Conservatory’s are freezing cold in the winter and red hot in the summer. Why not get a proper extension with a tiled roof built?
I have a huge conservatory, but I wouldn't have another one the same. In summer its really bright inside, and hot! I hardly go into it in winter as its damned cold. I guess the moral of my story is get one with ceiling blinds, and less (square mts) is more (useful)! PS. It is a handy place to put a Ducati in winter.
I have replaced so many conservatories over the years, too hot, too cold, get a proper room built and use it all year. Check to see if you can get it on permitted development, no planning required, check on the planning portal. I'll gladly help you with this, which way does it face, if it's south facing you need to get it right, a wrong facing conservatory can heat up the whole house in the summer.
First define your idea of a conservatory. As highlighted, they can be hot in summer cold in winter. They do not need to be though. I have built them, installed them and designed/surveyed them so have a bit of an idea. Have experience of many roof systems but would suggest you define your requirements from "the room'.
As explained by our builder: Conservatory = glass roof and doors from the room it’s connected to. Sun room = tiled roof and doors from the room it’s connected to. Garden room = tiled roof and no doors from the room it’s connected to (which is what we built). The fashionable “Orangery” is a variation of a conservatory.
That's all about right, the thing is if it's a proper built room like yours then there's no need to have exterior quality doors to the main house. Most conservatories would need exterior doors to separate it from the house, which says it all.
@ El Toro. A good general description, though there is a lot of cross over. Orientation, use of room, connecting room, all should influence good design. Cost will always be a big factor. Building regs influenced by having a dividing door etc etc.
Agreed. We wanted a proper room (which is extended from the kitchen/diner) to take advantage of the south facing garden and so we could “live” at the back of the house. We had an Architect do proper drawings for the builders to work to, and to deal with the council/planning stuff. We decided not to put a TV in there so we read and I play my guitars in there (when SWMBO is out). The lounge only gets used in the evening if we want to watch the telly. It works for us. ps. We decided against velux windows in the roof because they are noisy when it rains.
Ah, so that was that awful noise over the last month good light in summer though so a good compromise I still have the original sliding patio doors to shut the room off from the living room.
We just moved the original patio doors onto the extension given that they were brand new. And it saved £3k on the build.
I had a conservatory on my last bungalow, wrapped around the north and west side. It was open to the kitchen and used it as a dining room and rear lounge with sliding doors out onto the garden. When I sold it prospective buyers would come rounds and be wowed by it but I was like “little do you know”, it was Sept when I sold it. It had heating in there but it was still a bit of a chill in there in the winter and in the summer you could walk in the front door and feel the heat radiating through the house! Remember going on holiday and forgetting we’d left some candles in there, came back to a pool of wax on the floor. Oh also had dark tiled floor, would burn your feckin feet in the summer! Wouldn’t have another, would probably go with a flat roof and skylight arrangement instead if we did it again.
I'm wanting to have a tiled roof fitted to our conservatory, apparently that creates a far more consistent temperature and actually makes them usable? Would that then allow me to remove the interior dbl glazed doorway from the kitchen out to the conservatory? I'd like to get rid of that door completely and run the flooring all the way through
Guardian tiled roofs are the best warmroofs imho, but be prepared they are pricey, feedback I have had has been all good making the room more useable, but remember you will still have a lot of glass so the room will always lose heat faster than any other room, the key is to remove the doors from the house to keep a steady temp throughout the rooms. Yes, with a warmroof you can remove the internal house door but building control will need to be involved, your installer will sort that part out.
