Conservatory roof.... can't decide!

[Puppyinaflat]

I moved into a house about 6 weeks ago. It has a large SW facing Edwardian style conservatory (which the previous owner had built) attached to the lounge.

There's no door between the lounge and the conservatory, just a wide, open doorway. One side of the conservatory is a fully bricked wall, the end is a dwarf wall with large windows and there are large double sliding patio doors, a dwarf wall and one large window on the other side. There's also no radiator in the conservatory. The roof is opaque polycarbonate.

The weather has been warm/hot and sunny pretty much since I moved in, and whilst the conservatory gets very warm over the course of the day, I wouldn't say it was unbearably hot.

However, when I first moved in (very early April) the conservatory got very cold in the evenings and that meant the lounge was also very cold.

It's a lovely space but it's currently pretty much empty and I really want to make it into a useable room. I've discounted putting a door on between the lounge and the conservatory because that would still mean it was an unusable room (although the lounge would certainly be warmer!)

I've been getting quotes for various types of "warm roof insulation" (I didn't realise there were so many options!) which are coming in at wildly varying prices.

However, I've been getting conflicting opinions from friends and family about just how much of a difference getting the roof insulated will make.

Does anyone have experience of getting this kind of work done, did it make a noticeable difference and what system did you use?

Thanks in advance 😊

I would rethink the door.
We had a warm roof put on our conservatory, and whilst it’s made the conservatory much more useable in summer as it keeps the heat out, it doesn’t make much difference in winter.
The roof we had done kept the original conservatory roof, and they then insulated from the inside and it’s got a upvc ceiling with spotlights. Outside there are tiles over the top (but they are lightweight ones)

The fact it was built under permitted development rights only covers its planning permission the requirement for doors is building regulations - different law
Its almost definitely in breach of Building regulations with that combination of construction & the lack of doors.

You can have a conservatory open to the house but it has to meet a higher standard of thermal construction for this very reason & it’s much harder to do as you generally have to upgrade more than just the roof. (I’m currently doing one for a client although they call it a ‘Sun room’).

Thank you for that, v interesting. We’re darn sarf so can’t take you up on your local guys suggestion unfortunately.

We had a lightweight solid replacement roof on ours 3 years ago, the company was guardian who manufacture them. It’s definitely turned it in to a more year round room although we don’t use it in winter. Also the temperature is much more consistent than the old poly carb roof. If you’re looking to use year round electric underfloor heating is great. I think we paid around £6500

We have a big conservatory and had a proper roof put on it a couple of years ago. As you say, there are lots of options, and ours was at the expensive end, rather than the cheaper. Total roof replacement, heavily insulated wooden pods, tiles on top.

Totally worth it, it's just like another room now. We do have doors too, but they are very rarely closed now.

We have a couple of Velux windows in the roof, but do bear in mind it will block out a fair amount of the light that you're used to.

That sounds like the system I'm considering using. I'm thinking I might need to do the roof and have a door between the lounge and the conservatory.....

Ah OK, thank you for that. I'll have to do some reading, I think!

Thank you for that 👍

The blocking of light is another concern to be honest..... and here's me thinking the lovely conservatory was a bonus to the new house. It's actually causing me no end of headaches!

Came here to say basically this - you need to replace the whole conservatory, not just the roof!

Anticipating the loss of light when the roof was changed we had two electrified Velux windows installed. At the press of buttons they open; at a drop of rain they close.

We took our conservatory down and had an extension built in its place . I’m pretty sure that when we had the conservatory it had to have a proper door in between it and the lounge or it invalidated the house insurance but this was several years ago .

Unless you want huge heating bills or to have a problem selling down the line you need to put the doors back in or get a proper insulated extension. Some of the garden office companies do rooms that attach to the house which would be cheaper than a brick built one. I wouldn’t be surprised if insurance companies have a problem with there being no internal lockable door as anyone can slide out a polycarbonate roof panel from the outside and climb straight into your house and rob you.

Difficult to quote a price as we had other works done at the same time.
Probably better that you just get a couple of conservatory companies in to quote.

I think not only are you in breach of building regulations but I suspect you're probably not properly insured.

I would prioritise the door between lounge and conservatory as a matter of urgency. You need to see what you declared on your house insurance regarding locks.

New rules have come in regards conservatories with much higher standards. Not sure if renovating a conservatory might exempt you from some of the new rules.

We gave up even attempting renovation as too expensive and took ours down. Our lounge is so much brighter and warmer as a result.

I work at a double glazing company. My own conservatory needs replacing so I went through options with one of the sales reps.
my current cons is small, all glass with a poly carb roof. There are external patio doors between it and the kitchen. I was thinking of a warm roof, and having discussed various options I liked the look of the hybrid roof, which is part glazed, part warm roof. This option gives you more insulation, but doesn’t lose as much of the light. However, it is the most expensive option (typical for me to choose that) I would be looking at around £6k to have mine done.

I have decided to go for the double glazed, tinted glass option now as the most important thing for me is the light.
I would highly recommend the doors as your first option though! They can always be left open in warm weather.

So the option you are going for, double glazed, tinted glass is cheaper than the hybrid roof you mentioned? And the main difference is the light to the roof is better with the double glazed tinted glass option? Does it too stop the dramatic temperature variations too.

We have an extension and a conservatory. Changing the roof won't make it warm unless you have great insulation on the walls. Most conservatory walls aren't up to modern building regulation standard. You'll be throwing money again by re-roofing. I think the cheapest solution is adding glass doors in between your living room and hte conservatory.

This really isn't true. It can make a huge difference, and certainly did to ours. Our roof was £20k on a good-sized conservatory, though - am sure some of the cheaper 'bolster the current roof' options probably won't make much difference, but a proper roof on it does.

Definitely fit a door between the two, rain is very noisy as a pp said and it can be chilly and hot, shutting the door solves these issues.

Unfortunately I can't afford that, so I need to come up with some kind of solution to make the conservatory as useable as possible.

Sounds fantastic!

Thank you for your reply

I hadn't thought of the roof being insecure. So much to think about!

I took out my buildings/contents insurance before I moved in and the insurers (Aviva) weren't interested in knowing about the type of locks I had. I only had to provide very basic information for full cover.