Conservatory Roof

[roversdude]

Anyone had their conservatory roof replaced for one that is energy friendly. What are thoughts, costs, recommendations on these.
Have a very very minor leak on my traditional conservatory roof so it’s either getting it repaired or making it into a usable room all year.
Has anyone had repairs carried out
Thanks guys

[5minstogo]

We had ours replaced last year with a Solarframe roof. We only bought the stuff from them and had it fitted independantly. Send me a message of you are interested and I'll get the chaps number. Made a massive difference

[Not Now Kato]

We had ours replaced with a solid roof from SolarFrame who are just outside Goldthorpe.
 
It's made a conservatory that was too hot in summer and too cold in winter into an all year round room where we spend most of our time.  Absolutely delighted with the service, installation and construction.  My sister has also had them convert her conservatory to a solid roof and is equally pleased.
 
Worth visiting them and getting a quote - they make the roofs on-site and gave us a tour of the factory to show how they are made and the internal construction - which is quite impressive.
 
Ours was installed in 2015 but wasn't cheap at just shy of £12,700!  Having said that, the price included all electrics inside and out and plastering etc.
 

[drfchound]

Does the new roof cut out much of the natural light that the regular polycarbonate roof allows in.

[Not Now Kato]

Does the new roof cut out much of the natural light that the regular polycarbonate roof allows in.

To a degree, yes.  But not so much as you'd notice due to glass on three sides of the conservatory.  In fact, we have blinds on all three sides that can be lowered as necessary to reduce the light on very bright days.  On a day like today it's more than bright enough in here.

[drfchound]

Interesting.
Ours is on a North facing wall but is quite large so picks up the sun over the top of the house for about 8/9 months of the year and is very comfortable.
For the other 3/4 months it can get quite cool even though we have heating in there.
Today for example with the heating off it is around 65 degrees.
We don’t use it much at all in January or February.

Cleaning the roof twice a year is a right pain though, especially as I am not getting any younger, and we had thought about looking to replace roof but my wife likes the natural light that comes through the current roof.

[Not Now Kato]

Hound,  You can have the solid roof fitted with a skylight, though we chose not to as we get plenty of natural daylight.  The main window faces roughly West and the South window is patterned, (frosted?), glass as it directly faces our neighbours side wall so we wanted to obscure the view it as best we could - originally we though of having it bricked up, but that would have meant replacing virtually all of the existing conservatory!
 
We've honestly not noticed that much difference in light from before we had the work done.  It's certainly made the room useable 365 days a year.

[idler]

We looked into it but decided that the £8,000 would be more enjoyably spent on holidays in the sun.
The guy did tell us though that you did have to have planning permission. The local council come and look at existing footings to make sure that existing walls are suitable to take the weight of th roof. Apparently with the roof on it becomes classed an extension to the house rather than a conservatory. Our quote was from a firm in Leeds recommended by Which.
 

[Not Now Kato]

We looked into it but decided that the £8,000 would be more enjoyably spent on holidays in the sun.
The guy did tell us though that you did have to have planning permission. The local council come and look at existing footings to make sure that existing walls are suitable to take the weight of th roof. Apparently with the roof on it becomes classed an extension to the house rather than a conservatory. Our quote was from a firm in Leeds recommended by Which.

How strange!  The roof fitted to ours is ultra-ightweight and no planning was necessary at all, same for my sisters.  No council involvement whatsoever.
 
How long ago was this Idler?  What kind of roof?  Certainly the rules around planning permission changed some while ago and planning is no longer needed for an extension so long as it complies with certain criteria....
 
https://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/advice/advice_apply/advice_apply_homes/advice_home_work2/advice_home_extensions.htm
 

[drfchound]

I had a brochure from the company at Goldthorpe put through my door and it clearly says that no planning consent is needed.

[idler]

We looked into it but decided that the £8,000 would be more enjoyably spent on holidays in the sun.
The guy did tell us though that you did have to have planning permission. The local council come and look at existing footings to make sure that existing walls are suitable to take the weight of th roof. Apparently with the roof on it becomes classed an extension to the house rather than a conservatory. Our quote was from a firm in Leeds recommended by Which.

How strange!  The roof fitted to ours is ultra-ightweight and no planning was necessary at all, same for my sisters.  No council involvement whatsoever.
 
How long ago was this Idler?  What kind of roof?  Certainly the rules around planning permission changed some while ago and planning is no longer needed for an extension so long as it complies with certain criteria....
 
https://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/advice/advice_apply/advice_apply_homes/advice_home_work2/advice_home_extensions.htm
 

Hi Kato, it was about a month ago. He said that whatever other companies state the council would have access to exposed footings to prove they would take any weight required. Ours is an Edwardian type roof about 12 sq. mtrs. Their roofs were like a traditional roof with individual tiles and then the Kingspar type stuff below and a ceiling under that.
He also said that our radiator in the conservatory was illegal as they are not allowed as they waste heat.
I’m 71 next week and the wife is 65 so I’d rather get the holidays in and if we decide to do it later the price will probably have come down as there becomes more competition in the market.

[Not Now Kato]

We looked into it but decided that the £8,000 would be more enjoyably spent on holidays in the sun.
The guy did tell us though that you did have to have planning permission. The local council come and look at existing footings to make sure that existing walls are suitable to take the weight of th roof. Apparently with the roof on it becomes classed an extension to the house rather than a conservatory. Our quote was from a firm in Leeds recommended by Which.

How strange!  The roof fitted to ours is ultra-ightweight and no planning was necessary at all, same for my sisters.  No council involvement whatsoever.
 
How long ago was this Idler?  What kind of roof?  Certainly the rules around planning permission changed some while ago and planning is no longer needed for an extension so long as it complies with certain criteria....
 
https://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/advice/advice_apply/advice_apply_homes/advice_home_work2/advice_home_extensions.htm
 

Hi Kato, it was about a month ago. He said that whatever other companies state the council would have access to exposed footings to prove they would take any weight required. Ours is an Edwardian type roof about 12 sq. mtrs. Their roofs were like a traditional roof with individual tiles and then the Kingspar type stuff below and a ceiling under that.
He also said that our radiator in the conservatory was illegal as they are not allowed as they waste heat.
I’m 71 next week and the wife is 65 so I’d rather get the holidays in and if we decide to do it later the price will probably have come down as there becomes more competition in the market.

Hi Idler.  I don't know how to say this other than that I believe the salesman led you astray somewhat, sorry.  Have a look at that link I posted above.
 
As to radiators in conservatories, so long as they can be separated from the house's main central heating system then pretty much anything is allowed.  That means you can install electric radiators, storage radiators, even a separate boiler system perfectly legally.  You can even extend your house's central heating system so long as you can isolate it if/when required, (when you're not using the conservatory) - there's much on the internet about this and any reputable company would advise accordingly.
 
I get your point about holidays though 

[5minstogo]

Well we've got two radiators and a Supalite roof, no planning permission required. The roof frame is lightweight aluminium with lightweight "tile" panels. Has turned a pretty unusable space into a room we use every day. As I said before, don't pay Solarframe to do it as they will charge you an arm and a leg.

[idler]

Hi lads, I can’t remember what the name of the installation company was but it was a Guardian Warm Roof that they install.
I think that they are produced centrally and then local companies in different areas install them.
That was an interesting link Kato and I can see how when we got our conservatory built some of the salesmen were either misinformed or were misleading us.

[Axholme Lion]

Westwood Installations did a repair to my leaky roof. They were reasonable price and did a good job.

[roversdude]

Thanks guys