Projects

The brief

Replace the house’s cold, leaky conservatory, integrating it more effectively with the rest of the house and upgrading its thermal performance.

The property

The house, built at the turn of the 1900s, had an original first-floor conservatory facing south and west. The original conservatory had a timber structure with coloured glazing in the windows and an opaque glazed roof but the glazed roof had long been covered over with corrugated asbestos sheets.

The solution

To create an energy-efficient replacement conservatory whilst retaining the original glazing pattern and style. To do this we re-built the timber-framed structure using a sustainable hardwood for strength and durability. Precisely cut and painted in the factory, the timber was already finished with three coats of micro-porous paint when it arrived, reducing the on-site build time to a minimum.
We installed low-energy doubled-glazed units with special ‘blue’ glass in the roof to cut down the heat gain in summer, renovated the existing timber floors, and lined the dwarf solid-brick walls with insulation.
To integrate the space with the rest of the house, the doors and brick piers separating the conservatory from the adjoining room were removed and replaced with a steel stability frame.

The result

The new conservatory is now a hidden jewel at the back of the house, a beautiful light, warm room and a peaceful haven from the hubbub in the rest of the house. It makes the most of its aspect and its elevated location soaks up the evening sun when it has been lost from the ground floor of the house.