Conservatories?

[T5GRF]

Having now shelved our plans for a 2 story rear extension, we still want some extra space downstairs but at a vastly reduced cost, so a Conservatory might be the way forward. We are looking at a 5 x 6 metre room with glass roof, UPVC construction, one complete brick wall, one side dwarf walled and the end all glass. Some advice as ever would be much appreciated:

We have a southwest facing garden this will presumably turn our shiny new room into a microwave during a decent summer, can insulated glass really reduce the heat as much as some manufactuers figures claim, if so which manufacturer makes the best glass for this use? If not will Aircon and blinds be essential?

Is it possible to buy the glazed units with inbuilt blinds if so which ones are best?

What would be a reasonable ballpark quote for what I have described assuming no drains are moved and no major structural works, finish to include electrics and plaster where needed, screeded floor and underfloor electric heating?

Lastly I am based in Herts, can someone recommend a really good supplier and fitter to do the job. I have used Anglian in the past for double glazing and found the windows to be very good quality but the standard of fitter varied a great deal, also not keen on spending several hours at night haggling with one of the sales reps...

Cheers!

[matts4]

Do you have to go conservatory?

can you not consider a sloping roofed single storey extension, with skylights and then glazed walls?

You'll find you'll able to use the space all year round, and it will be "more" of a room plus almost as light as a conservatory.

Speaking from experience of having had 2 large conservatories (5mx6m and a previous of 4mx5m), they looked lovely, but were expensive to heat in winter and often too hot in the summer, despite having many openings and 2 sets of double doors.
Also, when it rains, if you have a plastic roof (sorry, polycarbonate) you can't hear people talk!

[T5GRF]

Thanks for the reply matts4, a traditional single storey would be the better option I agree, but based upon the quotes received would cost at least 40% more than a conservatory. We are looking to stay where we are for 2 or 3 years and then move on and given the current market I don't think we have a chance of getting much of our investment back for either a proper single storey or conservatory. So given the price difference the conservatory makes sense at the moment providing it is not too warm to use in the summer.

I take your point re polycarb roof's hence my original post specifying a glass roof.

Edited by T5GRF on Monday 4th October 20:24

[h4rvy]

T5GRF said:

Having now shelved our plans for a 2 story rear extension, we still want some extra space downstairs but at a vastly reduced cost, so a Conservatory might be the way forward. We are looking at a 5 x 6 metre room with glass roof, UPVC construction, one complete brick wall, one side dwarf walled and the end all glass. Some advice as ever would be much appreciated:

We have a southwest facing garden this will presumably turn our shiny new room into a microwave during a decent summer, can insulated glass really reduce the heat as much as some manufactuers figures claim, if so which manufacturer makes the best glass for this use? If not will Aircon and blinds be essential?

Is it possible to buy the glazed units with inbuilt blinds if so which ones are best?

What would be a reasonable ballpark quote for what I have described assuming no drains are moved and no major structural works, finish to include electrics and plaster where needed, screeded floor and underfloor electric heating?

Lastly I am based in Herts, can someone recommend a really good supplier and fitter to do the job. I have used Anglian in the past for double glazing and found the windows to be very good quality but the standard of fitter varied a great deal, also not keen on spending several hours at night haggling with one of the sales reps...

Cheers!

Morley Blinds in Leeds ( google them ) , we use them all the time for our double glazed units with integral blinds manual or electric even solar powered , ask for Ian or Waki and tell them Jonathan from www.solarfolddoors.co.uk sent you.

[AcidReflux]

T5GRF said:

We have a southwest facing garden this will presumably turn our shiny new room into a microwave during a decent summer, can insulated glass really reduce the heat as much as some manufactuers figures claim, if so which manufacturer makes the best glass for this use?

At our house in Sussex we've got a south-west-facing 3.5 x 6.5 m conservatory with the heat-insulating glass (Pilkington, I think) and it's pretty amazing. I can't prove how effective it is compared with regular glass but the room is entirely comfortable even on hot summer days provided we accept that windows will still need to be opened. It's the coolest conservatory I've ever been in and we use it all year round (it's open to the rest of the house so we have no choice).

A friend of mine with the same size conservatory but east-facing without the special glass found his room too hot/bright and had to install blinds... at a cost of £2k.

T5GRF said:

If not will Aircon and blinds be essential?

The size of AC unit that you'd need to be effective on a conservatory the size you're planning would be massive and expensive. (You'd have to close all the windows which would accelerate the heating effect, requiring a powerful AC unit to compensate etc. You'd also then be restricted from having the "outdoors inside" feeling of throwing doors and windows open to the garden.)
Blinds can look attractive but they diminish the sense of space and 'outdoors' that a conservatory should feature. If fitted outside the glass units they collect dust, cobwebs and piles of dead insects. I'd avoid them if I were you, but it's a personal choice.

T5GRF said:

What would be a reasonable ballpark quote for what I have described assuming no drains are moved and no major structural works, finish to include electrics and plaster where needed, screeded floor and underfloor electric heating?

Our conservatory cost £19k. No underfloor heating but two big radiators plumbed into the house circuits.

T5GRF said:

Lastly I am based in Herts, can someone recommend a really good supplier and fitter to do the job.

After asking friends & colleagues for recommendations we chose a local supplier rather than a heavily-advertised national brand like Everest or Anglian. We were very happy with their installation and after-sales service. Their sales visit was handled by a 'mature' technically-minded chap rather than a spiv in a shiny suit, so we were able to discuss detailed features and options. The supplier handled the planning permission application and provided full elevation drawings for us.

Other thoughts:
- I recommend you plan windows/rooflights so you're able to create a flow of air through the conservatory so hot air has somewhere to go. We've got opening windows on three walls and roof lights on opposing slopes and we're really glad we did this.
- to prevent the conservatory looking too plastic and cheap, it's easy to replace the standard plastic windowsills with wooden or stone alternatives. If you want to do this yourselves, get the installer to leave the windowsills loose rather than mastic them down permanently.
- if your plans include double doors to the garden, your installer should allow you to specify which door opens first. This is the door you'll use the most often so make sure you choose the most convenient of the two.
- a ceiling fan is an attractive feature and pleasant on still days.
- not all installers install cavity trays into the side wall of the house to guarantee there's no dampness in the bricks behind the plaster in the conservatory. IMHO it's worth ensuring that your supplier does this. (Everest wouldn't have done this unless we'd explicitly asked.)
- small cosmetic details can make a big difference to the appearance: getting the beams in the roof to align with the window frames; ensuring that the roof panels are single glazed units and don't have joins halfway up them.
- check that your supplier will fix leaks for several years after the installation, especially if you have rooflights fitted.
- opt for lots of electrical points! Ensure that the quoted price includes this plus stuff like the ceiling fan and associated switches. If you prefer lights dotted around the room rather than overhead, consider having a switched circuit of power sockets to achieve this.

Does that lot help? lol

[T5GRF]

Thanks for the replies, Acid yes a comprehensive and helpful list!

I like the idea of the units having inbuilt blinds, as you say fitted blinds just become dust traps and look a mess.

Can I ask how long it took your installers to get the conservatory built and finished?

[AcidReflux]

Three and a half weeks from breaking the ground to the last wipe of the plasterer's float.

It happened in January. For a few days we had plywood boarding as our only protection from the elements where they'd removed the kitchen window and a bay window.

[T5GRF]

Three weeks is great, thanks again for the advice acid.

I have had a chat to Anglian yesterday so that I can get a price for the "one stop shop" option before chatting to independents. Has anyone on here had Anglian build a conservatory and care to share their thoughts?

[AMLK]

I haven't personally, but my parents had theirs built by Anglian. They were very impressed with the speed and quality of the work the guys did. When they have had other professionals in to do work on other bits of their house they have had several comments on the quality of the conservatory. Overall they are very pleased with it. They will admit that it wasn't cheap (though they did get a family discount), but they say it was well worth what they paid.

I don't know anyone else who has had a conservatory built so I cannot comment on how good it is compared to others, but it is a lovely place to sit and have breakfast/afternoon tea/supper!!

[rovermorris999]

Another vote for lots of roof vents, they make a big difference in keeping the temperature down in summer.

[AcidReflux]

Some friends had an Anglian conservatory and were impressed with the crew and the product. They have a cool roof design in their conservatory too, which I've never seen before, with radial roof beams instead of the traditional hipped- or edwardian-design. Looked a bit like this:



I don't know whether it's unique to Anglian but it wasn't offered to us when we were planning ours.

ETA: With conservatories I think a lot of it is down to the details. It's easy to design/plan a simple glass box but with a bit of extra thought the end result can look a lot better.

Edited by AcidReflux on Friday 8th October 10:49

[T5GRF]

Well just had their quote in. Supply and build 15 x 18 feet conservatory, one side wall complete brick, one side dwarf wall, 2 sets of double doors, "Solar" glass roof, side verandah, move rain water gully pipe, 8 double sockets, lights and new circuit with RCD, remove patio, underfloor heating, plastered walls, concrete floor. The price is a not inconsiderable £37000!!

They have a fixed non negotiable price to fit the foundations, brickwork, move pipes and put in services which in my case is £13k, the rest is the glass, frame, plaster and underfloor heating.

They are going to have to discount this very heavily to make it worthwhile as a single storey extension with a pitched roof is around £45k.

[AcidReflux]

Is that with Anglian? We found that a local independent was cheaper than the nationals, and because we'd been able to check the quality of their previous work we were confident that we weren't choosing an inferior product despite the lower price.

Does that cost include the solar glass for all the windows too? I'd recommend you get the whole thing glazed in the heat-reflective glass if you can.

[beano700]

Single storey extension @ approx £30k, conservatory @ £22k and orangery @ £37k. These are based on previous work my company has carried out.(we specialise in high quality building solutions)
I would say avoid the likes of the companies mentioned as the only thing they are good at is over charging.

[deeen]

T5GRF said:

Well just had their quote in. Supply and build 15 x 18 feet conservatory, one side wall complete brick, one side dwarf wall, 2 sets of double doors, "Solar" glass roof, side verandah, move rain water gully pipe, 8 double sockets, lights and new circuit with RCD, remove patio, underfloor heating, plastered walls, concrete floor. The price is a not inconsiderable £37000!!

They have a fixed non negotiable price to fit the foundations, brickwork, move pipes and put in services which in my case is £13k, the rest is the glass, frame, plaster and underfloor heating.

They are going to have to discount this very heavily to make it worthwhile as a single storey extension with a pitched roof is around £45k.

OK. 37-13=24k. Tell them you will go ahead at 10 (they can go to 9.6, but will make no comission). Let them negotiate you up to 12k, no more. Then ask for 1k off building works. So you should be looking at total 24k FOR THE SAME SPEC, their first trick will be to offer you cheaper spec for lower price.

So a realistic price for your project should be 20 - 25k, depending on how much of it you can manage and specify yourself.

What were their comments about planning, BTW?

[otolith]

Not sure what he paid for it, but my dad said that a room with big windows and a proper roof was barely any more than a conservatory for him.

[sjc]

There has been a fair bit of nonsense said about blinds on this thread. If you'd like to mail me through our website(it's on my profile) with your number I can give you a call on Monday to maybe point you in the right direction.

Edited by sjc on Friday 8th October 17:29

[Spudler]

OP, i cant belive your still contemplating this!. £25-30k WILL get you a single story extension, an empty, finished room with electrics and heating.
An extension will add value, a conservatory wont. Get several builders round, give them the brief and tell them your budget.

[T5GRF]

Thanks for the replies. Planning shouldn't be a problem, we had planning granted for a 900 sqft 2 storey extension in January.

The cheapest quote I had from 6 builders for the 2 storey including kitchen and 3 bathrooms was £110k plus the dreaded. The best quote for a single was £45k. I fully appreciate that a proper extension is more likely to add value to the house than a conservatory, but I had budgeted £20-25k for the conservatory which is £20k cheaper than the extension and on that basis I would probably opt for the conservatory. We may only stay where we are for another 2-3 years and need a little more space for the family.

I have Anglian windows fitted at the moment put in by the previous owner 12 years ago and the quality is really very good, they also have a 10 year guarantee that does actually pay out so that would push me a little more in their direction. I also like the idea of one firm doing the lot as I don't have much time to project manage it, however everything has it price!

[R60EST]

This is my area of expertise , I am based in the North West so can't offer any local suggestions but your budget should be much more than enough based on my costings here.

I'm not offering as such but I *could* do it for around £15k and that would include travelling expenses and accommodation for the workforce during the build.

I'd suggest the likes of Anglian / Everest would be 50% more expensive than a local respected firm who can offer the same quality and service.

Don't disclose your budget at this stage to any potential companies . If any of the companies you choose offer an Ultraframe roofing system you should be onto a winner.

This website might give you food for thought and help you choose a local company.

http://www.ultraframe-conservatories.co.uk/

I am not connected to them or have anything to gain