Talk to me about conservatories (And bi fold doors)

[baggers]

We have a conservatory off our dining room. As others have said the noise on the roof when it rains is very loud! And ours is too hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Our neighbours have put a tiled roof on theirs and is much more usable.

[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by baggers

We have a conservatory off our dining room. As others have said the noise on the roof when it rains is very loud! And ours is too hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Our neighbours have put a tiled roof on theirs and is much more usable.

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Thank you I was thinking a tiled roof seems like a good idea

[Disney Bear]

We had a conservatory - we now have an orangery - yes that is just a posh conservatory . But we have a ‘part’ normal ceiling, plastered walls and the underfloor heating. We use it everyday. We also have bio folds from the lounge and also from the orangery into the garden - in Summer it’s great and isn’t hot when you open it up.

[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by Disney Bear

We had a conservatory - we now have an orangery - yes that is just a posh conservatory . But we have a ‘part’ normal ceiling, plastered walls and the underfloor heating. We use it everyday. We also have bio folds from the lounge and also from the orangery into the garden - in Summer it’s great and isn’t hot when you open it up.

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I love orangeries! Spent a long time lusting over them haha but I think out of our budget

Would love two sets of bi folds like that to open everything up, so nice in the summer

[DisneyWannabe]

We had our conservatory replaced with an extension at our old home, as others have said, it was impossible to get it be a usable space (even after adding tiles and insulation). Surprisingly the extension wasn't as costly as we thought.
In our new home the lounge has been knocked through into what was a half brick conservatory with a tiled roof, so although the rain noise is bearable, the cold in the winter is definitely a downside.

We are hoping to be able to change it to a proper extension (once money allows).

Definitely explore all your options, as I definitely felt our first conservatory was a waste of money for us.

[parisdisneyfan]

Originally Posted by SquishTheWhale

Thank you that's all super helpful! Were the oak bifolds very expensive? The gym equipment in question is Olympic weights and a bar so can be stored at the edges most of the time, so hopefully shouldn't impede our view so much. The conservatory would cover both the kitchen and living room windows so wouldn't want it blocked as you say!

We have actually looked at garden rooms as well and do have room for one, however as he works out every evening we liked the idea we could still be together this way! Although sometimes the idea of banishing him to the garden appeals 😂😂

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Expensive? Depends what you want. Bespoke made solid oak were nearly £6k😭. However we found 2 companies online with excellent reviews. They are external grade but oak veneer on engineered hardwood. We chose unfinished so I could oil them to match our other doors. We used one called Vufold and they were about £1500 plus fitting. Our joiner was impressed with the quality of them, not so much the instructions 😂 We are hoping to use the same company for the french doors into the kitchen.

Hope that helps.

[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by parisdisneyfan

Expensive? Depends what you want. Bespoke made solid oak were nearly £6k😭. However we found 2 companies online with excellent reviews. They are external grade but oak veneer on engineered hardwood. We chose unfinished so I could oil them to match our other doors. We used one called Vufold and they were about £1500 plus fitting. Our joiner was impressed with the quality of them, not so much the instructions 😂 We are hoping to use the same company for the french doors into the kitchen.

Hope that helps.

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Definitely helps thank you! I had £1-2k in my head so I wasn't miles off

[DJMS]

We had a conservatory in our old house that led off the far end of our kitchen diner (to form an L shape). Two things we were so glad we did:

1) one side was a solid wall up to just before the pitched roof began just a row of small windows about a foot high at the top. Made the space much more useable and we had a plasma tv hung on it.

2) we had a split air conditioning unit fitted. Something similar to this
amazon/18000-easy-...lit+air&sr=8-5
Meant it was always lovely and cool in the summer and toasty warm in the winter. To be honest it chilled/heated pretty much our whole ground floor. We agreed up front that the builders would fit it as part of the conservatory build .

[JLH]

we use our conservatory every day ,we have two full height half walls so we could put
wall lights on and two radiators on the small walls. For us a tiles roof would be a no because of light ,the dining room it attaches to is dark as it is as our garden is north facing. Ours was put on years ago so we just had normal doors connecting but would love folding doors on it both to the outside and to the house.

[Taffy1959]

We have a conservatory which was there when we bought the bungalow it has a polycarbonate roof but I would love to replace it with a tiled roof.
As a couple of others have mentioned it’s boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter so it doesn’t get used very much.
The people who live in the cul-de-sac opposite have a tiled roof and it makes such a difference it’s more like a proper room than a conservatory so i would go with that option if you can.