Other than to dump stuff or dry clothes, what is the point? 21c outside and it's 44.8c in the conservatory. My glue sticks melted.
There's about 1 month a year where it's at a decent temperature in the evenings.
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My parents have done exactly that, I can't remember the last time I was able to walk into their conservatory without falling over a pile of junk. Even in photos from when I was a kid, the conservatory they had built in our old house has crap piled up in it. So useless :(
Surely just get a toilet.
Would love to have one to fill with tropical plants and cactuses.
That's actually our plan. Girlfriend wants to fill it up with big plants and have it as a cosy space, although there's not much of a window in the day where it's cosy. Problem is the plants I've tried to keep in there keep dying.
If you can ventilate it well in summer you might be able to get some tropical species to thrive at that heat, but your best bet is cacti and succulents that are absolutely fine at those temps. A conservatory is ideal because they need full sun and a cold winter rest period to flower, most species are hardy to 5c, many can handle minus numbers as long as you keep them bone dry over winter, it's the damp that kills them. Join the British Cactus and Succulent society Facebook page and you'll get loads of ideas for stunning spaces full of succulents of all shapes and sizes. Branch meetings are a phenomenal place to get cheap or free plants and learn a lot too!
Thank you! I was very disappointed when my succulent went squishy and died, now I both know why and how to stop it happening again.
Don't worry at all! If any succulent grower says they've never killed a plant in they're almost certainly lying 😂 don't let it put you off, keep trying and learning and I wish you many happy years of growing :)
Overwatered.
No such thing as overwatering, really, provided there’s enough drainage in the soil. The issue is most people use the wrong soil for succulents which turns into a peat bog and rots the roots.
I've always thought Succulents sound tasty asf
I had a bonsai on my window thriving. Moved house and couldn't find a spot with good light. Popped it in the conservatory one day while I went to work. It literally cooked it. Was an old conservatory and used to open the door and heat the whole house with it in spring.
u answered ur own question!
Even cacti need a cool period at night… vents needed…!
vents needed…!
I hate my conservatory! Biggest waste of money ever. Baahhhh
Came here to vent!
Often. People use the wrong soil too, just a thought.
Be too cold for them in winter if you get anything that can stand summer heat.
I've got a porch which is like a small conservatory that I keep cactus in. They just go dormant in winter but it's not too cold for them.
Don't they get really cold as well though?
Although they do get very cold in winter they generally stay warm enough for many desert or tropical plants. Often desert plant experience freezing temps over night.
TL;DR - They're crap IMO!
Bought a house with an existing conservatory (wasn't the reason for buying the house).
South-ish facing garden, so it gets soaked in the sun morning (when we get the sun).
In the summer, it was getting stupidly hot and in the winter, really cold as soon as the heating went off (small radiator connected to the rest of the house).
So we insulated and plasterboarded the roof internally which has helped, but it's far from perfect as it's glazed on three sides.
I'd happily knock it down and replace it with an extension, but with building costs being what they are. It'll cost twice as much to remove the conservatory and re-do the foundations as it would to build an extension from scratch.
This was the same as us, so we turned it into a gym. If it's too hot we put a fan on. If it's too cold, well, work harder!
I do my WFH days in my conservatory after doing two years at the kitchen table, hence fixing the warm / cold problem as cheaply as possible.
As it goes, I moved my weights from the garage to the conservatory because it was like an ice box in there in the winter.
By your logic, I clearly wasn't working out hard enough lol
Haha, take what I say in jest.
I can completely understand making a warmer space when you've been stuck on the kitchen table! I got an outside office built for the same reason.
My mum has a "sun room" that she was told would be fuckin useless and she never uses but I've grown out chilli and tomatoe plants in it and it was fucking awesome for it
My dream.
To keep their delicate plants from being harmed by inclement temperatures apparently
I did this.
Currently growing 2 pineapples, mangoes, banana plant, cacti of many-a-different variety.
It's also home to 2 three feet wide and 5 feet tall snake plants and a money tree that is 150yrs old (approx).
In spring/summer my conservatory is a greenhouse and I grow chillies and tomatoes in it.
In winter it makes an excellent drinks chiller, especially at Christmas when the actual fridge is full.
I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to have one, but as a first time buyer found a decent house in an ideal location in a price range I could afford that just happened to have a conservatory. We’ve considered redoing it, but I actually quite like my greenhouse attached to the house
Yea man,your using it wrong,you could be growing fruits
Obligatory *cacti
Both are correct
I moved to a house with a small lean to conservatory, and my succulent plants (I have too many really) have loved every bloody minute of it, like 4 times the size and still going!
However, completely unusable for humans unless I put a fan on.
I'm lucky to live in an area where everyone seems to have a conservatory. So I'm looking for houses with one to hopefully move in the next year or so.
I've got a shit load of tropical plants and cactuses in a 2 bed flat with 3 skylights atm, it's like a plant party on the floor around the window, I just need a lil more light space for my plant children.
It's good for when the temperature is just a bit too nippy to sit in the garden, nice on an evening (,you can leave the doors open for a bit to let the heat out) amazing to sit and read in when it rains.
I'd like one in (on?) my next house, but it's not a deal breaker.
My dad actually broke his arse falling off ours once. We had family visiting and apparently we simply had to have a clean conservatory roof. He had was washing it, stood on the roof which was covered in water and soap, he fell, fractured my mum's arm on the way down and broke his arse bone.
"broke his arse" has really cracked me up, a bad condition of broken arse syndrome
I bruised my coccyx a few years ago and it took months to heal to a point where I didn't need a donut to sit down. I can't imagine how bad breaking your bum would be.
There was a crack right down the middle!
As someone who has bruised their arse bone whilst ice skating, my sincerest condolences to your dad for his. I'd honestly take a broken arm over that again, it's a constant pain... in the arse, I suppose.
That’s a brilliant tale lmao
It wasn't even the first time he fell off. He managed to do a roll when he landed the first time and avoided injury.
My dad actually broke his arse
Ah! I see you're a doctor!
I can't recommend that conservatory roof insulation enough, it's brilliant and completely transformed ours into a proper useable living space that's no longer boiling hot or freezing but an extra room we use every day of the year now. I can't remember how much we paid as it was a good few years ago now but it was worth every penny.
But isn’t your conservatory roof made of glass?
They remove the existing glass/perspex roof and replace it with a proper timber-framed, tiled, insulated roof
Pretty much similar to the existing roof on your house
So, convert it into an extension almost?
Yes, but the planning law has changed since conservatories required glass to be conservatories
Sounds more like an orangery.
Cant agree with this more, i use mine as an office, when i had the perspex roof, if it rained hard i couldnt hear people on the phone, crazy hot and cold, horrible.
Had roof replaced with the guardian roofing system so it looks like slate tiles, mint now, 10 grand but that included a full width set of bifolds, not bad at all, think the bifolds must have been 5 or 6 on their own
Probably cheaper than buying conservatory roof blinds. For some reason they are ridiculously expensive
It is more expensive than blinds - but yeah, not by as wide a margin as you’d think, apparently you’re only allowed to make roof blinds out of solid gold.
Ours was polycarbonate but there are solutions for glass roofs as well (you might need to attach wooden/pvc panels to the roof to attached the insulating panels). You'd possible imagine it'll have a huge detrimental effect on the light in there but it made no real noticeable difference, mainly because you've got 3 glass walls.
Honestly, it's like magic. Only thing I didn't like was the trad double glazing sales techniques (astronomical first quote followed by textbook call to the manager to see what they can do, oh it's your lucky day etc).
I got a couple of quotes to replace the roof. The best quote was £17.9k with discount from about 23k ridiculous price. Should’ve ripped it down and started an extension when we moved in
Ugh yeah the two quotes I got were £30k and £25k. Sounds like there might be a cheaper option to look into based on above…
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Proper British response lmao.. love it
Is it a complete new roof or existing one redone?
Not a new roof, just panels they cut and fitted to the underside of the existing roof.
Sit in one when it's pissing it down outside, it's great!
I would fall asleep. The sound of rain makes me sleepy.
I went out with someone who built conservatories in the late 80s/early 90s. It was mad. Everyone wanted one. It seemed like most of the companies made massive profits for a few years (they didn’t seem difficult to build) and then the craze massively dropped off and they all went bust. I think the ones with a glass roof are the worst for heat/cold.
Solar panels had a similar craze more recently. Essentially the same thing happened.
Whatever people want will attract cowboys, which in turn mean they do shoddy work, which makes that thing get a bad reputation, and so no longer attractive. These fads happened with double glazing, then block paving, conservatories, and now solar panels. It’s sad that we can’t just have a reliable trade industry in our country
My prediction for the next cowboy craze - air source heat pumps. Or is that already happening?
Sort of, heat pumps need you to be MCS certified so there is an organisation that is setting the standard for work and training, maintenance etc. It’s probably the best approach to take whenever there is thousands in subsidies being thrown at the industry
I think it's gone off again now panels are dirt cheap and electricity is expensive.
decking has entered the chat
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You're supposed to trap that heat in there now, and let it into your house in winter
Ive said it before and will again!
Use plastic takeaway containers to capture heat.
Freeze now and come winter, open them up one at a time.
Energy companies hate me!
Viz Top Tips
What's the point in a house when you could just live in a tent?
Go on...
A tent, bloody luxury! What's wrong with a hole in the ground!
You had it easy. We had to share a cardboard box at the side of the road.
Cardboard box? You were lucky. We lived for three months in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank
Luxury mate. I lived on an old 50p for twelve years.
50p! Landed gentry you was. We rented the tails side of a penny with heavy footed neighbours above.
We lived in a dogfish egg case.
You could barely call THAT home.
Breadmaking. They're fantastic for proving dough.
Well I never even thought of this
Be brilliant for drying clothes
Our clothes dry in a couple of hours if we leave them in the sunroom. It's great for drying tea towels as well.
Ooooh, the sun room! La dee dahh!!
Ironically we call it the sunroom because "conservatory" sounds too fancy for a house built in the middle of a cow field.
We're the opposite, we call our sunroom the conservatory. It's not the least bit fancy whatever it gets called though, it was built long before we bought the house, needs significant repairs that we can't afford, it leaks like a sieve, sounds like it's going to collapse under the slightest puff of wind, and one time a bird got stuck in the wall and died and we can still smell it years later 🙃
Mine is nice, airy, wonderfully cool... and stinks of cow shit because the farmer is spreading just on the other side of the hedge, five feet from our open windows 😂
Ah, that fine fragrance, Eau de Agriculture 🤣🤣
That's currently what we use it for. Works wonders.
You could also says what’s the point in gardens as the weather is only good one month a year.
What's the point of gardens?!?
What's the point of doors? They only lead to outside.
I happen to have a different model, and this one leads inside! I wish they could do both.
From now on I am bricking up my doors
I literally did have a door bricked up recently. It was a pointless door.
But you appointed a pointer to point your pointless door!
They are the place where you spend £100 on seeds and soil to grow £5 worth of vegetables (in a good year).
What's the point?
I have a conservatory and it’s the only room in the house that’s actually warm today so I’ve been sitting in it.
I am in Scotland where it’s fucking freezing and rainy and windy all the time so can’t ever really sit in the garden. This way you get the same vibe as being in the garden but sheltered from the elements.
We went for the brick wall route. Not quite an extension, not quite a conservatory. An orangery perhaps? Never really understood that definition. But full brick walls, insulation, windows run along the width and electric velux on the roof.
Made a real difference to the price of course, but we heard similar 'horror' stories from friends who said they couldn't use it at both ends of the temperature spectrum, and one said the wind was also a problem with rattling panels.
Glad we were able to afford the extra outlay, cause 44C is mad, and it's not even warm outside right now!
We had to change the thermometer we had in ours as the heat would destroy the screen. Made it to 55 degrees once.
We tore down the one our previous house owners built themselves which leaked like crazy and rebuilt it with a solid roof and the proper insulation. Decent thermal blinds on the windows too.
Is usable all year round for us now, rather than being freezing (and full of water/ice) in the winter and baking in the summer.
Cat bedroom
My wife uses ours for growing tomatoes and jalapeños.
Also, British summer is fucking freezing. It’s the only way I can get a proper summer day in the UK as an American. We have a futon in ours and I take afternoon naps in it.
We do open the inside door when it's cold so it can warm up the house in the winter. That's a good feature I guess.
Id leave the door open to the house and let it heat my house for a month.
In the winter we do this, in the summer, we open the outside door to cool it down in there.
Looks more posh than a shed.
We got rid of our conservatory finally. It had become a place to leave things lying around. Usable perhaps for a few weeks in the year. Extortionate to heat effectively, impossible to cool in hot summer.
I’d be interested to hear some success stories from others who use their conservatory and how they effectively regulate the temperature within it.
My parents have a south facing one and they use it quite a bit April-October. It’s great for the days when it’s a bit too cold to sit outside for a 6pm gin and tonic. They’ve put a huge comfy sofa in it and it’s nice for reading a book when it’s raining. They have the doors & windows open all day when it’s hot. It gets a fair amount of use!
As a teenager, my brothers and I invented a game we called 'Hot Brother House'. This involved putting on your warmest winter clothes, coat, hat, scarf etc and locking ourselves in the conservatory. The last one to leave the conservatory was considered the winner. For this reason alone, I think it's dangerous to have a conservatory, particularly if you're responsible for 4 teenage idiots.
Cuz they require 0 planning to errect which makes them massively cheaper than an extension, also have had the roof changed on mine to combat the overheating over cooling Look up cosy roof ..
Which type of roof tile did you go for? Did it make a noticeable difference to the heat/cold and noise?
It's not made a massive difference but it's a big conservatory, and has 22 freeking windows .. I'm just trying different thermal blinds
Since the roof tho it is cooler in blazing sun as no heat through the roof. And does retain the heat better . It's not a roof tile, its like a direct replacement for the poly carb that was there .. so cut to size, fitted it in a day
But on average it's like 2c warmer than outside without any blinds
High heat and low humidity is much more manageable than high heat and humidity which is the typical warm weather for the UK
I'm in Scotland, ours is currently 17c.
One month you say?
Totally worth it.
To cure meats?
To dry your tobacco leaves,behind the curtains obviously
Somewhere for the spiders to live
I’d rather have a screened in porch. Never liked conservatories- they’re always too hot, even in winter. And too bright. I keep curtains drawn almost 24/7. But a sheltered area for the wind to blow through? Yesssss. Perfect. Not too hot in summer & comfortable to sit out on. Cold in winter, but nothing a heater can’t fix.
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My Nan puts all of the puddings she makes for our Boxing Day get together in hers because there’s not room in the fridge 🤷🏻♀️
You gotta use them properly, you open them up when it's spring time to heat rest of your home (and therefore cool it as well)
If it gets too hot in summer, they have these magical things called doors and windows, they will cool it further.
In addition, if you didn't have one, what would you do with it instead? Empty grass land which is useless anyway.
So, in the winter, we do open the internal doors to heat the house, in the 'summer' we open the outside door to cool it down in there. But that's having to remember to do it every day.
I took that picture an hour ago, then immediately opened the double doors. It's now 37c in there and it's not cooling down any more than that.
Our garden is very small. I'd prefer the outdoor space as I'd prefer a larger workshop / shed.
to heat rest of your home (and therefore cool it as well)
if you didn't have one, what would you do with it
Wat?
Cos glazing salespeople are often REALLY good at their jobs. Some might say *too* good.
Because there's a 14% chance of you feeling meh in them?
Put a proper insulated roof conversion on to it and it's completely transformed into a practical, bright and airy living space.
Just need to wait a few hours and the garden will no longer be hot but you'll have a lovely warm conservatory
To sit on wicker furniture in full view of the neighbours, according to the much missed Victoria Wood
Get some kangaroo paws (plants) and Sturt desert pea or Sturt desert roses, they all can deal with high temps and freezing nights.
Modern conservatory roofs and insulation is way better than it used to be, so if you get them up to scratch they're fantastic spaces...just be prepared to folk out a good £10k+ to do that. Not cheap!
I use mine like a sauna
Cheap extension. If brick extensions were the same price nobody would buy and staple a greenhouse to their house.
To dry clothes .
“Yeah, but it’s a dry heat”
I just bought two of these humidity and temp sensors like 2 days ago so funny to see one on my feed. They're pretty good for keeping your climate in your house/flat on point!
Our cats fucking love ours!
Trick is to have velux windows/sky light type thing.
Heat rises, open the windows and the heat will just dissipate out the conservatory.
You know those days when the sun’s beating down and it’s like 30C outside and you just want to find somewhere warm to hide? Now you’ve got somewhere great for those.
But wait, there’s more - those freezing winter days where you need somewhere inside that damp and somehow even colder? Don’t worry, we’ve got that covered too!
I inherited a shit 90's conservatory from the previous owners.
I use it for cat stuff. Somewhere to chuck litter boxes, big toys like tunnels, and a cat tree that's a bit out of the way. They like basking in the sun and having many viewing angles for birds including directly beneath them when they land on the roof. Mine are scaredy rescues, they know they can go hide there and no guests will bother them.
There's vague plans to put a proper roof on at some point, but it'll just be so the cats are more comfortable having a shit in winter. It's clearly their room now.
My washing dries really quickly
😐
I used to fit conservatory roof blinds when they were all the rage. It was unbearable some summers, worst was a heatwave in '07, customer reckoned on me and my mate drinking 8-9 litres each of bottled water She'd kindly bought in advance. Didn't go to the toilet once! Also, the amount of droopy, phallic looking candles on windowsills!
They were popular in the 90s because it was cheaper than an extension. Too hot in summer, too cold in winter.
I live in Seville
Welcome to my life!
And imagine working in it 😳
Lizard people I’m telling you they are real 😳😂
Good for plants ennit.
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Why do (a lot of) people get conservatories? Answer: Because you generally don't need planning permission, and they can be erected cheaper than a proper extension to your house.
Which is often a recipe for disappointment. They will be unbearably hot in the summer, and freezing cold most of the rest of the year.
That said, if used correctly, and equipped with appropriate blinds and ventilation, they can be a useful space for overwintering plants, getting an early start on seedlings, and providing space for exotic and delicate specimens.
To keep a conservatory cool in summer: Shade any glass that is subject to direct sunlight. Open as many windows as possible. Follow exactly the opposite practice in the cooler months.
If you are using a conservatory as an ad hoc dining room or lounge: Then you are likely to be disappointed. Maybe look into semi-permanent insulation panels for the roof.
You don't need planning permission, and they add value to the house, also easier to get planning permission for an extension if you have a conservatory previously
The one on mine is over 20 years old and just as shit to use as any other conservatory, i.e., unusable for approximately 350 days of the year.
The plan is to replace it with a double storey extension on the back of the house for a larger kitchen, diner, soft play area for the kids my wife takes on (private nursery) and allow a bigger bathroom on the 2nd floor.
It is the reason why we chose the house we are in now over another. We looked round and the conservatory was so unbearable.
It’s my cats favourite room for about 5 months of the year!
got a black cat, it's her room
Sauna.
Because they don't understand they are too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer . And they don't have enough money to build a real extension that can be used all year round.
In my family's case. it's my dad's smoking room. It used to be really nice until he wrecked it.
Because you can fill it with all sorts of beautiful plants, get to sit in there and enjoy the garden view whatever the weather, and it's also a pre-house place where you can take off your shoes/coat/brolly etc. They are amazing.
I thought my new build flat was bad - that’s hideous. So sorry
The neighbours have one
"It's not a bloody conservatory, it's an orangery" as a posh client told me this week.
It was a conservatory.
Because an actual extension is too expensive for them.
That's why they're called 'a poor man's extension'
Cheaper than a proper extension and would get plenty of light.
Open the windows
We got ours to use as an oven in the summer and a fridge in the winter. I didn’t know you could use them for anything else! 😂🤣
At least it’s a dry heat…
And the heat doesn’t even kill the spiders
Good for storing 3D printer filament, if you bring it inside again at night or on cold days...
Bought a house where the kitchen is part of an open plan layout but essentially a conservatory with a glass roof and a long row of windows. It's south facing. It goes about as well as can be expected in the summer. My house is 35-40 degrees in the summer and 12-15 in the winter (without running the heat like crazy). Currently saving to replace the roof in there with a proper roof and skylights. They are a stupid idea unless you'd like an integral greenhouse for plants.
My mum gave me an avocado plant last week. It’s been in the conservatory and it’s grown about foot in that time.
At this rate I’ll have all the avocados I could want 🥑🥑🥑 living the millennial dream 🎉
They have a place. I wouldn't have one on a south face. We used to play cards and drink in my friends conservatory.
So us builder can cook in them
We had a roof added to ours - it's made a huge difference! The room can be used all year round now! DM me if you want to know the company that did ours - they were great!
I worked in a bakery that had huge pizza ovens and a conservatory glass roof. The job required me to reach into the ovens several times a day. It was pretty hot.
I’m in mine a lot from November to March with a tiny heater on. I think the daylight helps me get through winter .
To torture burglars
I love my conservatory but the rest of my house is north facing and dingy af so I probably appreciate it more.
Mate, if it's that hot out there, you've got a fucking shit conservatory.
Trigger warning: People enjoying conservatories.
We bought a boomer house a couple of years back with the standard godawful uPVC conservatory. My wife's condition for buying the house was that we demolish the conservatory within one calendar month.
But it was spring and too cold to sit outside and we ended up sitting in the conservatory since the living room was a shambles. And we kinda liked it. We decided to lean into it.
We got a professional to paint it, got some marble flooring put in, and my wife filled it with cool plants that would survive year-round. It kinda looks like an eccentric lord's botanical garden now.
You've gotta open the windows in the summer, and it's too cold in the winter, but we actually hang out there every day. It's soothing in the rain and temperate in the summers evenings once it's too cold to be outside.
IMHO the cheap white leaky PVC conservatories that everyone's nan got in the 90s are the worst possible manifestation of quite a practical, pleasant architectural feature.
They are great for about 8 weeks of the year.
Our house had one when we moved in. It's lovely for about a month either side of summer. Otherwise it's too hot or too cold. So we turned it into a gym, with a running machine, a bike trainer and weights. Use it all year round now
becaise they are awesome. really like the indoors/outdoors vibe. rain storms are great. but you can't just stick a glass box on your house without any thought for temperature control or your glue sticks are goo sticks. vents, blinds, maybe uv blocking film, heating etc etc.
Ours has definitely been to dump stuff.
Hopefully we can re-roof it with a normal one at some point.
Just wait until wintertime and it's -44C 🤣
Honestly, no idea.
Even half-brick, double glazed ones are too hot in summer, too cold in winter.
Better off building an actual extension with a heat pump and stick some double doors on IMO. Perfect temperature all year round, and you can still open it up to the garden if you want.
My last house already had a conservatory when I moved in, too hot in the summer and freezing for the rest of the year
Cheaper than an extension, ideal for filling with shit when you have kids.