Conservatory to green room

[iveivan]

Anyone converted an old 90s conservatory into a properly insulated garden room? I’ve no experience at getting structural changes done. Any advice?

 

[WouldBe]

There are companies that will put an insulated roof on conservatories. It would probably need a lot of the glass replacing with insulated panels as well.

 

[bluescreen]

We're having that done at the moment but our case is complicated because although the house isn't old, we're in a conservation area. Also the old roof was unsuitable in design and the way it joined onto the house, so shape needed completely remodelling into a catslide. So we've needed architect, structural engineer, planning permission, building regs consent, scaffolders, carpenters, roofers, decorators, plumbers, skip hire, portaloo service... and it aint finished yet.

I'd say: go for it if you can afford it but first of all check what is needed. It may be a lot more trouble and expense than you think. It's never as simple as putting a solid roof in place of a glass one, though with any luck at all your case won't be remotely as complicated as ours

 

[bluescreen]

... oh, and electrician...

 

[Epona]

Bloody hell mate that sounds like a bit of a 'mare

 

[bluescreen]

I could do without the hassle and expense. OTOH the conservatory leaked every time it rained (we wasted years fixing it again and again to no avail) and was unusable for most of the year, being either too cold or insanely hot. This way we get a useable room.

Eventually.

 

[iveivan]

I was thinking more of changing to a garden room/orangery rather than just replacing the roof. I’m sure there will be challenges along the way. What should I watch out for?

 

[bluescreen]

That sounds like a compete rebuild. You really need a competent builder to act as advisor and project manager. They should set out all the steps for you so you know in advance estimated costs and where the snags and delays are likely to occur. I wouldn't expect a fixed price these days with prices of materials rising and supply uncertain. Costs of things like scaffolding, skip hire and portaloo are open-ended depending on how long the work takes.

You'll need to follow building regs. In our case we had to excavate to find out whether the existing foundations were adequate for the loadbearing of the new structure. (They were.) It would have massively increased costs and time spent if we'd had to put in new foundations.