Conservatory Dilemma

[Houseofboysandme]

Please can you help with this current dilemma? We’ve got a glass roof conservatory with a glass roof in decent condition. The problem is it’s too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter. Spring and autumn we use it quite a lot. But during the summer it blocks access to the garden and we don’t want to let the heat into the main house.

Should we knock it down? Has anyone else done this? Or what are your thoughts? My husband and I have differing opinions on this so would be good to get some opinions. Would this reduce the house value? Would having a conservatory put you off buying a house, be seen as a decent addition or somewhere in between? If we got rid of the conservatory we could get bigger doors going straight out into the garden.

We don’t necessarily want to put a different roof onto the conservatory to help keep the heat out in summer because the living space that the conservatory is joined to is quite a dark space anyway.

Also worth noting that garden is an ok size so gaining a bit more garden space isn’t really a contributing factor.

Thank you.

We moved last year and a conservatory was on my list of things I didn't want so I'm all for knocking it down! We had one in our last house and had the same problems that you did. What do you use it for when in spring/autumn? Would you miss it if you knocked it down?

What way does it face?

I've got a similar conservatory off the kitchen, but I do have other garden access.
Mine is north-east facing, and it gets the most use March - November, although with the recent summers it is too hot on very hot days & I tend to keep the doors to the house shut.

Have you got roof blinds?

I do like mine, but I know lots of people don't.

If I was doing it now I'd do a full extension, but I don't want a roof on it for the same reasons, and I do like the glass roof.

If it's compromising your regular living arrangements then maybe knock it down to allow for better light and flow into the garden.

We really enjoy our conservatory but accept it as an autumn/spring room and summer evenings. I don't always accept the amount of time I spend cleaning poor dead bugs out of it.

A conservatory wouldn't either put me off or encourage me to buy a house. But having an unusable room would put me off, particularly if it blocks access to the garden.

I'd either change the roof or use roof blinds to make it back into a garden room but it would depend on the build - if it's a particularly nasty and unloved 1980s PVC version I'd be more tempted to knock it down and replace with a pergola and seating area at the back door!

Edited for typos.

I used to have a conservatory on my old house and it wasn’t very practical. Too hot or too cold!

However, I had a Sunroom built onto the end wall of my next house (30ft x 15ft) and I live in it all year round, including during the hot weather. It has large triple glazed windows with brick walls inbetween and two sets of french doors, (front and side), and a solid insulated roof with a glass panel section in the middle.

Everyone who visits comments on the open airy space and thinks it marvellous.

Can you get a roof conversion for the conservatory?

I hate conservatories. I've just replaced mine with another (couldn't afford a proper extension and the old one was falling down). Kind of wishing we'd just knocked it down and bricked up the gap.

Hate conservatories

Hate them too. Actually put me off a house if they have one as I know I'd have to pay to remove. To me they look very old fashioned now and as you say for much of the year are not useable.

We have a corner sofa in there so mainly relaxing, enjoying the garden when the weather isn’t so nice, playing on the floor with the boys as it’s obviously a really naturally bright room.

I think we might miss it during those months, but with the weather getting so hot so quickly we are having less use out of it and I think we might appreciate being able to have bi-folds opening into the garden with the boys being able to run in and out rather than having to go through the side door from the utility room. But I guess that’s the dilemma, which one do we choose?

It’s East facing but gets a lot of sun until about 3-4pm.
We don’t have roof blinds but we did temporary put a cover over the roof to see if a permanent covered roof would work but it made the kitchen/dinning/living room very dark as a result.
Also, we don’t like keeping the conservatory doors open as the bugs come in and get trapped trying to get out as we only have small windows on the other side.

We could get a roof conversion but it blocks too much light to the kitchen/dining/living room so I don’t think that’s on option for us. If we could get a conversion for full glass roof to open that might be an option but I don’t think that exists.

I hate conservatories - I would see knocking it down as a job I had to do if I were to consider buying a house with one. However, this is your home and if it works as a functional space for you, you should absolutely keep it.

I know you've said you don't want a solid roof put on but that's what we did with our south facing conservatory when it started leaking, despite me thinking it would make inside too dark. We put two roof windows in and have lost no light and it's much more usable.

What about installing air conditioning? Less than £1500 installed and will cool effectively in summer and warm very efficiently in winter. I don't know why more people don't do this instead of installing different roofs that cost far more and have varying impact.

We took ours down and sold it on E-Bay, no regrets. The room is SO much lighter and having direct garden access is wonderful.

I hate them and it would absolutely put me off.

I’m currently buying and every other house seems to have a conservatory, some of them look like 1980s ones. I find them off putting, really don’t want that much glass attached to the house with how hot summers are getting, plus the older ones look pretty shabby now.

I don’t like conservatories for precisely the reasons you outline in your OP (too hot/cold). It definitely would put me off buying a property if it had one.

We took an old conservatory down - we considered replacing it with a new one, or with an extension, but in the end we decided we’d rather just have a better flow through from our kitchen diner into the garden. So we took it down, put some bifolds in and now have a raised patio area with seating and a pergola where the conservatory was. It’s a million times better and we’ve recently sold our house very quickly so it definitely hasn’t had any negative impact. So much nicer being able to go straight out into the garden - the conservatory just felt like a yucky, spider filled blocker. Absolutely nobody who viewed the house when we were selling commented on the removed conservatory or reduced square footage.

OP, I am house hunting right now, and I won't even view a house that has a conservatory unless (it must have ALL these criteria) it is east or north facing, and has lots of openable windows, and doesn't block the dining room or kitchen windows/light, and is the only "outdoor" storage on the property ( so no decent garage or large shed). My current home has a west-facing orangery (loads of glass plus glass self-cleaning roof) with underfloor heating and air conditioning. We paid a small fortune for it. Recently, in these heatwaves, it has been close to 32C in there!

Do I use my orangery? I do not, except for 5am in the hot summer months when I can sit there for a couple of hours, drinking my coffee and wishing it faced north! Otherwise, I use it for storage. Expensive storage. The electricity to run the heating or the AC is too expensive.

I would knock the conservatory down, build a "removable" arbour in its place (four or six stout post/pole holders, with scaffolding poles that can be removed in winter), get some large planters, plant climbing vines, so you have shade in the summer, but can remove the whole thing in winter to let the light in.

If I weren't looking to move house, that's what I'd do here. But, I won't be buying a new home with a conservatory or orangery.

We had a large old conservatory and chose to take it down. The lounge looks so much lighter and it's actually more pleasant having the doors open directly onto the garden. Only time I've missed it, is as a great space to dry laundry when it's raining.

I know that our conservatory would have affected resale because it was old. I'm sure buyers would have costed in either removal or removal and replacement at £££££. As it is taking it down cost us nothing. Didn't even need a skip, just advertised bits of it on Facebook marketplace and took the rest to the tip.

With regards your conservatory op, is it in good condition? Do you need the extra living space to keep the balance between bedrooms and reception rooms?

I've got an 80s conservatory with a plastic roof. It's roasting in summer, freezing and damp in winter. As soon as I can afford to, I'm knocking it down and replacing with a proper extension for a small garden room, and a patio!

I know you said you don’t want a solid roof but it was the best thing we did.
We had bifold doors put on the end, a solid wall built up and roof lights put in and it’s made a huge difference. It’s been really cool in summer and holds the heat in winter.
It doesn’t look like a conservatory any more either.

We had a roof put on ours 5 years ago, best decision ever. It’s now used all year round. In fact it’s become my room, I can watch telly in there or read and DH is in the living room watching his favourite tv programmes or listening to music.

We had our polycarbonate roof replaced with a guardian roof a few years back, ours faces east as well.
@Moll2020 Same here as well.
at our old house we had underfloor heating fitted which was amazing in winter, cats loved it, only downside is the running cost as its electric