Conservatories have been part of Britain’s heritage since the 18th century,
when they first emerged as glorified greenhouses for toffs who needed
somewhere to keep souvenir plants they had picked up during their grand
tour. In recent years, however, they have come to suffer something of an
image problem: with their rotting woodwork and leaking roofs, they have been
less a symbol of Georgian or Victorian elegance and more a byword for
suburban naffness.
Yet the glamour is returning to conservatories.
Take your pick from metro chic or grandiose colonial – today’s glass
extensions are fashionable, frequently pricey and can be a great way of
providing the average home with instant wow factor. In the countryside, they
are becoming larger and grander than ever.
“Conservatories will always add value, unless they are ugly and leak like
sieves,” says John Young, the head of Humberts’ country house department. “A
good quality one, such as an Amdega, is like having a good kitchen or a good
bathroom, as well as adding useable ground-floor space.” Town versions,
meanwhile, have been refined and reduced to classy glass cubes that draw in
light and add minimalist elegance to the dreariest terraced garden.
As ever, it’s all thanks to the latest glass wizardry.
“Engineering and technology have led the new wave of conservatories,” says
Michael Trentham, of Michael Trentham Architects, in Bermondsey, southeast
London.
“In the past 10 years, new structural silicones have allowed glass to be
bonded to glass, so you can see straight through these transparent
structures, where even the mcolumns and beams are of glass.”
He uses conservatories as integral features of the houses he designs. “I don’t
see any point in having a conventional conservatory stuck on the back –
that’s just a way of sitting outside when it’s raining,” he says. “A
conservatory extension, on the other hand, is more than just adding space to
the house, it’s about taking the home into the glass element. The evolution
of the conservatory is that it becomes part of the way the building
operates.”
Trentham builds conservatories, in the form of glass boxes, on the roofs of
new-build homes and even as extensions to Grade II-listed houses, where it
is often easier to get listed-buildings consent for something simple and
transparent than for anything solid. “Often, you are only allowed to extend
the basement of a listed building to create a contemporary living space,” he
says, “and it’s great to have a structural glass conservatory at the back to
bring in light and give uninterrupted views of the garden.”
This is what he has done for Mike Davies, 43, a global communications director
for Pricewater-houseCoopers. Davies wanted to extend his four-storey
Georgian house in Southwark, south London, and asked Trentham for a
conservatory. “This is a listed house, so we knew it had to be relatively
light to get planning permission,” says Davies. “We also wanted square
lines, to fit with the Georgian house.”
The rear of the property faces north, and the two-storey conservatory, which
cost about £80,000, brings light to previously dark rooms. “Temperature
control is not a problem, because it’s north-facing and because the glass is
solar-controlled, with surfaces that reflect heat out in the summer, and
reflect heat in when it’s cold,” says Davies. “I was worried about that,
because my brother has a conservatory that is uninhabitable on hot
afternoons. Cleaning is a bit of an issue, but we have a man who comes every
three months, and the glass is strong enough to climb on.”
You may not even need to employ an architect to get one of these elegant glass
rooms. Some companies, such as Glasspace, based in Rayleigh, Essex,
specialise in “enclosures” to order, and has options to suit most pockets.
Recent jobs have ranged from £15,000 for filling in a simple side return on
a two-bedroom semi in Birmingham to £120,000 for a full-height elevation on
a new £7.5m house in Sandbanks, Dorset. Silicone technology has come on a
lot since the experimental glass-box prototypes of the 1960s, but only in
the past five years or so has it become available to the average homeowner.
“There are still only a few people in the country who can do what we do,” says
Tony De Witt, director of Glasspace. “Frameless glass systems are relatively
new and ours use solar-controlled glass, have no visible metal at all and
they have a low U-value.” The lower the U-value, the greater the insulating
characteristics. “Even brackets for blinds are bonded directly to the
glass,” he adds, “so it feels completely open, as if you’re having dinner in
the garden.”
Sam Ogilvie, the owner of Bartholomew Conservatories in West Sussex,
specialises in “design-based contemporary buildings, rather than the same
old Victorian pastiche, reproduced again and again”. The company’s business
is split pretty evenly between the town, where filling in a side return
costs upwards of £15,000, and the country, where large glazed extensions can
cost more than £100,000.
Ogilvie insists that the problems of temperature control – making sure your
conservatory is not too hot in summer and not too cool in winter – can be
solved with good design and modern glass. “Ventilation in the roof is really
important,” he says. “You can use either a manual winder, to open the vents,
or a heat sensor – but that has to be attached to a rain sensor.” Thanks to
careful positioning and tinted glass, his conservatories don’t even need
blinds: “They clutter up the roof lines and encourage spiders,” he adds.
Ogilvie has even built a conservatory extension in the north of Scotland: the
Category B-listed three/four-bedroom cottage belongs to Farquhar Laing, 37,
who runs a specialist bronze-casting foundry in Nairn, about 16 miles east
of Inverness. “The cottage is gable-ended and the angles of the conservatory
match the existing angles of the roof,” says Laing, who paid about £45,000
for the 270 sq ft oak extension. “Bartholomew was the only company capable
of carrying out a sympathetic design. We got planning permission easily.”
Laing, his wife, Jill, 32, and children, Madeleine and Fergus, use it all year
round. “In winter, on clear starry nights, it’s lovely – we get a good view
of the northern lights,” he says. “And in the long evenings of summer, we
sit and watch deer, rabbits and hares. We are isolated up here, so it’s
great to be able watch nature go by, whatever the weather.”
If you are thinking of building a conservatory, you must first decide on what
position, size and structure is best suited to your home, and establish
whether or not you need planning permission (see box below). Then work out
your budget. You don’t need to go bespoke – there are some it’s great
off-the-peg designs around – but do use a reputable firm, and make sure you
have a 10-year guarantee.
Even though Wickes is offering a Victorian-style UPVC version for the bargain
price of £1,999 (until August 29), it is well worth remembering that you get
what you pay for. UPVC can look cheap; aluminium is more expensive but
stronger; hardwood is the best, but costs the most. In the long term, you
will get more satisfaction if you invest in a high-quality conservatory
that’s built for you. Vale Garden Houses, based in Grantham, Lincoln-shire,
provides bespoke additions for listed buildings, as well as a range of
off-the-peg conservatories designed for the National Trust. Their designs
start from about £18,000, including delivery and installation.
A conservatory with a floor space of about 100 sq ft from Marston &
Langinger, of London and New York, starts at about £30,000, plus associated
building costs, such as foundations and fitting. They are built from the
toughest hardwoods, with a hidden steel core in main-frame sections, and are
built to last as long as the house they are attached to.
At the much cheaper end of the scale, some manufacturers stick wooden strips
onto a sheet of glass to give the impression of separate panes. The good
bespoke companies all have elaborate glazing systems: the Bartholomew
system, copied by several others, involves a powder-coated aluminium roof
cap with integral neoprene seals.
The downside of having a vast expanse of glass can be the cleaning, but even
that has been solved by a new glass, now available in Britain, that is said
to clean itself: Pilkington Activ, which costs 15% to 20% more than standard
glass, comes with a coating that uses UV rays to break down organic dirt,
such as droppings and tree resin. The same coating then encourages rainwater
to flow down the glass in such a way that it washes away the loosened dirt.
So what about that other great bane of the conservatory owner’s life: leaks?
“Good ones shouldn’t leak if they are designed properly,” says Ogilvie.
“Things to watch out for include a shallow roof line and box guttering, but
timber is always going to move. After a few years, if the building is
properly maintained, it will settle down.”
To build or not to build
Planning permission
- Good companies will guide you through the process, but, essentially, you
shouldn’t need permission to build if your proposed conservatory does not
exceed the permitted development limit for your property, unless you already
have an extension that has used up your quota.
- Permitted development limits are 70 cubic metres, or 15% of the total volume
(whichever is greater) for detached or semidetached properties; 50 cubic
metres or 10% for terraced or end-of-terrace properties.
- Check with your local planning department, particularly if you live in a
conservation area. If you live in a listed building, you will need
listed-buildings consent.
Building regulations
- If the floor area of your conservatory is less than 30 sq m, the walls and
roof are mostly transparent or translucent and the whole thing can be
separated from the rest of the house by a door, then you probably won’t need
approval. But the rules vary from area to area, so you should consult your
local council before starting work.
- For more information on planning permission and building regulations, visit www.planningportal.gov.uk.
Who to call
Amdega; 01325 349589, www.amdega.co.uk
Michael Trentham Architects; 020 7231 5931, www.mtarch.co.uk
Glasspace; 01268 782307, www.glasspace.com
Bartholomew Conservatories; 01428 742800, www.bartholomew-conservatories.co.uk
Wickes; 0870 601 1216, www.wickes.co.uk
Vale Garden Houses; 01476 564433, www.valegardenhouses.com
Marston & Langinger; 020 7881 5700, www.marston-and-langinger.com
Dear Fiona,
I bought a house with a 5-month old £97,000 Amdega Orangerie. It leaks. Some of the external battens are starting to split and there seems to be unfinished workmanship. However, Amdega refuse to fix it. They say, "we can not be 100% confident that the original owner ..... has maintained the structure to the standard we require for the warranty to be valid". If it was not maintained to the standard required, they would not fix it for the original owner either. So what is the difference? Even if the property changed hands 24 hours after conservatory completion, the warranty becomes worthless. We have both been had, I am afraid.
Graham Boyd, Slinfold, West Sussex
Hi Cally, I enjoyed your article about conservatories, but I wanted to let you know about Marston & Langinger's non existant guarentee. We bought our house 5 years ago and the previous owners had constructed a beautiful M&L consevatory just 2 years before selling. Not long after we moved in the conservatory started to leak in heavy rain. I rang M&L but was surprised to find out that the extensive bells and whistles guarentee was only valid for the people who had it built, ie the previous owners. I tried to argue the case but got no where. I had to pay for their workmen to come and fix the leak (which started again about a year later). For such a reputable company I think it is ridiculous that the guarentee is not on the conservatory, especially as people often move house.. I am not sure if this is the same for other companies as well.
fiona mcgregor, chiswick, london w4