Planning a conservatory extension

[snowflakefallingonmynose]

As the title says. Tell me what to look out for, what to consider, costs etc. Where do I start? I have read a few threads and not many favour a conservatory but I really don’t have space and know of a few neighbors who have done this. So please be kind 🙏🏻

Ours is a new build and a very small downstairs. We’ve been here for over 5 years now and looking to move our massive dining table into the insulated conservatory.

How long does it normally take? I don’t think I need planning permission as I am not making a permanent structure. But tell me if otherwise? I know the area will be around 12ft long and 6ft wide. Just enough to fit in a 6 seat dining table. Since ours is extendable table my plan is to keep it fully extend it so I don’t have to put chairs on the wall side and put the table touching the wall. Let me know if that will be too small or awkward ?

Also, where do I get trusted people / materials from? I have seen some shops around who do this conservatory extension but they are all charging upwards of £20k.

Thank you

Hi OP

it ay come under permitted development depending upon the situation. Criteria include the size in comparison to yous and your neighbours. It can’t take up more than half of your garden or width of your home without full PP.

you are asking about materials: are you proposing to build, insulate, electric's…this yourself? Do you really have the skillset to do so?

What’s your budget?

if you have been there 5years you may be better moving.

I would choose your roof really carefully and put budget in to that, you will regret getting a cheap roof. I had my old conservatory refitted with a new lightweight roof as the old one was polycarbonate. It's changed the room, we didn't use it ever and now we use it all the time.

You’ll have to check on the planning permission, it might come under permitted development. It sounds like you want something with a more solid roof, given what you’ve said about insulation and using it as a dining room, so all year round? Are you planning on putting central heating in it? That will increase the cost.

We just had a conservatory built, with some solid walls (one full height one half height) and the insulated roof thingy with skylights, but not central heating, and it was £35k. The quotes ranged from £30-45k. It needed buildings regs so the foundations had to be deep, and there had to be a set size of cavity and insulation in the brick.

I was quoted £50k to build something similar. I decided I didn't need the extra space that much!

Thank you both. I will be doing absolutely zero in terms of installation. Neither I nor DH have any skill set. Well he can assemble ikea furniture singlehanded. I’m always a better manager and tell everyone what to do. lol.

we definitely need blinds for privacy but also to keep in mind and very important which I forgot to mention earlier was that the garden is north facing. Hardly any sunlight major part of the year. And in summer our garden only gets morning light till about noon and it feels nice and cool to sit outside in afternoon/ evening.

We have an electric socket outside which we do use for outside lights. So we are only going to use couple of standalone lamps for the cozy vibe.

Some neighbors put a new flooring on top of their patio. And some have removed patio to do a proper flooring. Which is better?

We will keep the door in the kitchen to the garden. As have the others. I don’t think anyone has got PP.
Budget is £12-14k; £15k max! Ooh also I’m based in east London bordering Essex as that can impact pricing.

We love the house / commute / school so not keen on moving.

Thank you

We have a large conservatory not sure how much it was to build as was here when we moved in. We got a quote of £7k for blinds (roof and windows!!) havent been able to find a cheaper solution.
We have an electric radiator out there for heat so doesnt need to be on all the time. It has tinted glass in the roof but as we are south facing it does get very hot in the winter!

Wow looks like it’s very expensive.

On 2 sides is the house and neighbors wall and kitchen door. The conservatory will only need 2 glass(??) walls with a double door to open up for summer for ventilation.

we don’t want to go in with full on central heating,etc. We plan to only use electric heaters.

But yes definitely use whole year round.

What do you mean flooring and the patio? Not for inside the conservatory surely? You will need to get proper foundations dug and the patio will come up as part of that for the conservatory to sit on.

They’ve put the flooring on top of patio? Are you sure? That seems a bit mad, and very cold!
Wasn’t it dug up for foundations? You can’t just build the walls on the ground and leave the patio untouched.

A bit dangerous were my first thoughts.

Okay maybe I may be putting it wrong. The stone of the patio was left in and a laminate sort of flooring was put on top of that. They removed some grass bit and treated it so it won’t grow back again.

The neighbor have definitely not got PP.

That can’t be right. For ours they dug out all the patio, dug 1m deep foundations, built the walls, and filled the floor in with concrete, then layers of insulation, then screed. Then the flooring went on top of that screed.
Even if it was just glass and not going down 1m you still need to dig down.

But, I’m not a builder so maybe I’m wrong. If I am, I’d still go for a proper floor because even if you can just lay laminate on patio that will be really really cold.

We didn’t need planning permission.

Your budget sounds incredibly tight imo @snowflakefallingonmynose. If you were able to DIY it might be a different story, but particularly where you are located getting the whole lot done by trades seems unlikely for 12-15k.

At our previous house - a repossession in rural SW Wales - we 'inherited' the previous owner's extension which was described as a conservatory by the EAs marketing it for sale. But it was well built in a mix of double skin (block work with insulation and brick face to the rear/side, and block work/insulation/stone to the front elevation which matched the main building) and on investigation, had 1m foundations. The roof, however, was polycarbonate. It was bloody freezing and leaked like a sieve when raining.

Once we had confirmation that the foundations were good, we replaced the roof joists, added insulation etc and tiled with Welsh slate, plus fitted new guttering/downpipes etc. Cost - for materials only as we did the work ourselves - approx 5k back in 2018.

Additionally, during 2019, we removed the rotten single glazed windows and French doors, replacing with floor-to-ceiling double glazed panels set into oak frames we built ourselves from scratch. These cost around 3k all in. We lost the door and continued the windows the full length of the extension (15').

We boarded the new ceiling, replastered internally which involved removing some damp plasterboard and replacing at which point we beefed up the insulation in the walls, redecorated and laid engineered oak flooring over the modern quarry tiles. Externally we had to patch up some damaged render and paint two rendered elevations.

In total we spent 12k+ with no labour costs as it was all DIY (2018-19 before material costs rose during the pandemic).

A lot of new builds do not have permitted development rights

Id check the deeds as you may need planning permission

That sounds more like a bodged lean to.
I honestly would reconsider not putting central heating it in. You run the risk of doing everything cheaply and ending up with something substandard.

That's dreadful. They won't have building regs either as well as planning permission. Do not do this.

This ^ I forgot to add that ours already had a radiator linked to the central heating system and would have been unusable in winter if not.

You need proper foundations, insulation and heating. It’s better to spend more money and have something useable than waste the money on something unsafe that you can’t use. If you don’t have enough to do it properly, don’t do it at all.

When I put a new roof on mine and building regs came to look at it, I hadn't had the radiator fitted at that point and the officer told me she didn't want to know as it can stop the sign off due to the way heat is distributed through the house or something. I do have a radiator fitted now off of the back of my kitchen towel rail but I would check with building rigs before adding one - and then get a really powerful one after sign off.

You’d be very very lucky to get anything for less than that £20k. We’ve been quoted £120k for a brick extension of 4x10m. Of course conservatories are cheaper… but not £100k cheaper. We are in London.

Your best bet is to email some builders and companies that do extensions and get quotes. But note that materials are ££££ right now.

So basically you are wanting to build off the existing patio? Lay laminate over the patio?? Sounds really shoddy sorry and any builder quoting this for you sounds like a cowboy and you’ll down value your house

get a proper conservatory quoted with foundations and insulated floor slab, power and heating

I would recommend getting planning permission and building a proper permanent conservatory with proper foundations and a proper roof. We got a Livin roof and it’s wonderful - we can use the room all year round. Previously we had a flimsier structure and the room was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Now it’s just like a home extension. But yes, it was pricy - but worth it.

I know you're not necessarily concerned about house value, but nowadays, unless it's a swanky orangery-type construction, conservatories don't add value and may even impede a future sale. I wouldn't do it.

Annecdotally, my neighbour can't sell hers currently as she's priced the conservatory as part of the square footage, and her potential buyers see it as something they need to tear down and start again with (so the feedback is going anyway). This is a structure from the early 2000s. Brick bottomed, but glass walls/roof. Not the worst conservatory ever, but not to modern tastes/trends.

I'd save and get a proper structure built. And definitely don't go down a dodgy lean-to route or your property may be unmortgagable if you ever try and sell.

Thanks all. This thread has given me some perspective and things to think about and discuss at length with DH. So glad I started this thread to get inputs before I started talking to builders/ contractors.

6ft is a bit narrow for a dining table. If you assume 2ft is needed either side to sit(and that’s blooming tight) then the table could only be 2ft wide, and good luck with finding that. Our dining room is 8ft wide, and we have a 6 seater dining table that is about 2ft 6in wide, any wider would not leave enough room around the table.