Building a self build conservatory is really quite a straight-forward task and if you are a competent DIY enthusiast you will find adding a new conservatory to your home is relatively simple and not as daunting as it may first appear.

The following is designed to provide a general handbook to the process of installing a new DIY conservatory and whilst not intended to be a detailed construction handbook should provide you with the basics.

1) CONSERVATORY BASE

You have two choices with regard to the type of conservatory base. You can either select a traditional excavated base or you can use a pre-fabricated steel base which will speed up the installation process.

Traditional Base

If you choose the traditional base route you may prefer to use a local builder to build the base for you as the accuracy of the brickwork is vital in ensuring that your new conservatory can be installed easily and efficiently. Your DIY conservatory supplier will provide you with the base diplomacy to suit your selected conservatory and the base must be constructed exactly to these diplomacy. Using an experienced builder to build the base should make sure that the base is built square, to the right dimensions and that the footings are excavated correctly. If drains need to be re-routed your builder will have the necessary experience to do this for you all through the course of construction. Always agree the cost before work commences and make sure you check the base yourself when the builder has refined to make sure you are pleased with the refined result. It can be hard to get a builder back on site once he has went onto his next job and any discrepancies in the brickwork could cause problems all through the conservatory installation.

Of course you can construct the traditional base yourself and many of our customers have done so but it is time-consuming and very hard work so the savings you will make here by responsibility-it-yourself will need to be justified against the amount of free time you have to do the job and your expertise in building the foundations and laying bricks.

Steel Base

Installing a pre-fabricated steel base is much quicker and simpler than constructing a traditional base as there are no large excavations to undertake so there is minimum disruption to your garden and no need to go any drains. These bases are naturally made to order, delivered in kit form and are quite straight-forward to install by two persons over a couple of days or so. If your conservatory features dwarf walls, these will naturally be provided as steel cassettes with a variety of external finishes including brick tiles or alternatively, supplied ready for rendering. The base itself is fixed to the wall of the house and sits on adjustable legs that are seated onto concrete pads making it very simple to level the floor which will naturally be supplied with insulation and often comes complete with carpet. A steel base can be a cost effective alternative base for your new self build conservatory, especially when you compare construction times and the fact that there is small disruption to your garden. Once completed, these factory built conservatory bases are often very hard to tell apart from a traditional constructed base. You could even take the conservatory with you when you go house!

2) INSTALLING YOUR NEW DIY CONSERVATORY

Most DIY conservatories are supplied complete with installation instructions that are designed for the novice installer and will cover fixing the walls of the conservatory, installing the conservatory roof and glazing the conservatory structure.

In general terms these instructions will walk you through fixing the French door, the welded cill, the conservatory windows, the corner posts and the conservatory roof. The most vital factor to continually check when installing any conservatory is to make sure the frames and cill remain utterly and level throughout the construction. All screw fixings and their positions should be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the DIY conservatory supplier.

The roof structure will include an eaves beam that will sit on top of the window and door frames, a ridge beam or wall plate that will be fixed to your house wall and glazing bars that will connect between the ridge or wall plate and eaves beam. All components should be supplied factory cut, marked and pre-drilled ready for fitting and apart from trimming the guttering to size there should be no need for you to cut any of the roof components. The roof layout plot will enable you to identify which component and which glazing panel should be fitted in which position. Where the conservatory joins the house you will need to fit lead flashing to form a weatherproof seal.

3) FINISHING THE CONSERVATORY INSTALLATION

With the conservatory walls and roof installed your next task will be to glaze the roof. If you have chosen polycarbonate roof glazing this is a relatively simple task and involves placing the glazing into position and knocking on the PVCu cappings to form a weather tight seal. The roof plot will indicate the required position of each panel. If you have chosen a glass roof the process will take longer due to the additional weight and nature of the material.

Budget DIY conservatories may be supplied with the windows and door factory glazed but made to order conservatories are commonly supplied with windows and doors unglazed. Not only does this help to make sure that glass is not broken all through the installation process but the windows are commonly supplied much longer to provide slimmer sightlines and there could be shape and safety issues if the frames were supplied glazed due to the considerable weight of a glazed window.

Most windows and doors are now internally beaded using a “knock-in” glazing bead and the glazing process should become relatively simple once you have glazed a couple of apertures. Glazing packers are used to support and pack the glass so it is square in the aperture and the glazing bead is knocked into place using a rubber mallet. If you are glazing all through cold weather it is a excellent thought to emerse the glazing bead in warm water which will help make the bead more bendable and simpler to position. Your installation handbook will detail the exact process used.

Finally, silicone sealant will need to be applied to all joints in accordance with your installation handbook and the internal PVCu trims will need to be fitted to the roof eaves beam, ridge beam and glazing bars.

Your new self build conservatory should now be structurally complete and weather tight ready for the dying internal touches.

You will find much more information on installing a
DIY conservatory here or for detailed information on the
alternative base here

An appropriate DIY conservatory increase the value of you house; all the styles and all the sizes are unfilled in specialized firms or on the Internet. Sun lounge, Edwardian, Victoria, Tent and custom designs DIY conservatories are ready to make your life more comfortable. There are also self build DIY conservatories, as well as and self assembly DIY conservatories.

The Sun lounge is the most cost effective conservatory style. It is also simple to install and you can find Sun lounge self build conservatory that offers living space for any area; Sun lounge conservatory is high insulating, polycarbonate roofing system and multi walled. The Victorian self build conservatory is a classical English stylish design; it offers a very elegant look and with awesome appearances. It is absolutely bendable and it is appropriate for nearly any house style. Victorian style DIY conservatory is unfilled in 3 or 5 facet design, it is high insulated and multi walled too. The roofing is polycarbonate and up to 35mm thick.

There are many color options, such as white frames with bronze roof glazing, white frames with opal roof glazing, and white frames with clear roof glazing or mahogany with bronze roof glazing. Other attractive combinations are mahogany frames with opal roof glazing, mahogany frames with clear roof glazing, golden oak frames with bronze roof glazing or golden oak frames with opal roof glazing.

The Edwardian self build conservatory is really elegant and has strong lines, giving maximum living space; it is easily bendable to any house style and bungalows. This DIY conservatory type must be high insulated, multi walled and have a polycarbonate roofing system. Color options are usually similar to Victorian DIY conservatory style.

The shape DIY conservatory is a stylish amalgamation of Sun lounge and Victorian style. The amalgamation can be designed also with Edwardian and Gable front style. The style can be diversified; a T-shape conservatory has the both sides and is recommended for larger conservatories. There are also B-shape conservatories; it is also appropriate fir any style, such as Sun Lounge, Victorian, or Edwardian. The roof can have glass or polycarbonate fitted between the rafters. The roof ventilation is the most vital part of the roof because here is the place which will start to warm with the sun.

You must avoid transforming your conservatory into a hot house; at least 25% of the floor area must be door opening and windows to make cross ventilation. As the providers are very bendable when you design your future conservatory, question to position vents and doors where you want to take the necessary ventilation and explanation. You can choose French doors to handle your master door.

Sun blinds are nearly obligatory for your conservatory, if your conservatory is too bright or too hot. There are many types of conservatory blinds, some are necessary to reduce the heat, other to reduce the suns bright. There are conservatory blinds able to reduce 86% of the energy coming from the sun. The range of fabrics and designs is really large and you mst choose the conservatory blinds that fit your conservatory design.

So you’ve chose to add a new conservatory to your home and are joining the growing number of people who have realised the most economical route is to buy a DIY conservatory and either build it yourself or use a local builder to build it for you. Assuming you have already chose on the style and size of the conservatory all you have to do now is make a choice as to which DIY conservatory to buy.

It sounds simple enough but if your knowledge of conservatories is limited to what style will look excellent on your house and you are, like most people, searching the internet for the best deal the choice unfilled could prove daunting and confusing. There is an nearly endless choice of conservatory specifications for you to choose from ranging from low budget conservatories to high specification models and it is vital not to simply look for a cheap DIY conservatory but one that will suit your specific supplies.

Using the search terms of DIY conservatory or self build conservatories in your favourite search engine is likely to return hundreds of thousands of links to DIY conservatory supplier sites plus many sponsored or paid for links which will probably direct you to auction sites as well. Research shows that most users don’t click back further than the first three pages of results but this will still give you around 30 different DIY conservatory supplier sites to look at and all will have different product specifications and different prices. So how do you make the right buying choice?

Obviously you will want to get the best value for money you can but going for a cheap DIY conservatory may not be the best choice depending on what you intend to use the conservatory for and whether you want it to be a year round extension to your home.

After all, the conservatory will be a permanent fixture on your property for many years to come and there are a lot of other design features that need to be taken into consideration. To place it another way, buying the cheapest conservatory now may seem like a fantastic bargain but once installed, you will have to live with it until you choose to go on.

There are essentially two main routes to buying a self build conservatory:

DIY SUPERSTORES

Some of the search engine links will take you to the online sites of some of the major DIY superstores where you will be able to view their offerings which will naturally be standard size models with minimum specifications designed to keep the price down. They will probably be quite basic in terms of design and limited in the number of options(if any)unfilled. Opening vents and doors may be fitted with basic locking systems, you will probably be limited to a 16mm or 25mm polycarbonate roof in one end and the double glazing is likely to be standard glass with no heat retention properties.

The fact is that these DIY conservatories are specifically made for the superstores where price is king and specification comes second. The components are usually sourced in bulk from developing countries where expenditure are very low which naturally means they will be made from standard size windows and doors that simply lock together using frame connectors. This keeps the price down and whilst it does simplify installation, using a connector between each single window module does increase the sightline and reduce the glass area. The PVCu frame may only be 60mm deep and the windows and door will probably feature an external glazing bead which could allow the glass to be removed from the outside.

This type of product would not commonly be offered by any respectable local home improvement installer because the specification is dated and the refined product would not have a quality feel and appearance.

Buying a DIY conservatory from a superstore does but have the advantage that you will probably be able to view a sample conservatory in their showroom although you may find it hard to find anyone who will be able to discuss the project with you in any detail due to the thousands of different products these stores sell. It is simply a catalogue number to them which may come complete with a telephone help line.

Having said that, DIY superstores sell a huge number of self build conservatories every year and if you are on a very tight budget and are prepared to accept the lower specification you should be able to find a decent size DIY conservatory for less than