Conservatory Questions! Advice and tips sought (long post)...

[Housemum]

Having weighed up the pros and cons of moving to get more space, we are coming round to the idea now of getting a decent conservatory to use as a dining room running lengthwise on the back of our house (accessed from kitchen and living room which both have doors onto the patio) so we can turn our existing dining room into playroom/office and give DD3 her own room.

We are definite on the roof glass - Pilkington Activ (the self cleaning slightly blue-tinted stuff). We know it will be UPVC (budget won't stretch to timber, plus lower maintenance costs). We will have dwarf walls, a sliding/opening wall of windows won't work as not enough room outside conservatory (there will be just a walkway between it and the retaining wall of the garden)

So, my questions (so far) are:

We face south to south-east ish - heat could be a big issue. How do you cope in summer if yours faces this way?

Doors from living room/kitchen - I believe you need to have external doors to the conservatory to meet building regs, or possibly to avoid having to get planning? Anyone got an "open plan" conservatory on the back of their house and were there any planning/build regs issues? (the openings are a standard back door and wide French doors at the moment)

Flooring - tiles, Karndean or what? don't really want wood as want something more durable when mopped frequently.

Heating - conservatory showroom guy suggested an electric panel heater would be sufficient, is he telling the truth? Have heard horror stories of the costs of electric underfloor.

Opening windows - can you have side opening windows as well as top vents, top little windows?

Any more ideas very gratefully received! The proposed room will be (internally) approx 21' by 8'10", running lengthways with doors at one narrow end, solid wall (for sideboard/unit) at the other end and a long dining table to seat 8-10 people in the middle.

Thank you!!!

Marking this thread as we're looking at a hous with a pre-existing, but newish, conservatory, and I know NOTHING about them! This is vg source of Conservatory Facts - thanks!

Thinkabout - yes, it's good at reducing the glare and the heat gain. Not sure about it keeping in the heat though - sorry!

We bought a house with a conservatory 3 years ago; recently replaced tired carpet with vinyl that looks like slate tiles. Lots of flooring won't work in conservatories because of extremes of heat and cold (well, ours certainly suffers extremes). We love the room so much we are determined to have a conservatory in every house we ever buy from now on.

If you get windows in the right locations so that there's a good air flow, shading and a well-directed fan, it's amazing how cool you can keep a conservatory. If you look at professionally designed greenhouses used at Botanic Gardens to create different temperatures, you can see how much they do to control the environment. Air-con isn't needed, and fans go on occasionally.

You say you're having windows in the walls, but is there anywhere for hot air to escape from the roof of the conservatory?

I'm a building control surveyor. It's v difficult to get a conservatory open to the house to colpy with the regs, due to the stringent thermal requirements.

Most people leave doors between house & conservatory, and then remove them ifyswim

Grendelsmum - we were going to have roof vents, but have met several people who have had problems with them leaking. Depending which design we go for, we may have the little opening windows at the top of the windows IYSWIM

elsiepiddock - I was pondering that very subject in the car this afternoon - if we keep the old doors we don't need planning/building regs do we? But I presume that there is then nothing to stop me saying thank you v much to the conservatory builder for doing the job, then have him back in as a builder to knock the doors out and plaster the back wall?

Housemum thats what my architectural consultant said most people do!.Do you mind me asking what are roof vents?.They are not rooflights are they? - as we have finalised our plans to put a large rooflight in our kitchen extension. Do you know anyone who has installed a stove in their kitchen extension?,My husband wants to do this and use one end as a sitting are with a stove in the middle - so ofset on the wall.I don't think it will look right!.Has anyone done something similar?

Housemum - you only need Bregs if you don't retain doors and if it's over 30m2 in floor area.

When you come to sell, you may have to put the doors back though, as open conservatory won't have the relevant certificate.

Roof vents are opening "windows" in the glass roof panels. I like the unobstructed view without them but know that is where te heat will gather, really undecided.

elsiepiddock, could you please clarify what you mean about the certificate - would we need to get building regs to take the doors out after the conservatory is completed? What if we already had a conservatory and were taking doors out, is that something that needs to get any sort of certification?

Thanks jeanjenaie
We did get a quote of about £1k for our conservatory for window film on the roof. The guy said that it reduces the heat between 60-80% so if the outside temp is 20 degrees & inside the conservatory it is 30 degrees (it tends to be about 10 degrees hotter in a conservatory than outside in the sun/heat) then it reduces the conservatory temp to between 22-24 degrees. Does this sound about right? Thanks

DP says that sounds about right. He also said that one of his customers reduced heat in a slightly less glamorous/permanant way and unrolled a a willow fencing onto of the roof! Well - it's a thought!!

Thanks JJ -not sure about the willow fencing though!!

I think Lidl do cheap tarpaulins!!!