If you could only do 1 would you do a loft conversion or a garden room?

[greenbeanie]

Opinions wanted please. We have enough money to either do a loft conversion or get rid of our 50 year old single glazed conservatory and replace it with a garden room knocked through into one of the reception rooms. The loft conversion would give us a big master bedroom, ensuite, dressing room and storage room and the garden room would create a room about 15x30ft. Not sure which to do as we can only afford 1, what would you do??

Whole family will benefit from garden room and you will at least be awake to enjoy it. May be worth call to local estate agent though too to see what would add most value to your house. Just being practical.

I'd do the loft conversion, definitely.

loft room.... dressing room... ensuite... mmmmm a little retreat for you!

Loft conversion definitely.

I used to rent a house that had an attic garden. Sounds so central London and tres chic.

By the time we realised the weather was nice enough to go up there, and unlocked it, made a cup of tea to take up there (usually dripping it on carpet etc) it was time to come back down and lock it up again. I am being v negative here, but it just wasn't as easy as just opening a back door, which I would have prefered.. Plus it seemed windier up there. Your paper or magazine would always blow away and you needed a stone to make the pages not blow over.

Conservatory.

We did one a few years ago. We chose a light and bright Anglian conservatory and really really love it.

We knocked through the wall from the study, and got a room that was 5x5 meters. Sliding doors out to a big decked area of the garden.

This has been my retreat. A bedroom is just a bedroom. Storage is of course great.

However, I think of the conservatory as the jewel of our house. Here the children play in the daytime, we entertain in the evening, sliding doors open to balmy summer nights.

And it is not cold in winter. We have a wooden floor and a fan heater on.

if your garden gets sunshine a garden room would be pleasure, otherwise loft space

is the conservatory in such a state that you would need to replace it sometime anyway? If not definitely the loft conversion - but probably do that anyway.

Our garden is northfacing. The actual conservatory only got after noon sun.

Loft conversion, unless you are desperately short of space downstairs. You can always do the garden room later (or suggest that it would be easy to do so to potential buyers if you sold).

Estate Agents always describe houses as 3-bed, 4-bed, etc. If your house is currently a 3-bed (say) then a garden room will merely make it a 3-bed with garden room. But a loft conversion will convert your 3-bed into a 4-bed, which is a whole different category and price bracket.
Also you can, at the same time, do some eco-friendly, carbon-footprinty, money-saving roof insulation which is another plus point.

loft probably, would hate to 'lose' even an inch of garden (but am an outdoors person)

Loft.

Loft room I can't stand conservatories.

how many bedrooms do you have and how many of you live in the house. What im saying is do you need the extra bedroom.
We did a loft conv to enable the children to all have their own personal space.

on saying that we have now scrapped together the money to do an extension 4 years later.

Thanks for all your input. The garden space is already lost as there is a large conservatory that was put up in the 1950's. The roof leaks and it is either freezing cold or far too hot, it is south facing. For a garden room I was thinking of rebuilding something the same size as the conservatory but with a proper roof with skylights and doors opening onto the patio. The garden is nearly a 1/3rd of an acre so the space isn't really an issue.

Doig a loft conversion would give us an extra bedroom, taking the house to 5 bedrooms but also an extra bathroom which as we have 1 at present would be a great benefit.

given the additional details that you 4 bedroom house only has one bathroom I'd definitely go for the loft conversion (I would have done anyhow, but an extra bathroom would be useful)

I'd do the garden room. Firstly because I don't really like loft conversions. They always seem a bit hot and airless, I've just seen so many clunky ones. I imagine that you need to check the ceiling on property values in your area regardless of number of rooms. And adding value and saleability might be slightly conflicting strategies. What I mean is a rickety conservatory would definitely put me off, it would mean that I had to spend more money on the house. Whereas I could decide to convert the attic -or not - if and when I chose.

And maybe you could manage to build in some kind of downstairs shower room into your plans?

If you are not planning on selling, I would do the garden room. We have a good quality conservatory and it is the most used room in the house.

The light is fantastic. The boys use it as a playroom.

I love it

Loft

Also if going for a loft conversion, think about the access to the loft, if the stairway is too narrow or blocks off light or space to the main upstairs corridor, it's not as good imo, although one clever friend had a glass staircase made into his loft and it looks amazing and light comes through a window on the wall.
Another friend in London has a loft conversion with bedroom and shower room and a door out into and a wonderful roof garden, however the stairway to the loft is really narrow and steep and scary.