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Image by Fernisky Frames via www.ferniskyframes.co.uk
Buying a pre-owned conservatory from eBay
Usually when thinking of adding a conservatory to our house, we don’t consider a second hand option first off. Yet if you go on eBay, you will find that there are long established companies which specialise in this business. They often have many years of experience and are very meticulous at taking down the conservatories for living. They can also deliver it to you and assemble it too.
Some examples are this company, or the one we used here.
Choosing a second hand conservatory gives you the extra funds, which you can spend on improvements or even choosing one, which you wouldn’t consider in the first place in the shop, due to the costs!
Is pre-owned Conservatory good quality?
You are probably wondering if second hand will look far worse than the one you just looked at in the fancy catalogue, but let me assure you, there is plenty of second hand conservatories on eBay which are in an immaculate condition.
People move homes often and what one owner considered a good option the new owner might disagree with. They may prefer to have a bigger garden for their young children or on the other side of the spectrum – feel it’s not big enough and want to upgrade that space to a full house extension. (This is the exact situation that has put the conservatory which we bought, on eBay.) It was barely 2 years old, had a upgraded UV, self cleaning windows, and yet the new owners wanted it gone, in place of a bigger extension to the property.
So don’t write it off as a worse quality option to the store bought conservatories, and rather as an environmentally friendly option.
Upgrading the glass roof with an insulation
Whether you chose to go the pre-owned route or store bought one, it’s always good to consider your future comfort and look beyond the colour of furniture and interior design. Will it be scorching hot as if in the green house in summer? Or freezing cold in winter? Probably, Yes!
That’s why it may be wise to jump ahead of the time and install roof insulation straight away. You can find specialised companies like this one or this one to install very efficient thermal roofing insulation on your conservatory.
Conservatory Roof Insulation by ConservatoryInsulationSolutions.com
Investing in a roof insulation service will keep you warm in winter and cool in summer! The opposite of the stigma of glass roof conservatories. This doesn’t have to be a luxury upgrade if you bought yours on eBay and have some spare cash to use up. It varies between the companies but usually starts at around £1800 (and great news! no VAT! as the UK Government recently advised that they would cut the VAT on insulation installation to “zero rated VAT”, in a bid to reduce cost on Energy Saving Materials (ESM)
Roof Insulation by GreenSpaceConservatories.co.uk
We are certainly considering doing it while our conservatory is being built because you simply can’t argue with advantages of thermal roofing.
Benefits of installing a Thermal Roof Insulations
- It qualifies for the Zero VAT category
- Your conservatory is warm in winter months
- The temperature inside is cool in hot summer weather
- Saves you a lot of money on heating bills
- Provides moisture protection & stops draughts
- Reduces the laud noise from rain and sleet
- Allows you to use your conservatory all year round
- Makes the new space feel like part of the house
Be aware of dodgy diy insulation quilts
What I’ve found in my research is that the only Government approved insulation quilts are the Low-E Insulation which are breathable and have a Class A Fire rating. It is used in more than 30 countries worldwide as a standard. Over 1 Billion square feet to date in fact! (Blimey! That’s a lot of insulation!)
If you are interested how the Low-E Insulation works, there is a great article here Knock yourself out 🙂
Tarpaulin covering the walls
Once our bricklayer has finished building the dwarf walls, and it waited for the next step of the built, we quickly realised that we need a waterproof covering from the rain. As it often is in here in England, we can’t depend on the weather behaving itself for long! It will most definitely rain at some point during the build. So it is best to be prepared.
Ideally have a roll of plastic covering ready/ or tarpaulin, to protect the internal walls from flooding. That is, unless you live in a more fortunate climate 🙂 Jammy!
An underfloor heating before floor is laid down
This doesn’t have to be a luxury upgrade! Nowadays there are many underfloor heating options on the market which can be installed as a self circulating system, separate from your house’s internal heating. This way you also won’t need any permissions or house insurance adjustments. Fuss free is what we like at our house too! There are inexpensive smart options controlled by Alexa like this one. Extra cool!
Avoid unnecessary costs when building your pre-owned Conservatory
An important thing to consider is to get a quote from at least 3 different groundworks companies, which will be digging the foundations. We had quotes which were so far in range from one another that it made us realise, everyone simply quotes based on how much they want the job. Some where double the price of others! Not to mention the ‘can-do’ attitude was lacking in two of the companies that came to investigate the job. So my advise would be, don’t rush into it! Start your search for the right groundsmen alongside searching for that perfect pre-owned conservatory without the strict deadline in mind. It’s best to save pennies rather than time.
our journey so far
This sums up the things we’ve learnt so far, building our conservatory I hope you will take something from it which will help you on your project. I would love to be able to share our long awaited finished conservatory here but it is still being built and we are at the stage of ordering parts for the interior finishes. I will share the part 2 as soon as we are done!