Replacement conservatory roof costs

[stewartingram]

Can anyone give a ballpark figure for this job? The conservatory is about 15 years old, roughly 4mx3m, with a flat (sloping) roof. The roof panels are polycarbonate? panels.

I'm toying with the idea of replacing it, basically for insulation reasons, but fighting shy of contacting anyone at the moment. I remember the hassle we had when we were ooking for the conservatory, no-one would give even an estimate of price without site visits and hard sell practices.

Also, on a related thing; if replaced, would it be possible to add solar panels or not?

[ikcdab]

Replacing polycarbonate is a DIY job, so it can be just the price of buying the sheets and sealing strips.  Assuming the glazing bars are ok.

But far better to go with glass with the reflective coatings.  We have pilkington K glass and it's excellent.  Really works well.  

I don't know about the panels.

[Kris]

Are you looking to go for a solid roof? If so it is possible to treat it as a shed roof and do a DIY job on it. The joists and sheet materials would not be that expensive, neither would the felt. Doing it this way you could make it strong enough for solar panels. 

My inlaws had their conservatory roof changed last year to solid with some form of clip in system on a larger and more complex roof shop than yours. This involved the company replacing the glass with same sized insulated panels. Seems to work well. The cost was under 10K I believe. I don't think this roof would be strong enough for solar panels. 

 

 

[ikcdab]

If going for solid, then I would avoid roofing felt which is short-lived and prone to leaks.

All my outbuildings are roofed with OSB on the underside, then a layer of insulation between the joists, then a layer of thick polythene covered with Coroline bitumastic sheets.  Totally impervious to water, reasonable cost and long lasting. 

If your pockets are deep, then GRP is even better and lasts for ever.

[hayfield]

My in laws a few years back paid out to replace a plastic panelled roof of their conservatory with a glass roof, made an improvement but as it had glass walls it still was basically not really usable in the winter

 

The same in-laws moved house which had a much better made conservatory (brick built) with a hipped roof. This year they had the glass roof altered with a false celling which included a reflective membrane. Certainly warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, but any room with a large amount of glass will heat up or cool down quicker that more solid construction

 

Perhaps not what you want to hear but most conservatories at the lower end of costs are nothing other than glorified greenhouses, not fit for day to day living. In my opinion other than making a leaky roof watertight any tinkering with construction may be a waste of money. 

 

We have a large single story extension, built to modern standards where the two side walls are brick/block construction and the main wall is about 2/3rds double glazed doors and windows, in the winter we still get a bit of heat loss from the glazing, but everything else is well insulated and is centrally heated. I would still build it the same again, but perhaps triple glaze it instead of double glaze. 

[doilum]

Whilst.. I have a fair bit of experience with the OSB / Onduline materials little brother opted for 18 mm OSB which was given two coats of bitumen paint. This was then covered in galvanised flat steel panels. Onduline needs a minimum slope of 10 degrees and he only had five which along with oversized joist gaps was why the previous roof had failed. I cannot remember the brand of the sheeting but he had to collect from Hull and it cost about 50% more than Onduline.

 

[drmditch]

Two years ago I found that my carbonate conservatory roof was about life expired, at least as regarding the fastenings and clips.

(I think that it was about ten years old at that time. It was in place when I bought the house.)

The floorplan of the conservatory is about 4m by 3m, and the roof is pitched with a hip at one end and a gable at the other.

I found a contractor with whom I was relatively happy (fairly local to me).

 

They replaced the whole roof structure with bespoke prefabricated wooden units containing insulation and allowed a plastered ceiling for the interior. The outside is layered with tiles.

This has made  the whole conservatory much stronger and also changed the heat and light balance significantly.

It now doesn't heat up as quickly on sunny days in winter, but doesn't get as hot in summer.

I was and am very happy with the result, and the quality of the workmanship.

 

I use the conservatory as my 'summer sitting room'.

 

I couldn't find the invoice just now, but as I remember it was about £5k.

[Andrew1974]

26 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Two years ago …

 

I couldn't find the invoice just now, but as I remember it was about £5k.

My experience is that whatever the cost of building projects 2 years ago, add 50% for a reasonable estimate of costs now.

[Camperdown]

We faced similar.  Also, a 4m x 3m polycarbonate conservatory roof that had become life expired.  This was a (fairly good) DIY job by the previous owners.  Understandably, most companies will be reluctant to quote for repair to something not professionally built, that may be hiding some lurking horror.  Eventually, we opted for demolition and replacement, with new roof and 4m wall to the garden.  The original floor and end (brick) walls were retained.  Total cost was about 30K, complicated by living in a conservation area.  Frankly though, well worth the money, as the new conservatory is totally dry and much warmer than the leaky, drafty, rotting structure it replaced.

[spamcan61]

17 hours ago, ikcdab said:

Replacing polycarbonate is a DIY job, so it can be just the price of buying the sheets and sealing strips.  Assuming the glazing bars are ok.

But far better to go with glass with the reflective coatings.  We have pilkington K glass and it's excellent.  Really works well.  

I don't know about the panels.

Would a conservatory built with a polycarb roof handle the extra weight of a glass roof? I'm not saying it wouldn't, I'm not a builder, but would need checking I would think.

 

In terms of replacing with a solid roof then from a planning perspective that would no longer be a conservatory, so I would check with relevant authorities first to avoid a possible problem on sale of the property.

[ikcdab]

44 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Would a conservatory built with a polycarb roof handle the extra weight of a glass roof? I'm not saying it wouldn't, I'm not a builder, but would need checking I would think.

Almost certainly not.  A glass roof would need a whole new setup.  It is more expensive (prob a lot more) but with the solar glass like K, it makes the room useable for far longer.

[spamcan61]

38 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Almost certainly not.  A glass roof would need a whole new setup.  It is more expensive (prob a lot more) but with the solar glass like K, it makes the room useable for far longer.

Depends on location and heating method really, our 5x3m North facing dwarf wall conservatory with polycarb roof is usable all year round, although I do turn the TRV on the rad. up if I'm going to spend long in there. This is on the South coast with fairly mild winters mind you.

[JJGraphics]

Had the life-expired polycarbonate roof on our twenty five year old conservatory replaced in mid-2021 with a fully-insulated "pretend" tiled roof at a cost just shy of £8000 which has transformed the original 5m x 4.5m conservatory into a year-round usable room.

It is south-facing, does now not get so hot in the summer but warms up fairly quickly in winter sunshine and only needs a little input from an electric convector heater to become pleasantly warm on a cold day. It retains the warmth for quite a while.

An unexpected addiional benefit is that the lounge from which it is accessed via folding doors requires less heating.

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by JJGraphics
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[rovex]

I am curious as to what the building regulations position is in relation to these replacement solid rooves?

[stewartingram]

I did wonder, but I have heard that original planning only offered 'see-through' roofing; this has now been relaxed to allow 'solid' roofs instead. My non-technical terms!

Personally, I'm probably looking to enquire from professionals about replacement (if I go ahead, I haven't got a roof failure). I don't want the hassle of contacting a company, with all the hassle of hard sell getting involved, and not knowing what prices are reasonable or not. Though I'm up to 'independent living, usually doing diy when possible, I very occasionally do get an expert involved!

[JJGraphics]

2 hours ago, rovex said:

I am curious as to what the building regulations position is in relation to these replacement solid rooves?

 

The contractor fitting the roof which is manufactured by a national supplier has to apply for Building Regulation Approval.

[rovex]

30 minutes ago, JJGraphics said:

 

The contractor fitting the roof which is manufactured by a national supplier has to apply for Building Regulation Approval.

 

I suspected that was the case. I wonder how many do?

[Michael Hodgson]

I believe there are new tighter planning rules on conservatories from this year, supposedly to stop them getting too hot in summer/too cold in winter; I don't know what impact if any there is on modifications to exisiting ones.

[JJGraphics]

1 hour ago, rovex said:

 

I suspected that was the case. I wonder how many do?

 

Ours actually gave us the paperwork from the local council, but you are probably right and a lot don't go through the process!

[Rich Papper]

We replaced a glass conservatory roof about 6 years ago with a fake solid one. Conservatory was there when we bought the house but several of the double glazed panels of the roof had lost their seal and were fogged up. Was Baltic in winter and there was no door to the lounge so effectively made half of downstairs unusable. Heat of summer wasn’t much good either. Noticed one winter that one of the panels had slipped and was letting rain in so had to do something with it sharpish.

 

Like JjGraphics’ image above it appears tiled on the outside - I think they’re actually aluminium, and the company were able to match the coating colour to the roof tiles on the house. Wooden frame and insulation beneath, then plastered on the inside. About 8k from memory, but we had two velux windows and LED lighting put in as the previous lighting was woeful, so could have been done cheaper. One of the best things we’ve done to the house though- effectively gained a usable room we didn’t have before. Much more consistent temp too.

 

Didn’t have any problems with planning or permissions, only stipulation was a check the foundations were deep enough - planning chap and bloke from company dug a hole in lawn next to the wall to check depth. Apparently the solid one is only about 10% heavier than the original glass.

 

Rich

[rovex]

Bit of confusion on here about the difference between planning and building control. 

Two different local authority departments who don't necessarily talk to each other.

I like to think planning is "can you do something", building control is "how you do something".

Conservatories don't usually need planning if they are not at the front and are below a certain size.

They don't need building regulations if they are separated from the main house by an exterior door, not connected to the house's heating system and have a clear roof.

Thus my question about whether you needed building regulations if you replace the see through roof.

Of course I've simplified matters considerably.

[Torper]

Our conservatory is a Wickes timber one measuring about 6 x 3 metres which we had built in 2002.  In 2020 we decided to replace the aging polycarbonate roof with a solid roof and we got a couple of quotes (neither involved any hassle or hard sell).  We accepted the one from a Fife company, but they were then unable to do the work for a year due to covid restrictions, no fault of their own.  We had to get a building warrant from the council and that necessitated architectural drawings and foundation and structural strength  investigations by an engineer, but that was all taken care of by the company and included in their quote.  I wouldn't trust any company that suggested it was all right to go ahead without building regulation consent.  The work involved replacement of the existing roof timbers with new ones with a steeper pitch, lots of insulation, a metal tile-effect roof, replacement guttering, interior plasterboard and plastering, new lights, and interior painting.  The wrok was completed literally on the eve of Storm Arwen and although the surrounding woodland suffered badly the new roof was unscathed.  We were very pleased both with the work and with the fact that although there was a substantial increase in building costs between the time the company gave us the quote and their being able to start work they stuck to their original quote, which was £7100.  I suspect that it would be rather more now.

 

We didn't need planning permission, but we did need a building warrant as the conservatory was being changed into what is classed as a room (we can now legally connect it to the house heating system).  I had been worried lest the installation of a solid roof would make the room darker, but in fact my fears were unfounded - the ceiling is painted white and the room seems no less bright than it was when the ceiling was clear (well, a bit grubby) polycarbonate.  As far as we're concerned it's been money well spent.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Torper

[Michael Hodgson]

In practice, I doubt anybody would notice if you later installed heating in a conservatory.  Would a corgi really be expected to challenge whether or not consent had been obtained before adding a rad or two?

[spamcan61]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

In practice, I doubt anybody would notice if you later installed heating in a conservatory.  Would a corgi really be expected to challenge whether or not consent had been obtained before adding a rad or two?

I never bothered, the builder just tapped off from the lounge radiator on the other side of the (former) external wall. The conservatory rad has a TRV so I can throttle it right back when we're not using it (other than squeak the parrot who lives out there).

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

In practice, I doubt anybody would notice if you later installed heating in a conservatory.  Would a corgi really be expected to challenge whether or not consent had been obtained before adding a rad or two?

 

I thought for a room to be made into a habitable room it needs more than heating to be added, windows (which it has) insulation and damp proofing, also fire regs compliant plus electricity brought up to latest specks to get works signed off

 

At our previous house I converted the garage into an insulated railway room. Whilst it was shown as a storage room on the estate details, it could not be described as a habitable room. The buyers were going to use it as a music room for their daughters 

Edited December 30, 2022 by hayfield