Conservatories can be quite frustrating for homeowners across the UK, often being too cold or noisy to be enjoyed for the full 12 months of a year. This leaves many asking how to insulate a conservatory and wondering how much this will cost.
The short answer is there are a few ways of insulating a conservatory, including install roof insulation, roof replacement or even wall insulation. These can cost between £800 and £8,000 depending on which you choose.
Why Insulate A Conservatory
There are many reasons why you may want to insulate your conservatory. A number of these stem from the fact that conservatories are often too warm in summer or too cold in winter. Ultimately, this can mean the room is unusable for around 4-5 months of the year. Adding insulation, can help to keep heat in the room within the winter months and also to stop the sun making the room too warm in the summer.
As well as getting more use from an insulated conservatory, it can save you money on your energy bills and also add value to your house. We all know that energy bills have jumped up in recent times. So, if you have to turn the heating on in your conservatory less it will save you significant amounts of money on your energy bills.
Estate agents are also more likely to value your home at a higher price if it has adequate conservatory insulation. This is because the room is deemed as more valuable, since families can spend an increased amount of time in there.
How To Insulate a Conservatory
There are several ways to insulate a conservatory. The most common one is to insulate the conservatory roof, however you could also look at insulating the walls or floors.
Insulating the different parts of a conservatory will have a different impact. Generally speaking, insulating a conservatory roof will have a much bigger impact on your home compared to insulating the floor. This is because the majority of heat in a conservatory is lost through the roof and any cold outside weather will transmit through the roof rather than the floor.
Below we’ve explored exactly how to insulate a conservatory and the different options:
Conservatory Roof Insulation
The most common way of insulating a conservatory in the United Kingdom is by insulating the conservatory roof. This is because the conservatory roof is often the least insulated part of the room (if you don’t count the windows). They are often made from either glass or a thin polycarbonate, which are both extremely poor insulators.
Conservatory roofs are insulated by a layer of foil quilted insulation, being added to the underside of the conservatory roof. This is then covered by either uPVC or plasterboard and plaster. This significantly improves the insulating properties of the roof and can often transform a roof.
Advantages of conservatory roof insulation include the room being cooler in summer, warmer in winter, the room being quieter, reduced energy bills and reduced sun bleaching. A list of advantages this long can make it a bit of a no brainer if you are looking to insulate your conservatory.
Conservatory roof insulation is the method of conservatory insulation we would recommend here at Conservatory Advisor. It fixes the biggest insulation problem in a conservatory at a relatively low cost.
Conservatory Wall Insulation
Adding insulation to the walls of your property is a common way to improve the energy efficiency of your home. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that it’s also a good option for insulating your conservatory.
Adding conservatory wall insulation to your room involves wall insulation being placed into the cavity within the external conservatory walls. This reduces the amount of heat transferring out of your home through the walls. In turn, this can then significantly reduce your heating bills. For conservatories, this can also help to keep them nice and warm in those cold winter months.
Although adding insulation to the walls of your property is a proven method of insulating a home, in our opinion it is not the best for conservatories. This is because the walls within conservatories are often not very big, being less than waist height in most instances. So the majority of the heat your conservatory is losing will be coming from other areas, such as the windows and roof.
Therefore you could insulate the walls of your conservatory but still have a poorly insulated room. This could mean you may barely notice the impact of insulating the walls!
Conservatory Floor Insulation
Another way of insulating your conservatory is by insulating the floor. This is often an option people don’t know exists but can be a good option to consider.
Insulating a conservatory’s floor is done by adding 25mm insulated sheets made of polystyrene and celutex or similar screed. This sits underneath your carpet or flooring and stops heat escaping through the conservatory base. This in turn can help keep your conservatory warmer in those winter months, making the floor temperature more pleasant under foot and your energy bills cheaper.
This can be another cost effective way of insulating your conservatory, however there are a couple of things you should consider:
- You need to consider the height of your current flooring compared to doors etc, you will need to maintain a gap so your door can open over the flooring.
- The cost of replacing your flooring should also be considered. Your current flooring may not be able to be relaid after it is pulled up to add the insulation.
So, conservatory floor insulation can be another good option for improving your conservatory. Particularly if your conservatory floor is often extremely cold in winter. However, it is more than likely the majority of the heat lost in your conservatory, is lost from the roof or windows. So we would recommend only insulating your floor after these have been done.
Conservatory Window Replacement
As we’ve mentioned higher up in this article, the majority of heat in a conservatory is lost through the roof and windows. So making sure your windows are energy efficient is vital to improving your conservatory’s insulating properties.
Double glazing was introduced many years ago to improve the energy efficiency of windows. However, a lot of heat can still be lost through double glazed windows. This means windows can lose a lot of heat in conservatories, especially older ones. Making window replacement an obvious way of improving it’s insulation.
Window replacement in conservatories can have a huge impact on the room. However, it is also very expensive since 70%+ of a conservatory is often covered in windows. It may also be quite complex to replace a conservatories windows without disturbing the structure.
So even though replacing a conservatories windows is an excellent option when insulating your conservatory, it is often out of many peoples budgets.
What Is The Best Way To Insulate A Conservatory?
Above we have discussed the various ways of insulating a conservatory. However, in our opinion there is one stand out way of insulating your conservatory and that is conservatory roof insulation.
This is because in a very high percentage of cases, the majority of heat is lost through a conservatory’s roof. It makes sense to us to fix the biggest problem first. There are also a lot of other advantages you will gain as a by product, such as reduced noise and sun bleaching, which you won’t get from the other options.
We would recommend adding Conservatory Roof Insulation first. Then if you are still unhappy with the insulation in your conservatory, consider the other options.
