DIY project to convert a 6 x 4 meter conservatory into a snug garden room.

[@Pat0rchard]

Hello. Look if anyone else does this, and its OK to do it, take these extra precautions. Firstly the foil is super reflective, so the sunlight that once came through the poly-carbonate/glass harmlessly into the room is now magnified and reflected at close quarter to the plastic, glass seals etc. At the very least this can cause the seals to cook and crumble, letting leaks in, at the worst, and this DOES happen, its a fire risk. So blacken the original ply/glass either with paint or a suitable membrane that is fire proof, a roofing membrane (or sarking) will do. Secondly, you have extra weight on the roof, it will now want to spread. So please retro fit a tie bar or two if yours doesn't have one. If it doesn't have one its because it didn't need it with the spread and load when it was built BUT it will need one or two now. Dont forget, now its insulated snow will not melt and run off, it will stay and is real heavy. Not trying to disrespect this job, workmanship or scare anyone but just trying to inform and hope to help. Kind regards Pat

[@clinteastwood3684]

I cant believe no-one liked your comment. Pure common sense!

[@Wild-Storm]

do you mean to paint the polycarbonate sheet black from inside?

[@Pat0rchard]

@@Wild-Storm. Hello. Just stop the specular highlights. I would prefer to matt black paint the surface of the rigid insulation sheet that's facing to the sky.. Hope this makes sense?

[@nopt1118]

Great job. Just looking to undertake this. Some questions please 1. What roll insulation (make and thickness) did you use, please 2. Is thd 25mm celotex rigid, and will this be warm enough? Thanks

[@tracievans5019]

What’s the look of it through the blocked up windows from the outside

[@fiveminuteman]

Just doing ours and even with just the insulation it makes a huge difference. Ours already has wet underfloor heating as per whole house so the whole thing now is great. We did it to buy us 5 years time then we will just demolish it and build a proper extension.

[@vineshnair1507]

How did you know your conservatory metal on the ceiling can hold the weight of the wood and plasterboard? Did you get a structural engineer to check and calculate it?

[@thepanurgist]

Researched what other people had done and took advice. A lot of conservatories don’t have structural support in the roof whereas ours has an RSJ on the ridge that is tied into the house wall. I’ve since done another conservatory using lightweight materials (25mm Celotex insulation and then cladded with pvc hygiene sheets) which to be honest is now how I wish I had done mine.

[@NM-no7wz]

Great job. When you say blacken the ply/glass do you mean black paint or can I use white paint? Thank you.

[@ermintrudecampervan6007]

Cool! Nice end result

[@GemmaP22]

Just discovered your video! What a great job you have done 🙌 this is definitely something we want to do with our conservatory as its such a big spacs which is unusable! May i ask how much it all cost? We were quoted £4000 to replace our roof with insulated panels which i didn't think was too bad given the size of our roof, however i would also want to board up soms of the windows etc and maybd clad the outside! Let me know 😊

[@thepanurgist]

Thanks for your comment 😊 From memory excluding the log burner it cost us no more than about £1500 for materials. It certainly is a game changer. Our lives pretty much revolve around this space now, we rarely use our lounge anymore.

[@GemmaP22]

@@thepanurgist you're very welcome and such good value!! Definitely worth doing then 😁 our conservatory is approx 20 ft by 11 ft. Which is bigger than our lounge. I would love to convert the conservatory into our lounge and have our current lounge as a 3rd bedroom! Very exciting to think about 😁😁

[@nattcole]

So, How it's going after almost a year of using it? No damp or leaking?

[@thepanurgist]

All good, no issues and we’ve been through some pretty heavy weather during that time.

[@tristanrobinson5739]

Hi what size timber batons did you use and screws if you can recall. Cheers

[@thepanurgist]

From memory the timbers were 50x25 mm pressure treated lath and I think the screws were 35mm plasterboard screws. Since doing ours I’ve done one for a customer using lighter weight materials (used 25mm celotex insulation and pvc cladding sheet bonded and screwed directly to the roof struts)

[@tristanrobinson5739]

Thanks pal that's very useful. Nice job

[@BT-eh8ww]

this looks great!, i already have plans to do the same to our roof but now I'm interested in covering a wall of windows on my conservatory. did you just covered the glass with bubble wrap insulation (and taped all the seems) and then covered with plasterboard? there is no space in between these layers. How did you attach the plaster board the the window frames?

[@thepanurgist]

Yes the bubble insulation is just taped in place and then over taped on the seams. There is a small air gap between each layer. Plasterboard is bonded to the window frame with a few screws to hold in place while the bonder cured fully.

[@nookrevivals]

Nice!! How does it look from the outside?

[@thepanurgist]

Haven’t made any changes to the exterior as yet. Long term I’m planning to apply a spray on bitumen coating to increase the longevity of the polycarbonate and give the appearance of a traditional roof.

[@Nobumblegumforyou]

If the interior can be done with insulation quilt/plasterboard and batons. Then why do people replace the whole roof and pay out 7.5k? How did you deal with condensation issue? Nice job!

[@Pat0rchard]

If you make sure that absolutely no warm moist air can get to the glass/poly panels there will be no inter-spatial condensation. It can be done, if you seal, tape meticulously (warm roof are an example) but, as in cold roofs should any air get in towards the cold surface it is usually taking away by through vents.

[@thepanurgist]

The seams are taped to segregate the internal and external air gaps to prevent cold bridging and minimise potential areas for condensation to occur.