Replacing a conservatory

[mattED1986]

Hi

I have a fully glazed conservatory at present which was on the house when I bought it, never really liked it as its hard to make it into a 'room' having glazed panels to the floor, also as britain seems to be getting more windy its flexing sometimes is abit of a worry!

So ive been looking into knocking it down and rebuilding it with a 600mm dwarf wall, re using the existing slab then putting the new conservatory on top of the wall.

Last year I indian stoned around the patio area of the conservatory and noticed a small footing probably 200mm deep with 4course of brick bringing it up lever with the floor slab, making the conservatory flush with the finished floor, my question is would this footing be ok to build the brick pier off with it only taking the weight of the 600mm high wall??
And could I incorperate a DPC into it somehow without digging down to form a new footing etc??

hope it makes sense!

 

[noseall]

If you slabbed around the connie and was able to see the foundation bottom from the depth of a slab dig then i would say that the footings are practically upon the soil.

I'm not saying they will not be suitable, certainly at 200mm thick they have a chance.

But why bother dithering with such an important part of a job?

 

[Richard C]

Not worth the risk using old footings they could cause you all sorts of grief; demolish the cons, dig out & start again.

Also be aware that Building Regulations have changed regarding what constitutes a conservatory (& hence being BR exempt) since your old one was built;
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/conservatories/

More importantly, the dimensions you can now build to without Planning Permission have also changed &, depending on the size of your old cons, you may not be able to build a new one the same size without PP.

 

[dhutch]

Its also worth noting that adding a 600mm dwalf wall while making it more solid will proberbly not have a huge impact on the abilty to heat the room during winder.

If you where wanting a well glazed winter room i would be looking to make a decent amount (maybe 40%? of the walls full height (rest dwalf+glass) and then fit a conventional well insuluated roof rather than a glazed/plastic one.

That said, the one i aquired with my house bar two very short lenghts of dwalf walls its plastic below and otherwise all glass with a plastic roof and im not about to do anything about it. No you cant really use it in winter bar as a bit of a storage area and to use the washingmachine and dryer which stay in there, but its really nice in summer and leaving a few upper windows open to there second locking possition keeps it aired and dry.


Daniel