Bespoke Conservatories

April 24, 2018

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April 25, 2018

UPVC Conservatories

Published by John Francis at April 25, 2018

UPVC Conservatories Prices, Designs & Features.

5 good reasons to install a UPVC conservatory.

Conservatories come in different shapes and sizes, but no matter which style you prefer, it’s a good idea to decide beforehand what material you want your conservatory to be built from.

UPVC conservatories have a strong presence in the market place, and are really well worth considering. Here are some of the reasons why.

1 Choice of conservatory styles.

There are so many designs to choose from for the look of your new UPVC conservatory. All the well-known styles are available, plus you can create your own bespoke look if you so choose.

Popular Types of UPVC Conservatory

Victorian UPVC Conservatory

With its 3 or 5 facets giving it a rounded appearance, the Victorian style is elegant and ornate.

Popular to feature dwarf walls and French Doors.

Lean-to UPVC Conservatory

The simple sloping roof and rectangular or square design makes the lean-to very popular.

One of the lowest priced conservatory designs.

Edwardian UPVC Conservatory

Medium to large sized rectangular extensions with 3 or 4-sided high roofing.

The nice high ceiling gives plenty of headroom.

Georgian UPVC Conservatory

Similar to the Edwardian design, but with more ornate features and styling.

Likely to use Astragal bars in the glazed window areas.

Shaped UPVC Conservatories

p shape Often a combination of 2 designs in 1. Conservatories, such as the P, T, L or B bring their own style.

Best suited to larger sized conservatories with plenty of room.

Besopke UPVC Conservatories

Gull-Wing Lean to Conservatory Don’t want to be like everyone else? The go your own way and do something completely unique.

How about a purpose built kitchen conservatory?

2 Energy efficient UPVC conservatories.

There are 2 problems that can make any conservatory uncomfortable to live with, and those are with the room getting too hot or being too cold.

These 2 issues not only impact on your enjoyment of the conservatory itself, but can also result in higher household heating or cooling costs.

UPVC is a type of Vinyl and is an energy efficient material in its own right – a poor conductor of heat and cold, which is exactly what you need.

To put it into context, UPVC has 1/1250^th of the thermal conductivity of Aluminum.

Cutaway uPVC Window section.

Your conservatory is constructed of a series of uPVC profiles. The energy efficiency of the profiles is further enhanced by them featuring multiple chambers inside. This chambering is claimed to reduce heat transfer by a further 30%. In general, the more chambers, the more energy efficient.

Another “plus point” for the profile chambers is that they can contain galvanised steel reinforcing to give a significant boost to structural strength.

UPVC does not easily expand and contract. The effect of this is to maintain effective weather-seals, thereby avoiding draughts or water penetration.

Alongside the use of good quality double glazing in the room, having a upvc frame means you have one of the most energy efficient conservatories in the market.

3 Choice of colour & appearance.

Whilst white UPVC remains a very popular choice, more homeowners are looking to give their conservatory a more contemporary look. This is manifesting itself in more use of colour, with quite a good proportion opting for greys or dark colours.

Coloured UPVC is created in 2 different ways:

Coloured foils: The profile is “wrapped” in a coloured or textured film (or foil) and then it is bonded to the frame under heat & pressure during manufacture. Foils are colour fast and are designed to not peel or crack during the lifetime of the frame.
RAL spray paint: Usually applied at the factory, spray colours are also bonded to the surface of the PVC and give the same durability as foils.

The main difference between the two options is in the available colour range. UPVC foils will have around 20 colours, but RAL paint will have over 100 shades to choose from. Both offer wood-grain timber effect surface finishes.

Foil Colour uPVC Conservatory Frames

compare prices

4 UPVC Conservatory security & safety

There are a few areas of concern with regard to conservatory security & Safety.

Firstly, in terms of security there are the glazed areas, and then the doors.

For the glazing, the glass is always fitted from the inside (internally beaded). This prevents wholesale removal of the sealed units by a burglar outside the room. Any window openers will feature key lock handles and the locks engage in multiple points around each window (multi-point locking).
For the doors, they will also feature multi-point locks, with 3 or 5 lever mortice key locks. Any sliding door will be fitted with “anti-lift” tracks to stop the doors being jemmied open.

Window & Door locking systems.

Secondly, in terms of safety the conservatory will be fitted with toughened, tempered safety glass to meet the UK building regulations for the use of glass in “high-traffic / vulnerable areas”.

This means, in practice, that any glass that comes within the following criteria must be safety glass:

Any glazed area within a window below 800mm from floor level
Any glazed area within a window that is 300mm or less from a door and up to 1500mm from floor level
Within any glazed door up to 1500mm from floor level.

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5 UPVC conservatory prices.

The cost of a UPVC conservatory, compared to that of Hardwood timber or Aluminium is consistently lower.

On any given comparison between the same type, size & specification of conservatory prices, UPVC is going to give you a really good deal against Aluminium or Hardwood conservatories.

Obviously, the cost of a new UPVC conservatory is going to be based on the final design you choose, and the interior finishing, but here is a general guide to prices for UPVC conservatories.