Dismantling Conservatory. What can be salvaged?

[Minatoar]

Will be taking down my 20 year old conservatory at the weekend to make way for an extension.
I have offered my neighbour any parts which are salvageable as he would like to build a conservatory.

I wasn't involved in the construction and dont have a clue about how to go about taking it down.
I've managed to remove the glazing beads on one panel and can see how to take out the glass.
Looks as though each panel is joined to the next with screws through the glazing channel.

I would be grateful for any advice on the best way to deconstruct the conservatory and which parts you think could reasonably be salvaged.

 

[garyo]

You can salvage 100% of them - that's what I found when I sold my P shaped one five years ago.

Work from the top down -

• Remove lead flashings etc, then remove the ridge finishing strips and finales - they all just click on, and they might have a little extra silicone here and there for good measure.
• Click the top caps off the roof glazing bars.
• Unscrew the end caps of the roof glazing bars.
• At this point there's nothing much keeping the glass roofing panels from sliding out other than the self adhesive black foam sealing strips at the edges.
• Remove all glass.
• Remove all inside ridge cladding and window eaves-beam cladding.
• At this point you should be able to see the bolts that connect the glazing bars to the eaves-beam and ridges plates.
• IIRC a couple of M8 nuts at each end of the glazing bars. Remove them one by one until you only have a couple left, then phone a friend: The ridge and glazing bars support each other and you don't want to leave the ridge hovering in mid air or vice versa. Lots of clever use of ladders will help
• Cup of tea.
• remove window eaves-beam
• Now, all that's left is the window units - these are easy by comparison, as you've already found out: Remove window beading, remove the DGUs, then unscrew the frames. I expect the underneath of the sills might be caked in expanding foam or silicone.

ETA - just found this which will give you a good idea... there's very little (if any) cutting/fettling when assembling so no reason it can't all be re-used: http://www.tradepriceconservatories.com/assembly-guide.pdf

 

[noseall]

I can't think of anything worse that re-fitting a second hand conny. Just thinking about setting out the brickwork to try and make it work for a pre-existing conny makes me want to weep.
Let alone all the missing bits, worn/perished/hardened rubber gaskets, ill fitting (memory prone) parts, compressed foam gaskets.
Horrendous.

 

[magicmushroom666]

Maybe best let the neighbour take it apart so he knows how it all goes together? A big pile of bits would be a nightmare to sort out.

 

[mfarrow]

We sold ours on eBay for £100 and the guy collected and dismantled.

Doing it via the neighbour sounds like a horrid ordeal.

 

[garyo]

Maybe easier to just swap houses with the neighbour? What's his wife like?