Help/advice for old conservatory roof.

HI everyone,
New to this, but I'm just hoping someone out there can help. We have a large conservatory (26 X 14) which we inherited with the house.Talking to neighbours it must be about 15 years old. It only has a clear (ish) upvc roof, and the glare & heat is unbearable, It also leaks in a couple of places and looks like its starting to craze & crack in places. Time to replace it with something better we thought. Problem is all the companies we have contacted want to take off the whole roof as it is only 16mm & replace it with 25mm, but this comes at a very high price. All we want is to get it replaced with 16mm which I know is still made as I've looked it up online. I know it will be cold etc in winter but we just intend to use it summer times. Anyone in East Anglia/ North Norfolk with ideas & reccomendations? Thanks

If the rest of the cons is sound, I would go with the thickest polycarbonate roof you can find. I have 40mm which I believe was the thickest available at the time but I think you can now get 50mm. If you do decide to completely replace the roof, the cost difference between the thinnest & thickest poly roof panels probably won’t be a great deal more.

The reason they want to replace the whole roof is probably the amount of agro involved in trying to replace all the seals & ensure it won’t leak when they are finished. The existing ones will be totally shot & won’t survive removing the panels & the amount of agro in replacing them all isn’t really worth the hassle. They could be fiddling around for a couple of days trying to replace them & it may be almost impossible to get them out without causing some form of damage to the roof bars whereas replacing the complete roof can be done in a matter of hours.

To prevent glare you want either opaque panels or foil inserts, which also help reduce heat transfer/loss. Don’t, however, expect any magical cures; the thicker & more compartments the poly roof has the better but whatever the thickness, you will still fry in summer unless the conservatory is designed with adequate cross ventilation; we have double doors in all 3 sides & it’s fine but on hot days, we have to have at least 2 sides open to get through ventilation.

I’m also in Norfolk (Diss) & the company that built my cons. 3 years ago has now ceased trading (as they do! ) but the roof was supplied to them by a factory in Norfolk somewhere & so should still be available.