15 July 2019

Edwardian Conservatory

Edwardian Conservatory

WHAT IS AN EDWARDIAN CONSERVATORY?

The Edwardian conservatory combines clean symmetrical shapes with traditional finishing touches, resulting in a much loved classic and understated design.

This flat-walled conservatory is perfect for those seeking a simple and uncomplicated style of conservatory.

The spacious Edwardian conservatory allows you to extend and your house to create a new dining room, lounge, playroom or utility room. This versatile conservatory style presents you with endless renovating options.

Edwardian conservatories can be incorporated into many homes, traditional and modern alike. This design keeps decoration to a minimum and instead offers a generous amount of floor space – perfect for the inclusion of furniture and plants.

BENEFITS OF AN EDWARDIAN CONSERVATORY STYLE

The Edwardian conservatory makes maximum use of the ground area available, giving you the most additional living space for your pound. Another interesting advantage is the pitched roof. Since a roof has to be angled to shed rainwater, a pitched roof can be made as large as you like.

That benefit is thrown into sharp relief when put against a Lean-to conservatory roof where you will often find that the amount you are able to project the roof from the house can severely restrict the size of the conservatory.

So, by starting with an Edwardian style conservatory, you begin with the maximum size conservatory that your garden can accommodate. From here you may wish to make adjustments for cost, but this is the best place to begin.

In essence, this light and airy conservatory style adds space and style to your home. Adding a bold, classic touch to even the most modern of homes.

You will certainly be enjoying the Edwardian’s timeless aesthetics for many years to come.

EDWARDIAN CONSERVATORY DESIGN IDEAS

Square or rectangular in shape and is without the typical facets found in a Victorian conservatory. The Edwardian conservatory style, in all its simplicity, allows the occupant to clearly see the exterior of the house, providing an indoor – outdoor experience.

Edwardian conservatories are available in a range of different build types. The style you choose will of course be entirely dependent on your property size and space:

  • Standard Fully Glazed
  • Large Fully Glazed
  • P-Shaped Fully Glazed
  • P-Shaped Dwarf Wall

Let’s look in more detail at some of the choices you’ll need to make when designing your Edwardian conservatory.

EDWARDIAN DWARF WALL CONSERVATORY

The traditional Edwardian conservatory is built using a dwarf brick wall around the bottom, upon which will rest the UPVC framed windows.

This classic look might not be to your taste – especially if space is limited and you are going to be building a small Edwardian conservatory. Letting in more light would be a much better option in a case like this – so you would need to think about how to create a more spacious feel for your interior.

If you want a dwarf wall anyway – or you have a large Edwardian conservatory – you can build it at the standard height of 600m from the floor or ask your installer to build one that is slightly higher. It really comes down to a matter of personal choice.

Why build a dwarf wall? It can help tie-in the look of your conservatory with the brickwork on your house. It also provides a barrier between the floor and your windows, so that you don’t get dirty splashes of rainwater on your glass.

Modern Edwardian conservatories – indeed, conservatories in general – tend to eschew such classical design features as dwarf walls and replace them with glass. Rather than opting for a French Patio door, for example, you could go one for that is bi-folding.

What is a bi folding door? It generally opens from the middle and collapses into a neat concertina shapes to the side of your conservatory. This has two benefits:(i) it lets in more light, which will make your extension appear bigger; (ii) it links together the outer and inner spaces of your home.

DOUBLE HIPPED EDWARDIAN CONSERVATORY

By using a “hipped” roof, an Edwardian Conservatory can be added to almost any house, including a bungalow. Quite simply, a hipped roof is a standard Edwardian pitched roof (gable end too). It is best explained by using a bungalow as an example.

A conservatory roof would normally be attached to the fascia of the bungalow roof. Now imagine the apex of the Edwardian roof and the seeming impossibility of joining the two.

This bit of building magic is achieved by simply rotating the conservatory 90 degrees so that the fascias of both roofs are joined. The they meet we install a box gutter to carry away the rainwater from both roofs.

GLASS CONSERVATORY IDEAS

You don’t have to use floor-to-ceiling glass throughout your extension. But if you have a small Edwardian conservatory, you will probably want to use less brick.

Energy efficient conservatory glass should be your first choice – as it will help retain heat and turn your extension into a living space that can be used all day long and throughout the year.

Energy efficient glass uses gas that’s trapped between the panes to prevent heat seepage; it can also be self-cleaning – meaning that you won’t need to spend lots of your valuable time cleaning your Edwardian conservatory.

THE EDWARDIAN CONSERVATORY ROOF

Put bluntly, the type of roof you choose for your Edwardian conservatory can make or break the design. It’s therefore important to think about this aspect of the design process very carefully.

Polycarbonate conservatory roofs are cheap, They also need to be cleaned frequently and are not effective at retaining heat or keeping out noise. If you’ve spent lots of money on your Edwardian conservatory, you’ll want to crown your achievement with something more aesthetically appealing.

Glass conservatory roofs are a step-up from polycarbonate. They are thermally efficient and sometimes even self-cleaning. But you’ll need to invest in tinted glass to keep out unwanted glare.

Tiled conservatory roofs are better at insulating and soundproofing than the above two styles. But they are lot more expensive too – so you would need to think about whether this extra investment was worthwhile.

DO I NEED CONSERVATORY PLANNING PERMISSION?

If you can answer yes to the following questions, your Edwardian conservatory will most likely be granted planning permission:

  • Will it be built to the rear of your property or the side – and not at the front or facing a highway/public road?
  • Does your conservatory design exclude plans for any such extravagances as balconies or verandas?
  • Will the final size of your conservatory occupy less than half the space of the land surrounding your home as it was built originally (taking into account in your calculations the size of any outbuildings, like sheds)?

The above questions aren’t limitless. Further caveats may apply depending on the type of property you own.

Flats, maisonettes and grade listed buildings would not fall under the same criteria as outlined above. If you live in Scotland or Wales then, again, different rules might apply.

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