We are thinking of adding a room on to our living room diner to make a dining space and kids toy dumping ground. We are in a terrace and the Wife reckons a modern lean-to conservatory could be spot on.

Everest failed to turn up for an appointment so I’m a bit lacking on a benchmark for cost, negatives and potential pitfalls.

Anyone done this or doing it?

Everyone’s getting orangeries these days.

What the captain said. Although ours is perfectly OK during the daytime today (south facing, 0C outside, it’s 12C inside), it’ll be cold again very quickly in the evening.

It’s great in summer through, the concrete slab warms up and keeps it warm well into the evening after BBQ’s etc.

If we were starting from scratch I’d have it done properly as an extension with a solid roof, open plan to the house, velux windows, and bi-fold doors to the garden.

It’s not modern though, probably built in the 80’s? Although the glazing is probably newer (modern UPVC) the roof is poly-carbonate on wooden joists.

Also if it was open plan it would be less of a glass shed.

Could you not just add an extension?

An extension isnt really an option we are interested in. And I’d expect the costs to be considerably more expensive.

If you can site it out of the sun (not normal I know!), they can be very useful.

Ours is north facing on the back of our house and the too hot in summer, too cold in winter doesn’t apply. It gets used all year round and a couple of oil heaters provide enough heat in winter.

Just make sure you have plenty of opening windows specced.

Make sure it doesn’t become a dumping ground though or it will be an unpleasant space to sit in and not get used. We use ours as a second sitting room.

We had Everest round for a quote. They quoted £70k 😯 which was the reduced price form something even more crazy. When we said we’d need to think about it the chap said that he could have a wander around the garden for 10 minutes to let us make up our minds 🙄 We then got a local firm in to do a similar job for about a tenth of the price.

And I’d expect the costs to be considerably more expensive.

It would be a bit more expensive (although you still have to put in footing and a slab for a conservatory) but a proper extension of the same size would probably add value to your house while a conservatory may well not impact the value at all as they’re seen as a little 1990’s and could put future buyers off.

If we were starting from scratch I’d have it done properly as an extension with a solid roof, open plan to the house, velux windows, and bi-fold doors to the garden.

Spoony is spot on…. this is what’s hot now.

An extension isnt really an option we are interested in. And I’d expect the costs to be considerably more expensive.

Obviously depends on spec, but it’s only going to be incrementally more (slightly deeper concrete slab, a bit of insulation and tile rather than glass roof). Maybe worth getting a quote for at least as it would add more value and allow more options like removing the old doors and windows (a conservatory still has to have an external door between it and the house).

Ours is north facing on the back of our house and the too hot in summer, too cold in winter doesn’t apply. It gets used all year round and a couple of oil heaters provide enough heat in winter.

The study (north side, inside the house) is the same temp as the conservatory (south side) today! There’s still ice on the doorstep (north)!

In reality though it’ll be on whatever side your garden is.

We’re just about to add a frameless glass extension to our house. ~10m by ~3m. Depending on how we spec it, we could be looking at ~£35k in materials alone. It’s the structural glass that’s the big cost. Whilst it would probably look ace I’m considering going for a framed one with sliding doors instead, for about 1/2 the price, given we have other building & renovation works happening at the same time.

we are having our old 1/3 brick base layer/glass windows/polycarb roof conservatory updated to full brick cols/modern double glazing/glass roof, different door

Slightly irritating that we are constrained by using existing base (*it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a new base), also nothing, truly nothing in this house has been bodged (her sons were builders, the people who disassembled the old cons complained about how well built it was and the ally welding on the gutter was at about space engineering level of quality) but there seem to be a lot of ‘add on room options’ with tuneable amounts of glass/brick/insulated column walls and tuneable amounts of solid/insulated slab/glass roofs

see sehbac as an eg

I had a quote recently, glass roof extension 3.5m x 3.5m was 12k.

If I wanted it in plastic instead of walls and glass roof it would have been about 8k. The issue is it will be so cold it would make the living room cold and be unusable in the summer due to the heat.

It really is worth spending decent money if you want to use it all year round.

Yes, back of the house. Gets a reasonable amount of sun peaking in the afternoons but its not a sun trap by any stretch. We are in a 3 storey and have a reasonable front room/Diner with double doors out to a patio and garden. The sole aim of this is to create a dining room space. It would be in daily use.

Everest will not be getting an appointment if that’s how they behave.

If anyone has any recommendations in the Bucks/Beds area for a reliable, courteous company?

Its this kind of thing rather than your old style typically white jobs

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=modern+lean-to+conservatories&rlz=1C1CHWA_enGB604GB604&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8ss-P_NDRAhVlAsAKHdq8BD4Q_AUICCgB&biw=1366&bih=638#imgrc=KD-nWu_tvAvdgM%3A

Any recommendations?