Conservatory roof ? Glass or poly carbon?

[smillion]

Looking at having a new conservatory fitted but a little debate about the roof. The supplier suggests that if its glass we'll end up spending £2k on blinds, and proposes the heat reflecting 35mm poly carbon roof.

This is a 6m x 4m room and so is quite large and will be in full sun midday to sunset

Anyone any thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks

Marc

 

[andrewcliffe]

glass if you want to use it in the rain otherwise it will drum.

 

[rf065]

Glass everytime unless cost is an issue, you can always fit blinds later.

Russ

 

[Dave Richardson]

We used twin walled polycarb o our conservatory roof & it's very noisy when it rains, &tends to get condensation between the walls which then turns the gap into a mouldy mess.

can't recommend it at all
Dave

 

[Will]

Ditto - polycarbonate will make a hell of a racket when it rains.

A glazed roof will be more expensive, but worth it in the long run IMHO.

Will

 

[Piff]

Glass much better, for same reasons as above.

 

[Dieselman]

Neither.
Go for an insulated mock slate or lead effect, that way you get better aesthetics, as much winter sun, much less summer sun and much better heat insulation.
Have a dense concrete floor with insulation under the slab as it will then act as a heat store absorbing heat during the day and giving it back at night.

Better still have a garden room instead of a conservatory.

 

[C240Sport97]

glass means you can see the stars at night

 

[Druk]

and polycarbonate gets all green and grotty. Glass is great but does need blinds.

 

[ringway]

Neither.
Go for an insulated mock slate or lead effect, that way you get better aesthetics, as much winter sun, much less summer sun and much better heat insulation.
Have a dense concrete floor with insulation under the slab as it will then act as a heat store absorbing heat during the day and giving it back at night.

Better still have a garden room instead of a conservatory.

I agree, because 2k for blinds in a 6m X 4m conservatory is a low estimate.

If a lot of the windows are shapes (triangles etc) you could possibly treble the figure depending on who you have to do the installation.

Also there are many pitfalls with certain types of roof blinds: Whicker/rattan/woodweave/pinolium blinds look superb, and although they do shade the sun they also heat up, which negates one of the main reasons for having them.

Pleated blinds do have some solar reflective fabrics but are just superb at gathering insects and then squashing them into the fabric when the blinds are retracted.. Nice... Bad news in rural locations..

The figures mentioned above are for manual operation.
If you wished to have remote control operation you could be getting in to the £15-20K range.

 

[popuptoaster]

my mum and dad had a conservatory fitted with polycarb panes in the roof instead of glass, been up about 20 years but they regularly have to reseal or replace the panels cos they sag eventually, also as said they are bloody noisy in the rain.

 

[MrT]

and polycarbonate gets all green and grotty. Glass is great but does need blinds.

+1, my parents have polycarb. in their conservatory and it looks awful and noisy as others have said.

My choice would be tiled roof and make it a garden room...

 

[Ade B]

Don't agree with fake slate or lead, use 'real' materials and it will look better... as mentioned you could use the room to make use of passive solar gain.
UV will also damage polycarbonate in the long run.

Have a look here for something a bit different from the usual plastic conservatory.

Ade

 

[Dieselman]

Don't agree with fake slate or lead, use 'real' materials and it will look better... as mentioned you could use the room to make use of passive solar gain.

Or indeed active if one uses solar tiles. He isn't going to be able to use real slates on a UPVC conservatory though due to weight, is he.?

On another note do you know a manufacturer of bespoke conservatory roof systems for an existing conservatory.?

 

[Ade B]

Or indeed active if one uses solar tiles. He isn't going to be able to use real slates on a UPVC conservatory though due to weight, is he.?

Depends on the structure, but I wouldn't stick slate on a conservatory full stop. Nor would I use UPVC frames if I had the choice.

We may at some point sort something out for our flat, sedum roof to give upstairs a garden and exposed timber structure for me

We're working with the company in the link earlier at the mo, pricey but amongst the best in the business if your after something glassy.


Ade

 

[Dieselman]

Depends on the structure, but I wouldn't stick slate on a conservatory full stop. Nor would I use UPVC frames if I had the choice.

Ditto, but already existing.

We're working with the company in the link earlier at the mo, pricey but amongst the best in the business if your after something glassy.

Glass is out as there is an existing flat double skin insulated top which I want to cover with a nicer roof.

Ideally I would get rid of the whole thing and have a full width garden room built, but in reality the benefit is hardly worth it.

 

[del320]

We've had our aluminium framed conservatory for 15 years or so and I chose double glazing for the roof. Leave the vents and hoppers closed and temps will easily exceed 30c. Bird crap gets welded to the outside and insects get trapped on the inner ledges.

View attachment 13815

Neighbour's conservatory roof is polycarb. Less light transmission therefore cooler but as already stated, noisy in rain, creaks and groans as temps vary and has got green mould trapped as well as the bugs.

This year's project is to work out the weight of our glass roof with a view to replacing with a conventional tile one using the existing frame (reckon it will be about the same) and so create a garden room. Less heat loss, no direct sun in summer but plenty of low sun in winter.

Nowadays, wouldn't consider a clear-roofed structure.

 

[andrewcliffe]

We have a glass conservatory. After specifying the extra for the glass we couldn't afford blinds so we've made our own using voile panels. Two hooks in the brick wall at one end and one of those expanding curtain poles at the other and two voile panels stitched together.

Cheap - very. Effective - yes. Washable - yes. Amateur looking - not too bad!

 

[crammy69]

We had a 7mx4m Conservatory built 2 years ago, and given the size and our insistance that we didnt want roof ties/bars we had no choice but to go for polycarbonate roof as that amount of glass would have been too heavy.

As said before during rain -it drums like a mad thing!, but on the flipside in Summer its not unbearable, and our furniture hasnt faded ( as it would do with a glass room).

 

[smillion]

Lots of useful feedback here thank you - although there seems to be a split conclusion - .......

Thanks again for the feedback