Find a Conservatory Installer you can trust in Brigg.

Lean-to conservatories are often known as Mediterranean conservatories or sunrooms and are a great way to add more living space when you’ve only got a small amount of room to work with. They usually have clean lines, a rectangular shape and attach to the side or rear of your home, which makes them one of the easiest conservatory types to build yourself.

So how do you build a wooden lean-to conservatory? The first step is to decide what you want it to look like. Most lean-to conservatories are constructed of glass and the wood frame, but you can choose to have dwarf walls too. Dwarf walls are low brick walls that are useful if you’re planning to plumb in radiators, have air conditioning installed or put plug sockets in the conservatory.

When you’ve decided what your wooden lean-to conservatory is going to look like, you’ll need to get the materials. You’ll need to choose a hardy wood – oak is the most expensive but also the most durable – and source glass for the windows. You’ll also need to decide on a roof material and work out the correct pitch.

The first step to building your wooden lean-to conservatory is to dig the foundations. You’ll then need to level the earth, then add concrete to the correct height, which should be lower than your property’s existing damp course. Then, you’ll build up to the damp course, which will be your conservatory’s floor level. Don’t forget to make sure it’s even.

If you’re building a dwarf wall, start it from the base and build up to no more than 1 metre high. Once the cement is dry, place external sills on top of the dwarf wall. You’ll then need to secure the frames; start with the one that secures to your property, then do the same for the rest, connecting outwards until they meet from the two sides. Then put up your doors.

Now it’s time to build the roof. This should be simple if you’ve bought your own custom-made kit. Place the roof ridge on top of the frames, then add the roof rafters between the roof ridge and hip bars. Fit your glazing sheets and guttering – it’s important that your wooden conservatory roof has guttering just like your house, otherwise your conservatory roof won’t last very long and could even cause rainwater to rot your wooden frames.

Once you’ve built your wooden lean-to conservatory, all that’s left is to decide on how you want to decorate it. But if this all sounds like too much, get in touch with specialist wooden conservatory installers who will be able to give you a quote for building you a lean-to conservatory.

If you don’t want to go down the route of changing the roof on your conservatory, you can make your conservatory warm by adding curtains or blinds. Blinds are the best option since you’ll be able to fit them to your conservatory roof as well as the windows. There are plenty of options available, from Roman to Venetian blinds, and you can install them yourself if you’re feeling confident. Otherwise, there are plenty of blinds installers that will be able to fit them for you.

When you build a new wood-constructed conservatory, or any type of conservatory, you’ll need to dig a trench for the footings. You’ll need to dig to a minimum depth of 600mm and at least 300mm below your property’s damp proof course. When you dig down, you might expose obstacles such as underground pipes.

If this happens, you’ll need lintels for your wood-constructed conservatory. These are usually concrete and protect the pipes or obstructions from being crushed. You may also want to use steel mesh for additional support.

Building Regulations state that if an opening is formed in a wall, the structure above the opening needs to be supported. This will be especially relevant if you’re building a wooden lean-to conservatory. It says that there are two ways that you can use lintels to provide support.

The first way involves using a steel lintel to support both the inner and outer leaf of a cavity wall. It can then serve as a cavity tray that directs moisture from the cavity through the outer skin of the wall as well.

The second way to use lintels is to use two steel or concrete lintels. They support each leaf of a cavity wall construction. You’ll need separate thermal insulation and a cavity tray as well.

Whatever type of lintel you use, it should have a suitable bearing onto the wall at each side. If you’re not sure, speak to the manufacturer of your wood-constructed conservatory, or ask a reputable company to install it for you.

If you’re planning to build an orangery extension on your property, then it only makes sense to estimate the possible cost before getting started. However, like several other home improvement projects, the cost of building an orangery extension is based on a wide array of factors such as your location ( within the UK), the size of the building, the orangery style in question, the materials to be incorporated as well as the finish you’re expecting to get.

Generally, to build an orangery, you’d have to spend within a range of £10,000 to £70,000. This variations in price depends on the factors earlier mentioned such as the type and size of the selected orangery. For a small orangery featuring a uPVC frame, you can get that done for nothing less than £10,000, but the price can jump to £60,000 or more if you want a large, timber-framed orangery built. For a superior quality, large and timber-framed orangery featuring a new fitted kitchen, you’d have to incur up to £70,000 in expenses (when you add the price of the new kitchen units as well as appliances).

The finish you want to achieve is one of the most influential factors determining the price of your orangery. If you want just the bare essentials (low end), the price ranges from £10,000 to £20,000, meanwhile the price for a blend of both basic and customized items ranges between £20,000 to £40,000. However, if you have a high taste and looking to get the best possible orangery with all fixtures and fittings of great quality, you’d have to spend between £35,000 to £60,000.

Furthermore, orangery’s cost will also be affected by how you wish to make use of the space, meaning an extra work may be required. This must also be taken into consideration to get a more accurate estimation of the cost.

How To Tile Conservatory Roof

If you’re thinking about replacing your old conservatory roof with a tiled one, you’d probably want to know how you can go about it. Tiling of a conservatory roof comes with a plethora of benefits with the most significant one being a much improved insulation which helps you save money on heating bills. This activity is also, however, a task that is best done by a professional. It requires working at height which can be very dangerous and also demands a particular set of skills as well as confidence to make the project a safe and successful one. In other words, if you lack any of the aforementioned attributes, then we’d strongly recommend that you call in a reliable professional who can guarantee the best results for help. In this article, we’ll walk you through the conservatory roof tiling process.

✓ Remove the existing roof. As you would have guessed, the first step is to remove the old existing roof and dispose off in an environmental friendly way.

✓ Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) rafters are fitted so as to develop the structural frame for the new solid roof.

✓ Waterproofing. The next step is to add 100% waterproof sheets under the GRP rafters.

✓ Insulation. Once the waterproof sheets have been installed, it’s then time to fit the insulation boards making sure that there’s a 15mm gap between the boards and the waterproof sheets.

✓ Outer sheets. To minimize the number of roofing bars and increase the conservatory’s efficiency, you’ll have to include the outer sheets at this stage.

✓ Tiling. This is the final step in the process. Add the tiles to the conservatory roof and make sure that they’re firmly secured. This wouldn’t take forever as most conservatories are not that big in size.

Conservatories and orangeries look very similar, so it can be hard to tell what their differences are. The main thing that distinguishes the two is the amount of glazing they have.

Conservatories usually have a roof that is made up of at least 75% glass. Orangeries, on the other hand, have roofs that are generally less than 75% glass.

Conservatories also tend to have walls that are made up of at least 50% glass. However, orangeries have glass on less than 50% of the wall area.

Orangeries were originally developed to grow oranges in large stately homes. Their mixture of brick and glazing gave the oranges a combination of plenty of sunlight and shelter.

It always an exciting decision to extend your home, be it adding to an existing room or building a new one all together. However, the problem starts when you realize there are so many options giving you a tricky challenge of knowing which to choose or where to start. There are great differences in renovations between homes, but a common question that remains is whether to go for a conservatory or an orangery.

There are large array of differences between the styles and knowing a thing or two about the special attributes is definitely a great way to get started. Let’s have a look!

• Orangeries are generally best suited to traditional-styled homes or with older property making use of matching stone or brick in construction. Meanwhile for a more recent or modern property, a conservatory will be the better option to add the flair to your property.

• Conservatories tend to be larger than orangeries, therefore if you want a smaller extension, an orangery would be your best bet.

• Orangeries are typically rectangular in shape and is traditionally a more regular building meanwhile a conservatory can be shaped to suit your needs. With an conservatory, you can get a T-shaped, L-shaped, curved, double ended and lean-to extensions to suit your preference.

• An orangery usually possess a flat roof at the edges with a glazed lantern section right at the centre. You can also find more luxurious orangeries having two or more lantern sections. However, when it comes to the roofing, conservatories generally have more options. Some are gabled or pitched, others are lean-to with a plethora of choice to finish off the roof.

• Due to the fact that orangeries are made of more brick than glass when compared to conservatories, they usually provide more insulation than their counterpart. If your goal is to use the extension during the winter months, then constructing an orangery is the best bet.

If you’re worried about your conservatory being too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, you can insulate it. Older conservatory roofs are made from inefficient polycarbonate, which means that up to 25% of all the heat lost in a conservatory escapes from the roof.

To insulate your conservatory roof, you can install blinds or curtains – but they can go mouldy from condensation. There are two other options that are more long-term that could be better: upgrading the polycarbonate in the roof or opting for a solid conservatory roof.

You can add a thicker polycarbonate roof panel with better thermal efficiency if the glazing bars on your conservatory will expand to fit. This will offer better insulation, but may not last very long – maybe less than 10 years.

A solid conservatory roof is a new way of making your conservatory usable all year round. Most existing conservatory frames will be able to support a lightweight metal structure and slate-like tiles to match your home’s roof. Or you can opt for a hybrid option where the solid and glass parts are merged together. This will insulate your conservatory roof so it never gets too hot or too cold.