Turning conservatory into an extension.

[fandyman]

Hi,

I wonder if someone has experience as when I contacted my council they did not know and told me to research online (I know - it's bad but I think they are not obliged to give advice over the phone?).

I have an old rotting conservatory with a polycarbonate roof that is opened up to the living room and does not meet building regulations at the moment. I would like to replace the old glazing and doors with new modern glazing improving the U values and also replace the polycarbonate roof with a new lightweight tiled roof with no windows. I was quoted with such roof having U value around 0.15 which should meet building regs.

I've heard somewhere (could not formally verify online yet) that to be qualified as an extension (apart from meeting the insulation regs for floors, dwarf wall and roof) the amount of glazing that remains has to be maximum 25% of the space's floor area.

Now, I am not sure if the 25% is counted as just the conservatory floor area or the entire room which includes living room area as well.

Would anyone be able to advise as this will tell me whether I will be able to achieve the effect I want (turn the existing conservatory into extension by just replacing the polycarbonate roof with a solid lightweight tiled roof with insulation and replacing the doors/frames like for like with modern glazing; I am pretty sure the dwarf wall and the floor is already insulated to meet building regs).

Appreciate any post on this,

Thanks

 

[dormermike]

Doing something similar at the moment albeit not using the full footprint of the Connie and for the bit we are building on we are ripping it all out incl the floor and starting over.

For the remaining bit we are not building over, we are removing dwarf walls to ground level and using it as a base for a patio.

 

[fandyman]

Are you laying down new foundations or are just exposing existing for the building inspector to approve insulation is sufficient?

 

[^woody^]

Your extension could be a fully glazed greenhouse if you liked, as long as you could prove by calculation that the heat loss met the required standards. You see lots of fully or significantly glazed extensions.

Likewise for all other parts of the structure. The building regulations can be met in various ways, not just the traditional concrete foundations, brick and block walls and tiled roof.