ROOF REVIVE OF YORK

[CityBuilder]

One of our clients asked this Question on Conservatory Roof Insulation:

We have seen press adverts about having a conservatory roof insulated [our conservatory floor area is 21 sq yards] ] We have learnt most firms stick-silver foil-to the conservatory roof panels to act as a sun-reflective barrier, whilst other firms use Luminexx Office Window / Car Film as a reflective material. One firm said they would only consider boarding the whole conservatory roof out using their own boarding system but wanted £500.00 for doing so. The question is does boarding out the roof do all it's claimed and is it worth spending the extra money on, or should be just buy three rolls of stick-on-foil ourselves from Homebase for £40.00 and do the job ourselves? What is the market rate for this type of job?

[bednobs]

well, without trying to sound mean if they are "your clients" i presume they are paying YOU (rather than us) for your advice?

[craft1948]

I live in York and have never heard of you...............

[buildersmate]

Oh Lordy - this really is quite a simple question for anyone in the building trade.
Insulating with silver foil is only useful for preventing partial ingress of UV light, which creates heat inside the conservatory - so it helps prevent excessively hot temperatures in a South or West-facing conservatory in the summer.
Insulating with a boarding system acts in much the same way as insulating a flat-roof with slab materials - it not only prevents the ingress of heat in the summer, but more importantly it prevents some heat getting out through the translucent roof if the conservatory is to be anything more than a freezing box-room in the winter.
To my way of thinking it is well-worth doing, HOWEVER you and the client need to think about the reduction in light caused by a non-translucent material in both the conservatory and (more importantly) any ancilliary room internal to the conservatory. With many conservatories being built onto existing patio doors, failure to consider this may result in very low natural light levels in the room beyond - it depends on the configuration.