it was very comfortable.