Discover the true costs of fully fitted conservatories. See real conservatory prices.
Fully fitted conservatory prices can be quite high if you don’t know what you are doing.
How do you solve that?
Simple:
However:
So:
You might be looking for fully fitted conservatory prices for your needs, but can’t find an accurate figure.
The reason for this is:
There is no one answer to that question. The prices change with each tiny little detail.
It completely depends on your needs and specifications!
Your fully fitted conservatory prices will be wholly reliant on the style you want, the colour you select, the size of the conservatory, and how complex you want to base to be.
If you want a simple and small lean-to conservatory, your fully fitted conservatory price could be as low as £3,500. On the other hand, if you want a high-end Gable conservatory, you could find yourself paying upwards of £20,000 to get it fully fitted. As you can see, fully fitted conservatory prices vary greatly, and to find the one for you, you need to know what you want.
Here’s the deal:
You cannot expect to set up a conservatory based purely on what you want. Since it is an extension of a building, it needs to be within regulations.
For example, if you live in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, you might need permission to add any feature to your house. Getting the permission might add to the cost of your fully fitted conservatory.
The conservatory cannot be bigger than 50% of the total land surrounding your original property. This calculation also needs to factor in greenhouses and sheds that you may have.
It cannot be higher than the tallest part of your house’s original roof. It must also be separated from the main building by external windows, doors, or some other relevant partition.
Your fully fitted conservatory prices must also include an independent system of heating the conservatory. It needs to have temperature control, and be able to be turned on or off.
In order to make sure that the building regulations are met, the conservatory specialist will first send a designer to assess your property.
It is his job to find out if the conservatory site is level or not, if there are any drainage pipes, or if the desired site lies over obstructions like gas mains.
He will also examine the wall you plan to attach your conservatory to. He will ensure that it does not get in the way of any windows, gas flues, or plumbing vents. His examination will help him recommend to you what design styles work best for your property.
His assessment and time will be added to your fully fitted conservatory prices.
Once you have discussed your conservatory design ideas with the designer, the conservatory specialist will send a technical surveyor.
While you may feel that this addition to the fully fitted conservatory prices is unnecessary, it is not so. Correct planning can help the job go much more smoothly.
The entire process might take about six days for a simple design, and goes up for a more complicated fully fitted conservatory. Prices of labour and installation go up to reflect this. That’s why the style of the conservatory is so important in calculating the fully fitted conservatory prices.
As we discussed earlier, the more complicated the design, the more it costs to install. However, it is important to understand why the fully fitted conservatory prices are higher for a more elaborate design.
You have the simple Lean-To style which is a basic rectangular shape that can be as big or small as you need. It ‘leans’ against a wall of your house, which is what gives it the name.
The lean-to has a sloped roof that has its highest point against the house wall and gently slopes so the rain water flows off easily.
A Victorian style is a pretty looking style with a three or five faceted bay window on one end. This gives it one side that is curved rather than straight. The slightly complicated style means you pay more in fully fitted conservatory prices for this design.
The Edwardian conservatory style gives you a great deal of floor space. The highlight of this style is its roof, which can be as high as you want. A lean-to roof has a slight slope, but an Edwardian roof is not dependent on its width, allowing you to create a higher roof than you could with a lean-to.
The Gable style conservatory is all about the grand gable roof. This gives your conservatory a dramatic appearance which the others might not be able to.
All these styles can be adapted into shapes to create versatile living spaces. Some common shapes are L-shaped and P-shaped.
The L-shaped variation can be used to ‘wrap’ the conservatory around your house, against two walls. It can also be used to create an L-shaped extension with only one wall against the house.
These shape variations add to the fully fitted conservatory prices because they obviously require more material. The shapes are created with additional frames and they will obviously have more windows.
Now:
You may wonder exactly how the difference in styles affects the fully fitted conservatory prices.
Let’s take the example of a Victorian style conservatory in comparison with a lean-to.
A lean-to is a simple rectangular shape, while the Victorian has a ‘curved’ end. When calculating the fully fitted conservatory prices for these two styles, you can see that the base work for a lean-to would be simpler, thus cheaper.
It’s a simple rectangle while the Victorian base needs to take into account the three or five facets.
It’s not just the base work either. Because the Victorian design is more elaborate, it requires more frames, and more windows than a lean-to of the same size. That is another reason for the difference in the fully fitted conservatory prices for these two styles.
Another factor that would affect the fully fitted conservatory prices is the style of door you want. If you want a patio door or a bi-fold door, they will be more expensive than a single opening door.
The biggest factor, style-wise, in the increase in fully fitted conservatory prices is the roof. They are much more complicated in construction than the sides. They need to be double glazed sealed units with angular cuts. Therefore, the more complicated the roof design, the more drastically it affects the fully fitted conservatory prices.
While it may seem easy to reduce your fully fitted conservatory prices by cutting corners, it usually proves to be more problematic in the long run. The smart way to reduce your fully fitted conservatory costs is by understanding what cost is essential and what can be avoided.
For example, you might think that you can save money by not insulating the floor, but you’ll find that this ends up costing you more in the long run.
To start with, you can save a lot of money by getting quotes for fully fitted conservatory prices during the off-peak times of the year. Because the sales are slow at these times, you may get attractive deals and offers.
You could do away with the project manager and lower the fully fitted conservatory prices that way. It can be done, but you will need to be prepared for a lot of work.
You can find your own builder and negotiate prices with him. However, you will need to ensure that the footings are the correct depth and the materials are exactly what you want.
Getting a large, well-known installer could add to your fully fitted conservatory prices. You might find a better deal with a smaller local installer. However, you need to ensure they are certified and will do a proper installation.
If you’re finding it costly to get the exact brick match, you could go for a cheaper option, such as LBC commons. You can use these to create an attractive and effective design feature.
You can look at options for materials. For example, timber might look great and provide excellent insulation, but is the most expensive material. You can control the fully fitted conservatory prices by opting for uPVC frames instead.
These might need replacing every few years, but they are easier to maintain than timber, and are much cheaper.
One way of ensuring low wastages and unnecessary additions to the fully fitted conservatory prices is by telling the surveyor to not order the frames, glass and roof of the conservatory until the base is ready.
This allows him to plan his order according to the ready measurements. This reduces the bloating of fully fitted conservatory prices because of wastage due to inaccurate measurements.
If a detailed plan shows your fully fitted conservatory prices to still be to high, you might want to take a more drastic step and scale down your design plans.
While French doors and bi-folding doors might look more dramatic, they are also more expensive. You can get the same space-saving with sliding patio doors that are cheaper and give the same wide opening for your conservatory.
It might be tempting to have an Edwardian conservatory which you can only just afford by replacing the glass roof with polycarbonate. Don’t give in to the temptation!
This multi-chambered plastic roofing panel does not have the insulating property that glass has. Not only do you end up with higher heating costs, but it can also be very noisy when it rains.
It is better to settle for a less elaborate design that allows you to choose better suited material. This way, you can enjoy your conservatory all year round, irrespective of the weather!
Also, why not find out your fully fitted conservatory cost with our free online conservatory cost calculator right now!