Conservatory Roofs and Insulation

[andy120t]

With all the ice outside I'm looking at the conservatory as a spot that I could wheel a bike into to work on as I'm not allowed to clean carbs in the kitchen 🙁....and have seen lots of adverts and online feeds about (a) insulated roofs/roof panels (b) just putting a tile roof on top - both advertised as just going on an existing conservatory and making it all-year-round usable. Of course, all the comments linked to the ads say how amazing the roof/panelling etc is...but I take those with a pinch of salt.

Has anyone done this to a conservatory - and can either of these actually make it a usable room all year round. I'm assuming it would still need a heater! Thanks for any thoughts!

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I have the Warm Roof System with a fully  insuated roof, I think it is a double Kingspan type (2x 100mm) with lightweight roof tiles in metal  that was fitted when we replaced our conservaory. It's made the conservatory inhabitable all the year round. Very expensive at the time, it has made the conservatory as warm as the rest of the house as I fitted radiators looped into the heating.

My brother like yourself has the standard polycarbonate roof that is a Victorian shaped design. A local double glazing bloke (not a large firm) did the retro fit insulated upgrade. Its is very good and has made his conservatory pretty much as good as mine.
As a result they have actually removed the door that linked it to the kitchn/dining room.

[flatfour]

I'm looking into insulating our conservatory or replacing the double - glazed roof with lightweight tiles.

I've been advised by quite a number of people not to simply have insulated panels fitted inside the roof, as the condensation has nowhere to go and is likely to cause serious issues in future.

The quotes for a lightweight tiled roof and plaster board ceiling are coming in at between twenty and thirty thousand pounds, the higher being around the same cost as the building itself, so we will likely end up doing neither, as we plan to move to Japan full - time when our duties here end.  (A year or two ago the quotes were £16 - 27000, so once again costs have soared!)

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

My brother had his done 3 years ago it cost £7,500 including
 replacement side glass and a Vellux sky light.

His retained original roof that was Polycarbonate not glass, no condensation issues. They used wooden battens where needed for strength, Kinkgspan,plywood, final finish is plaster. Obviously would cost more in 2025 than it did in 2022.
 

[andy120t]

Thanks all - that's good for thought. It sounds as if a few quotes would be in order....certainly the  cheaper options are more appealing (!) as we will only he here for a few more years but that would give us more usable space for the kids.

I had all of my glass replaced a couple of years ago, so it's the roof / insulation. I'll look into the condensation point a bit more too.