Conservatories

Has anyone added a conservatory to their house before?  If so, was it DIY build or fully professional build?
We've been pondering the idea to give ourselves a bit of extra room in the house by having a conservatory on
the back.  I've seen a lot of the websites that sell them for as little as £1500-2500 (for a 3m x 3m) but I think that's just the conservatory itself, not the dwarf wall, foundation work or any other building/preparation involved.  I get the feeling that this amount needs to be at least doubled.

What's it like in the winter?  I know you can put a couple radiators in there, is it like being in any other room when they're on or is it not much use in winter?  Do they get really, really cold when no heating is on?

Ta,
Matt

I have one, in winter I use it as a walk in fridge.

I'd love one, but my garden's not big enough.

I suppose the uPVC materials or whatever is used is relatively thin compared to a proper extension and thus how cold they get in the winter?
ukmisgirl, do you have heaters or radiators in yours?  If so, do they warm it up properly on a cold day?

I'm sure others with conservatories will be able to give you more advice. I don't have one, but I have relatives here with them. It seems OK on a really sunny day, even if it is winter. My aunt used hers a lot this week because it was sunny enough and turned it into a nice little sun-trap. Other times, she puts a space heater in there and it's OK -- not toasty warm, but OK. She had a big cocktail party around Christmas with about 40-50 people, and lots of people used the conservatory with just a space heater in it. I guess the body heat of all those people helped, too, though! But it was fine.

I get the feeling they can be rather cold in winter but I can see how all that body heat would warm it up!
I've also read that in Summer, if you have a south facing garden that they can be absolute greenhouses.

From some sites I've seen, it appears you can have 1 or 2 thermostatic radiators installed (I think being able to regulate and turn off the heaters individually gets around any building regulations/planning permission).

Thinking about what you said about your aunt's conservatory, belindaloo, my dad also has one on the back
with a sort of stove-like heater and it warms up the room just fine so perhaps even something like that would
do the trick.

Ta,
Matt

We had one put on last year. It's a huge process! It took them just a week to do but there was tons of digging and wiring. The cost was just under £10,000. Its a larger size one (for our neighborhood) 3m x 3m.
Be very careful of those cheapy do it yourself offers!! There is a lot of work involved!

Also bear in mind planning permission may be required. We didnt have to have it because our kitchen had already been extended. Dont know what one thing has to do with another but that was the case so check that out!

I've read up on planning permission - nearly any conservatory does not need permission unless a few factors come into play.  If it's taller than your house, or it's more than 15% of your existing property or you have a listed building or something like that, none of these should affect us.  Still, I suppose a call to the council would be advised just in case.

I wouldn't DIY it myself but do know a very good builder that has done work for us before and charges a very good rate.  Instead of using a conservatory company I'd run it by him as he'd likely be 1/3 to 1/2 cheaper but just as skilled.
I suppose the £10,000 included everything including furniture, blinds, etc?  Most of the sites and forums I've read that everything inclusive the price should be somewhere between £600-1000 per square meter.

No that cost was just the price of the unit itself. We had to pay for flooring which my husband did himself and we also bought fitted blinds which were around £500. We furnished it with furniture from MFI and IKEA. And we heat it with a small plug in space heater.  We dont use it as a proper conseratory. We use it as a playroom for the kids.

[attachment deleted by admin]

That looks nice, Pebbles.  I didn't know they went for that much.  The sites I've been looking at have been saying £600-1000 per square meter for all construction and the unit (but I don't think that included any furnishings) so I was thinking a 3m x 3m (9 m sq.) would be between £5400-9000.  But then again, I suppose the style and any bespoke methods would add more.

I wouldn't mind a play room for myself!  Setup a ping pong or pool table 

I forgot to add that we did have a window removed and French doors fitted in its place so that of course added on to the cost. Plus a small extra cost for them to fit the light fixtures which we purchased ourselves.

Ah right, yeah, these things do add up.  Funnily enough, we'd do a very similar thing.  We'd take out our sliding
glass door and replace with French doors.

I've read up on planning permission - nearly any conservatory does not need permission unless a few factors come into play.  If it's taller than your house, or it's more than 15% of your existing property or you have a listed building or something like that, none of these should affect us.  Still, I suppose a call to the council would be advised just in case.

Extensions up to a certain size fall under the "Permitted Development" rules, so long as certain other factors do not apply.  There's a good summary here:

http://www.planning-applications.co.uk/domesticpd1.htm

Hi Matt!

I'm actually waiting on my planning permission for a conservatory and I did a whole load of research into this. We going for a 4x4m and if that's refused, I'll go for a 4x3m - the reason I can take a gamble?. I have a friend who works at the council planning dept. and if she sees the plan will recommend it,if not, she'll try 'wangling' a colleague to let the 4x3M plan go through!!

the wait is painful though!!

I too looked at the 'cheapies' and for what it's worth, those are the ones you should get if either you know how to fit them or know someone extremely well to fit it for you. I'd budget around £1500-2000 for a small conservatory like that installed and finished.

the one we've gone for is priced at £7K fitted and guarantee'd - we've kinda gone in a little blind with this local company but they seem to be doing quite well so have decided to 'go for it'

To compare, we got in the real quality builders, the most expensive being £14K fitted with a couple of 12K and 10K quotes. B&Q were very professional and quoted £11.5K

We have a south facing garden, so I've already bought an air conditioning unit for cooling in the summer, as for winter, becuase the room will back onto an extended kitchen/diner, we'll leave the patio door open and let the ar circulate and augment it with a couple oil filled portable radiators. If next winter it's still too cold, I'll get those warm air curtain or those oil filled thin cylinder heaters along one wall.

fitting a radiator is of course possible if you have the dwarf wall type conservatory and would make a good heating source, the job would be relatively painless to hook it up to your central heating system too.

final word, get lots of quotes, and try to see completed work, if you know a builder who's reliable and you know won't rip you for too much money and will do a good job then I'd say save yourself a bit and buy one of the DIY conservatories - remember it's the fit and build that makes a good conservatory, the 7-8 K conservatories you sometimes see does't mean it'll be a good finished job if it's been badly fitted!

Good luck mate! any questions let me know and I'll try answering as best I can

Cheers!

Dennis! West London & Slough UK!!

I just recently read that when measuring the conservatory area you need to account for 25 cm on the depth and 55 cm on the width if you have a double skin brick dwarf wall.  Does that sound about right?