Conservatory upgrades

mrochester

mrochester

mrochester

Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2003
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Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Hi all.

My house has an existing conservatory that extends beyond what is normally permissible development.

The room is completely unused simply because it’s so hot in the summer and so cold in the winter.

We’ve been toying with the idea of converting it into a proper room but this would mean we’d need to shorten the length of the room to bring it within 3 metres of the external wall of the house.

So we’ve been looking at these conservatory roofs that look like proper tiled roofs. I think we would also want to replace the PVC panels below the windows with a dwarf wall.

What we want is an extra room that looks and feels like it is completely part of the rest of the house with the same level of insulation and comfort as the rest of the house.

Would a lightweight convervatory roof and the construction of a dwarf wall be sufficient to make the room feel this way? I’m a bit sceptical about how much these leightweight roofs can really do.

Many thanks.

M.
 
Sounds like you need to knock that conservatory down and build a brick and mortar extension. Won't be too expensive if you do a lot of work yourself.

The changes you need to make to that conservatory will cost a lot. £3k to £5k.
 
Why do you think an existing structure needs to comply to today's permitted development rules?

You need a local architect advice really.
 
Maccapacca said:
Why do you think an existing structure needs to comply to today's permitted development rules?

You need a local architect advice really.
Click to expand...

Surely if the conservatory isn't on the original plans for the property then it does fall in to the permitted development rights, and whoever put it up in the first place should have gotten planning permission to do so?

If the OP is looking to replace it with a bricks and mortar extension instead they are either going to have to seek planning permission to keep the same footprint, or reduce the size?
 
Maccapacca said:
Why do you think an existing structure needs to comply to today's permitted development rules?

You need a local architect advice really.
Click to expand...

I believe planning rules are different when you are adding a structure such as a conservatory vs bricks and mortar extensions with proper roofs.

I was under the impression that if we knocked down the existing conservatory and replaced it with a bricks and mortar extension we would either need planning to build on the same foot print (which extends beyond 3 metres of the rear wall) or reduce the size of the room to within the permitted development that doesn’t require planning permission.
 
I think they have slightly changed the rules on permitted development and the size of permitted developments has increased got this from hackney council i just searched permitted development

"For a period of six years, between 30 May 2013 and 30 May 2019, householders will be able to build larger single-storey rear extensions under permitted development. The size limits will double from 4 metres to 8 metres for detached houses, and from 3 metres to 6 metres for all other houses"
 
interested in this too. our conservatory is completely unused and will be until around april. total waste of space right now. i want to make it a dining room as it's much brighter and lovely to have the outside so viewable when eating, rather than a tv. but it's old and i can't see how we'd get anything decent without a total restart.
 
We have a 'warm roof' fitted to our conservatory. It's transformative. Temperature in there is now within a couple of degrees of the rest of the house. In winter it can be warmed up on a few minutes to match the rest of the house either with the central heating or a convector heater in there, and in summer opening a couple of windows quickly cools it. Even without those measures, it's now a perfectly usable room.

Like you, our previous conservatory was a polycarb roof, and you could barely step foot inside it for 9 months of the year.
 
bazzabear said:
We have a 'warm roof' fitted to our conservatory. It's transformative. Temperature in there is now within a couple of degrees of the rest of the house. In winter it can be warmed up on a few minutes to match the rest of the house either with the central heating or a convector heater in there, and in summer opening a couple of windows quickly cools it. Even without those measures, it's now a perfectly usable room.

Like you, our previous conservatory was a polycarb roof, and you could barely step foot inside it for 9 months of the year.
Click to expand...

That sounds quite encouraging. The existing conservatory already has a standard radiator in it.

I wonder if there are any under floor measures that could be incorporated?
 
see i was wondering too how good a new tiled roof would be and if you go by U values its night and day so a polycarb roof 25mm thick has a u value of 1.6w/m2k the supalite roof i was looking at has a value of 0.18 (lower = better). Putting a new roof on the conservatory is the first big job I want to complete on the house we bought recently my conservatory is about 5m by 3.5m and is currently absolutely freezing in the early morning but being south west facing does heat up during the day
 
mrochester said:
Hi all.

My house has an existing conservatory that extends beyond what is normally permissible development.

The room is completely unused simply because it’s so hot in the summer and so cold in the winter.

We’ve been toying with the idea of converting it into a proper room but this would mean we’d need to shorten the length of the room to bring it within 3 metres of the external wall of the house.

So we’ve been looking at these conservatory roofs that look like proper tiled roofs. I think we would also want to replace the PVC panels below the windows with a dwarf wall.

What we want is an extra room that looks and feels like it is completely part of the rest of the house with the same level of insulation and comfort as the rest of the house.

Would a lightweight convervatory roof and the construction of a dwarf wall be sufficient to make the room feel this way? I’m a bit sceptical about how much these leightweight roofs can really do.

Many thanks.

M.
Click to expand...




Dont change it just mod the roof :)

It can easily be done my conserv cost about 4K all in (i built it) its as good as an extension for a fraction of the cost.

Mine was too cold and too hot like you say, i put a false ceiling in later on and some nice thick thermal curtains with a lot of insulation above the false ceiling after i realised the trouble from the crappy non insulated roofs, i blocked the door up can be reversed if i ever wanted it that is behind the projector area in this old pic, but it shows what you can do.

I always leave the dividing door open never need to shut it this room is the same temp as the whole house once i modded it.
 
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bazzabear said:
We have a 'warm roof' fitted to our conservatory. It's transformative. Temperature in there is now within a couple of degrees of the rest of the house. In winter it can be warmed up on a few minutes to match the rest of the house either with the central heating or a convector heater in there, and in summer opening a couple of windows quickly cools it. Even without those measures, it's now a perfectly usable room.

Like you, our previous conservatory was a polycarb roof, and you could barely step foot inside it for 9 months of the year.
Click to expand...

Would you mind saying the approx costs? I’m interested in doing the same.
 
It's a fairly big conservatory, something like 7 metres by 4. They replaced everything from the dwarf wall up, and it cost in the region of £15k from memory. I remember it was almost exactly what we'd knocked off the price of the house because we knew the conservatory needed renovating.
 
Would also be interested to know if its any good. It will also be quite dark so guess you could cut out and make your own 'Velux' type window to still get some natural light in.
 
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