Conservatories and building regulations

New building regulations will include conservatories later this year.

Conservatories are currently exempt from building regulations subject to certain criteria such as the position, size and intended use of the conservatory.

However, there are changes being proposed to building regulations in England and Wales that are currently under government review and which are widely expected to require all conservatories to comply with a revised document L building regulations due to be implemented in October this year.

In terms of construction the regulations are likely to stipulate minimum levels of insulation for a traditional concrete base and also deeper footings than at present, both of which could add a few hundred pounds to your base costs. Low E double glazing will also be mandatory for all conservatory glazing to ensure that heat is retained inside the structure resulting in an energy efficient home extension in line with the government's target of reducing carbon emissions.

When the conservatory installation is complete a certificate of compliance will need to be obtained from your local authority to confirm that all components of your newly constructed conservatory meet the tighter energy efficiency requirements under the newly revised building regulations. Your local authority will require a fee for both the inspection of the conservatory and issue of the certificate of conformity. For all conservatories constructed from October 2010 this compliance certificate will need to be provided when you sell your home.

Despite some increases in the overall construction cost, DIY conservatories will still offer great savings over high street installed prices. However, from October this year their inclusion under new building regulations will inevitably add higher levels of bureaucracy, some additional costs and possibly extended timescales to your project. If you are considering installing a conservatory this year you may wish to consider these points when deciding on your installation date.

Including conservatories within building regulations will ensure that minimum levels of insulation are provided by all conservatory suppliers and eliminate low specification cheap DIY conservatories from the market place which have previously been sold purely on price alone with little or no consideration being provided towards energy efficiency or climate control.

As a leading supplier of DIY conservatories we have always promoted energy efficient conservatories using argon filled low e double glazing with a 1.2 U value. We do not expect to need to change the specification of our products to comply with these new building regulations which in turn also means that we will not require increases in our prices.