Bungalows have height restrictions for conservatories except of course when adding on to the gable end. There are two simple and very effective solutions; construct a false gable in the house roof or create a conservatory design which will link to the bungalow using a box gutter.

Creating a false dormer in the bungalow roof conjures up images of stripping off the house roof, wet rainy days and hosts of structural issues. In fact it is a very simple job which can be completed in two days. None of the rafters need be cut in the house roof; simply rafters are added onto the existing roof. A template from the conservatory roof is constructed in the factory, and then the false gable on your home is completed before the conservatory arrives on site. The conservatory is then just another straightforward installation with the house roof already fully sealed. You should ask your builder or conservatory designer to walk you through this process, step by step.

The second method involves designing the conservatory so that the eave of the conservatory attaches to the eave of the house using a structural gutter. Depending on the measurements of the house the conservatory will either be joined to the fascia of the house or to the wall under the fascia board.

So is there a “best” method? Not really. It is a matter of taste, structural and other limitations. Some conservatories are more suited to one design than others. For example, if you aspire to a conservatory measuring say 20ft along the house then it will not be possible to construct a false dormer 20 ft wide. Older houses may also be unsuitable for dormers if, for example, the existing roof tiles or slates are no longer available or if the existing house roof felt is compromised.

We now manufacture around 800 conservatories per year and we expect our new TV advert which will be initially aired on the satellite channel ‘Home’, will help reinforce our position in the UK DIY conservatory market, where we are already regarded as one of the leading specialist manufacturers and suppliers of DIY conservatories to the retail sector.

The advert covers the main benefits of buying from our company including our ‘Pay Nothing for a Year’ interest free credit option where a consumer can place their conservatory order by placing a holding deposit and then pay nothing for a whole year with no interest charges. Our 10 year guarantee and lowest price promise is also covered.

We have carried out numerous  TV campaigns over the years, all with great success and we consider that our latest advert to go out in April is one of the best that we have ever produced.

The advert has been specifically designed to produce direct consumer response with our freephone telephone number and website address displayed prominently throughout. It is therefore expected to produce many DIY conservatory enquiries and ultimately sales.

Our new conservatory TV advertisement is shown below.

The new rules basically mean that in many situations, subject to certain criteria, planning permission approval is not required for conservatories up to three metres in projection for terraced and semi-detached properties and up to four metres projection for detached properties.

This is encouraging some of our customers to have smaller conservatories to avoid having to apply for permission but many of our customers are specifying their conservatory a lot wider to make up for the loss of internal space due to the fact that the width of the conservatory is typically disregarded under the new rules.

Planning rules can be very unclear and confusing to many home owners and we would therefore advise checking with your local council prior to installing conservatories.

It is easy to overlook just how much money can be saved with DIY conservatories in relation to contracting a company to supply a full building and installation package.

The average savings amount to around £4000 and are dependant up on how much of the work you carry out yourself.

Below are the various elements of a DIY conservatory project with average related savings, compared to purchasing the full package.

• Sales person’s commission: £500
• Surveyor costs: £80
• Company’s profit on base and building work: £2200
• Company’s profit on conservatory installation: £700
• VAT on the above additional costs: £609
• Total average savings: £4089

The above figures are estimated for an average size conservatory of sixteen square metres with standard specifications and apply to DIY conservatories in relation to full design, build and installation deals.

The new colours are White Ash and Irish Oak.

These new finishes came out as clear winners in research. Irish Oak was selected because of its natural, subtle tones, which were preferred to more traditional woodgrain colours.

White Ash was chosen specifically to meet the needs of customers who like the look of white painted timber windows and conservatories, but want all the low maintenance and energy efficiency benefits of PVCu.

The profiles are foiled inside and out, making ours, one of the few profile systems to offer this as standard, giving our customers an even wider choice of how they want their conservatories to look.

conservabase is the brand new state of the art steel base system for our conservatories, which makes our customer’s DIY conservatory projects, completely DIY, including the base.

conservabase is by far the most advanced steel conservatory base system on the market, enabling  DIY’ers to carry out the complete project themselves, installing their own DIY conservatories from ground to roof.

The system completely eliminates the need for builders, brick layers, diggers and skips. It can bring a three week project down to just 3 or 4 days!

conservabase meets and exceeds all relevant building regulations and comes complete with fitting instructions and structural guarantee.

For more information about the conservabase system and our DIY conservatories, see: http://www.conservabase.com.

Many of our customers ask for a ‘cut-out’ in their conservatory to enable it to wrap around a chimney breast or a similar obstruction that may be located where they want to install their conservatories.

I can’t remember a single design request that we were unable to accommodate and I would say around half of all the conservatories and conservatory roofs that we manufacture are completely one-off bespoke designs.

Cut-outs are one of the most common requirements to overcome fixed unmoveable obstructions and there is a fair bit of work involved with the manufacture.

We recently manufactured a very large conservatory roof with a large cut-out and I myself was impressed with how it looked and the technical construction of it.

Below, is a photo I have taken of the cut-out section in the roof as it stands on our factory floor.

As you can see from the photo, we have fitted an aluminium box gutter around the cut-out section which will be fitted up against the house wall and around the obstruction.

We have been specialising in DIY conservatories for around 9 years now and the market for these keeps growing year on year.

There is one huge benefit of buying from our company, which is our vast experience in actual conservatory installations which we continue to install in our local area on a daily basis.

This gives us a great advantage when manufacturing and supplying DIY conservatories as we are qualified to give accurate and knowledgeable advice to our customers and can easily help them with their projects because we understand their needs exactly.

Obviously, this gives us an winning edge over our competitors, many of which have never actually installed a conservatory, but simply manufacture or buy them in and simply pass them on.

We can also provide our customers with contacts for the best place to purchase their conservatory accessories, such as conservatory furniture and conservatory binds, yet another way you can be sure of getting the very best products at great prices.

Until now, the maximum width of a set of bi-fold doors that could be installed in a conservatory under an unsupported ring beam was 2.5 – 3.0 meters.

Soon to be released is a brand new ring beam bolster system which is designed to provide additional support under the ring beam and above the doors.

This new innovative product will allow an increased width of bi-fold doors in conservatories of up to 4 meters, depending on the style, design and specification of the conservatory in which they are installed.

The release of the bi-fold door bolster support system for conservatories is due to be released within the next few weeks and is expected to be a very popular option for consumers wanting to open up their conservatory to the fullest extent possible.

Our bi-fold doors are very easy to install and are ideal for the DIY conservatory market.

But what if you already have a conservatory but want a larger one?

By far the best way is to completely remove your existing conservatory, make the necessary alterations to the base and brickwork and replace it with a new larger one, but this can be expensive.

One way is to keep your existing conservatory as it is and extend it with additional frames and either a complete new roof or additional roof section.

This method requires very careful planning and measuring as the new sections will need to be tailor made to fit perfectly.

The photograph above shows a timber lean-to conservatory extended with a golden oak PVCu conservatory section which was manufactured and supplied by ConservatoryLand who specialise in DIY conservatories that are made to measure.