Conservatories

[ianess]

Does anyone have any horror stories to get me in the mood before the builders start?

[woofgang]

well twice now I have had double glazing firtted by different firms in different counties and both times some of the windows delivered have been the wrong size. Fortunately, both times the fitters expected it and measured the delivered windows before ripping any out....

[Holmbrae]

 

Best buy we ever made you will forget any problems you may have the first time you sit in it and enjoy the summer and winter nights. Enjoy

[gazzawazza]

Being a brickie by trade, I've built many bases for conservatories, but before I start I always warn people that they can be too hot to sit in, especially south facing ones.  I've been told by some people that they wished they'd listened to me, so, consider including as many cooling measures as you can afford.

Make sure you get a brickie who actually cares about his work (there are some of us around!)

My sister had a conservatory built about 18 months ago by some builder who told her that "it would be better to have them build the base as it would save them money" (how the heck he worked this out I'll never know as all it would have cost them for me to do it would have been the materials)!

When the base was finished they asked me to come and have a look.  There were lots of things wrong with it; for a start, the brickwork was messy with joints too big, but the main problem was the fact that they'd built the inside leaf of the cavity wall (thermalite blocks) hard up against the outside brickwork.  This meant that the wall was now solid, therefore there was no insulation, but also that there was now no way of preventing damp from penetrating. 

When they confronted the builder he said that there was damp-proof at the door reveal.  He just didn't seem to understand that DPC is used at door and window reveals to prevent damp because the two parts of the cavity wall (inside and outside leaves) touch at these points, whereas his wall was touching throughout the whole wall area.  He said that they "weren't to worry as they'd done loads of these bases and they'd never had any complaints."

I told them to ask him to put it right (would have took less than a day) but just wanting it finished they let him get on with it. 

 

[gazzawazza]

The other week I was round their house and my bro-in-law sheepishly pointed out some damp patches that have appeared, whilst the builder responsible seems to have done exactly the opposite... and I bet I know who'll get the job of sorting it out!

[sddsddean]

I'm with Holmbrae; best thing we ever did to the house. Also take on board gazza's warning. Our conservatory is Northish facing, so is quite pleasent all year round. My brothers gets full sun all day on a summers day. You could roast a chicken in it!!! We also saved a lot of money by doing a lot ourselves. We dug the footings and poured them, laid the stone, polystyrene, dpc and floor slab(get fibre reinforced concrete; costs naff all extra and saves having to worry about reinforcing mesh), got a mate to do the cavity brickwork, another mate to do the electrics. Everest quoted us �16,000; we did it (including floor tiles[kept natural brick wall finish] and furniture) for �8,000.

[ianess]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

Now that it`s complete we wish we`d done it years ago.

It faces North-West and even today [14/12/04] it`s pleasantly warm with minimal heating, plus we have the added advantage now that our new back door is on the side of the house, that draughts are almost totally eliminated.  Reducing our overall total heating bill.

All good news.....thanks again.