Conservatory Roof Replacement in Manchester

Why the room is unusable, and why blinds did not fix it

A glass or polycarbonate roof is the largest surface in the room and it is the one facing the sky. It takes direct sun all summer, and all winter it loses heat as fast as the radiator puts it in, so the room sits several degrees below the rest of the house and the door to the kitchen stays shut. Blinds only ever deal with glare, because by the time the sun is through the glazing the energy is already inside the room. Roof vents move some of it. Neither changes the fact that the roof itself holds no temperature at all. The noise has the same cause. Polycarbonate is thin and light, so rain lands on it like a drum, and there is no cure short of putting mass and insulation above your head.

The light, which is the first thing people lose sleep over

This is the objection we hear before any other, and it is the right one to raise. Done badly it turns a garden room into a dark box with a nice ceiling. The answer is rooflights, and how many and where matters more than the total area. Two or three set into the slope, placed over where you actually sit rather than spaced evenly for the look of it from the garden, keeps the room daylit. A pale plastered ceiling inside bounces a great deal more of it around than the exposed bars you have now. On a north facing conservatory we will usually push for more glass in the roof rather than less. If the room is dark because it is under a two storey wall in shadow half the day, we will say that too, because no roof we fit will change it.

Whether your frames and base will take it

A solid insulated roof weighs a great deal more than polycarbonate and somewhat more than glass. That load goes down through the frames you already have, into the ring beam and the dwarf wall, and then into a base that was poured for a conservatory rather than for an extension. So this gets looked at rather than assumed. What we want to see is the condition of the eaves beam and the wall plate, how the frames are fixed and whether they have moved, whether the dwarf wall has cracked at the corners, and how the base was built. Some conservatories need nothing. Some need the beam strengthening or a supporting post at a corner. Some, honestly, should not carry a solid roof at all, and if yours is one of those Dave will tell you rather than take the job. That answer costs us the work and it costs you far less than finding out afterwards. He will not put a solid roof onto a frame and a base he has not had the glazing off to look at.

The building regulations position, said plainly

This is the part the window companies lead with, and they are right to, so here it is without the sales gloss. A conservatory is exempt from most of the Building Regulations only while every one of a short list of conditions holds. It is at ground level. Its floor area is under thirty square metres. It is separated from the house by external quality doors. At least half of its new wall area and at least three quarters of its roof area are glazed or translucent. Fit a solid roof and that last condition fails, because the roof is no longer three quarters translucent. The exemption is broken by the work itself. The structure stops being an exempt conservatory and is treated as an extension for regulatory purposes, which brings in structural loading on the frames and base, the thermal performance of what you have built, and a completion certificate at the end. That means the work needs a building control application. Anyone who tells you a solid conservatory roof needs no permissions at all is either not thinking about it or hoping that you are not. Boardman Roofing does not self certify this work. Dave will tell you what route applies to your conservatory before you commit to anything, and we would say the same to anybody quoting you: get the route, and who is submitting it, in writing.

The conservatories round here

Most of what we look at across Sale, Altrincham, Worsley and Prestwich went up between the mid nineties and the mid two thousands, on the back of interwar semis and post war estate housing, and the polycarbonate on them is now at or past the age where it goes brittle and the flutes go green. Two local patterns come up again and again. A lean to against a two storey rear, where the main roof above sheds into a box gutter that was never sized for it, and where the new roof has to be tied back into that same junction properly rather than sealed to it. And a Victorian style conservatory on a corner plot with a hipped roof and a ridge, which is more shape and more junctions than a lean to and is a different piece of work. Where the house is under a conservation area designation, as parts of Worsley are, the covering that goes on the new roof is not a free choice and that needs settling before anything is ordered.

How the roof is built

The glazing comes off, the existing frames and eaves beam are checked and made good, and a new rafter structure is built off them and tied back to the house. Insulation goes between and under the rafters. Above them there is a breathable membrane, counterbatten and batten, and then a covering chosen to sit with the house: a lightweight tile system, or slate or plain tile where the loading and the frames allow it. The abutment to the house is a proper dressed flashing into a raked joint, not a sealed one, because it is now a permanent roof and it has to behave like one. Inside, the rafters are lined and plasterboarded, the rooflights are formed and trimmed, and the ceiling is finished ready for decoration. Ventilation above the insulation matters as much here as it does in a loft, and it is the thing most often skipped on a conversion done in a hurry. The existing frames, dwarf wall and base normally stay, which is what makes this a different piece of work from taking the conservatory down and building an extension. Dave sets out the build up, the covering and the rooflights in a free written quote so you can compare it against anything else you have been given, line by line.

What affects the price, and what to do next

No numbers here, because there is no honest way to give one without seeing the conservatory. What the figure follows, roughly in order: the floor area and the roof shape, since a lean to is one plane and a Victorian or P shape is several with a ridge and hips; how many rooflights you want; whether the frames, beam or base need strengthening, which is the one item nobody can price until the glazing is off; the covering you choose to match the house; the internal finish, since a plastered and skimmed ceiling with new lighting is a different scope from a lined one; the building control application; taking the old glazing away; and access to the back of the house. There is no rush from our end. Have a proper look at the room in both a hot week and a cold one, work out what you actually want from it, and when you want a figure, ring Dave and he will come out and put it in writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need building control approval for a solid conservatory roof?

In almost all cases yes, because a solid roof takes the structure out of the conservatory exemption and it is then treated as an extension. Dave will tell you what that means for your conservatory before any work is agreed.

Will my existing frames and base take a solid roof?

That has to be looked at rather than assumed. A solid roof weighs considerably more than polycarbonate, so the frames, the eaves beam, the dwarf wall and the base all need checking first. If Dave does not think yours will carry it, he will say so.

Will the room be warm enough to use in winter?

We will not promise you a room that feels like the rest of the house, because the roof is only one of the surfaces losing heat. The walls, the glazing and the doors are still what they are, and the heating in there is usually one radiator or none. What we can tell you is what the new roof is built from and how it is insulated, and you can judge the rest against the room you have.

Is a solid roof always the right answer?

No. If the room is only bad in a hot spell, replacing the glazing with a solar control unit, or adding ventilation, is a much smaller job and sometimes the sensible one. And if the frames or base will not carry a solid roof, the honest answer is that the conservatory needs rebuilding rather than reroofing, which is a different budget entirely. We would rather tell you that at the start.

Will I lose too much light?

You will lose some, and rooflights are how it is managed. Where they go matters more than how many there are, so we place them over where you sit rather than spacing them evenly. If your conservatory is already shaded by the house for half the day, we will say that before you spend anything.

Can you do it in winter?

The stripping and the new structure need a settled few days, so it is weather led rather than season led. What we will not do is take a roof off in front of bad weather to keep a date, so if it needs moving we will move it and tell you why.