New conservatory

In November of 2016 Susan and I decided that we should renew the glass in our conservatory, due to there being several double-glazed units which were becoming misted on the inside. We therefore asked the company, County, to come along and give us an estimate for renewing all the units.

In the intervening period, before the salesman had arrived I had been looking at the solid conservatory roofs which were now acceptable to Building Regulations. This was the first escalation in the plans! More were to follow!

When we discussed this new idea with the salesman it soon became clear that the existing conservatory frame was not suitable to accept the roof conversion, due mainly to the fact that the side walls sloped up towards the house and the proposed new roof required level side walls.

We were now faced with a further escalation of our plans and of the cost.

A visit to the company’s showroom was undertaken where we decided upon a new conservatory with a cream, woodgrain finish, which would be surmounted by the Ultraframe 380 tile effect roof. This to be in the red colour which most closely matched the tile-hung rear aspect of our house. It took some time for the surveying to be carried out and for the details of the order to be passed to the manufacturers, complete with the dimensions and specifications. The new building would be erected on the existing base and dwarf walls, which were deemed suitable for continued service.

We, meanwhile, decided upon and purchased, after several false starts, the two LED lighting units, which came from Paul Neuhaus in Germany, via Edwards Lighting in Tonbridge.

We were told by County that the work would commence on March 27 2017, but in practice this slipped by a couple weeks to April 10th. On this date two men, Dean and Tony, arrived at about 8.30 a.m. and set to work to dismantle the existing structure. Susan soon discovered their individual preferences for kettle drinks and kept them supplied accordingly. Dean and Tony proved to be two most excellent chaps whose work ethic was first class. They were polite, friendly and helpful and, to Susan’s approval, tidy and organised in their dismantling and disposal of the old materials. A wide and heavy-duty cling-film was applied to the carpet and other flat surfaces to protect them from damage whilst the work was in progress and a ground-sheet gave further protection. Our bi-fold door and double-glazed sash window kept the outdoors out and the indoors in.

With the application of the necessary sealants, the front and side frames were erected, which formed the basis for the new roof. As shown in the photographs this consists of aluminium beams forming the hips of the roof, with large blocks of insulating material slotted into place to form the full shape of the roof. This is then reinforced with sheets of oriented strand board which is covered in turn with a self-adhesive water-proof membrane. On top of all this is the plastic tile-effect panels which are screwed down and clipped together along the edges. In our case the colour was “terra brick” which was a good match for the adjacent tile hanging. White Marley guttering was then fitted to front and sides of the roof.

Window glass units were then fitted, plus the solid insulated panels on the blind side.

The next job was to cover all exposed indoor areas with a pink plastic film in preparation for the plastering of the inside of the ceiling. This was carried out by a two-man team, Fred and Darren from Hastings, who were quick, tidy and skilful. I was particularly intrigued by Fred’s expertise on the stilts which he employed to reach the higher part of the vaulted ceiling. These men did an excellent job and left the ceiling ready for emulsion painting.

At this point it became apparent that this finishing task would not be carried out by County as we had expected and that we had to find our own decorator! Strange!

The next tradesman to come along was the electrician. This was Greg, trading as GNR Electrical of Cross-in-Hand. He was a most affable young man and carried out his work with a ready smile. He fitted the two Paul Neuhaus LED lighting units to the ceiling and wired up the three-gang switch which we had supplied. All was tested and approved and another phase in our project was completed.

We now had to deal with the unexpected question of finishing off the ceiling, so on the evening of Wednesday May 3rd I telephoned Colin Chapman of Oakfield Building Services, a company we had employed on several occasions previously. Colin came to our house on the following morning and gave us an acceptable price for the job.That same evening he phoned to say that Alan, his associate, would arrive on the next morning to carry out the work. As promised, Alan arrived and did their usual fuss-free job of applying three coats of white emulsion to the ceiling. Many thanks to Colin and Alan for such a quick and efficient job.

The last job for County was the final inspection by Jason. He was thoroughly impressed by the whole job, saying he had seen several examples of this conversion but that this was the best yet.

We were now left with one finishing touch which would be carried out entirely en famille. We had previously bought on-line two ceiling fitting curtain tracks, of 5.2m length and 3.1m length. John came and did the cutting to length and the screwing up of these tracks.The next job for us was to find suitable curtains or curtain material. A visit to Dunelm in Maidstone gave us the choice of colour and materials but Susan had to go to their online store to get exactly what she wanted.

This arrived in the form of ready-made curtains which were both too long and with unsuitably wide header tape, six inches wide as opposed to the more usual three inches. Out came the scissors, the sewing machine and the overlocker! The header tape was removed, cut down to three inches wide and the cut edges overlocked. Next we measured and cut the material as needed and Susan sewed on the now three-inch wide header tape. It is my established task to draw up the curtain tops to the required width, calculate and insert the curtain hooks and finally hang the curtains under the eagle eye of Susan, who gives final approval.

We now have a lovely, sunny, dining and sitting room, a fact which the accompanying photographs will confirm.