In 2022 I had been experiencing a number of problems in my conservatory. It was a bit of a nightmare to be honest.

The first issue was the condensation. Every morning, I would wake up and hear the sound of dripping water in the conservatory. The windows were completely fogged up, and I could hardly see outside. Sometimes it was so damp in there that I had to wear extra layers just to keep warm if I wanted to sit in the room to watch the birds in the garden, and this was in the Spring, not in the winter when it was unbearably cold and the conservatory never got used at all.

The condensation that built up and ended up on the floor also caused some damage to the laminate flooring. It warped and buckled in some places, which not only looked unsightly but also became a potential trip hazard.

And then there was the mould. It started around the edges of the roof panels but then stared spreading down some of the window frames. It was horrible to see, but also a potential health hazard. I tried cleaning and scrubbing it away, but it just kept coming back.

All of these issues made it difficult to use the conservatory as intended. It was meant to be a sunny, relaxing place where I could enjoy looking into the garden, but instead it become a damp, musty room that I dreaded spending time in. Even the furniture in the conservatory was starting to smell foisty and eventually the room just became a dumping ground for things such as tools and plastic boxes filled with odds and ends. These were things that we didn’t want to throw away, but at the time we had nowhere else to keep them. The plan was to find another place to store them in after we board out the loft or buy a garden shed. But that still left us with the problem of fixing the conservatory.

I tried a few things to fix the problems so that we could start using it again. We tried installing a dehumidifier and hiring a professional to repair the floor, but nothing seemed to make any difference. There was less condensation but we still had the problem of mould still growing around the roof. It really needed a radical solution, like maybe replacing the roof completely, perhaps with new roof panels, or a tiled roof, but that was going to be too expensive for us.

Some days it was really getting me down because I like to keep my home clean and tidy, but the conservatory just felt like an awful place to be in, even in the summer. In fact it was like a greenhouse on days when the weather became very hot. Over time the conservatory just never got used and I was at the stage where I thought “what is the point in keeping it?” I wondered if other conservatory users suffered the same problems I was having.

Over time I just tried to ignore it and made the effort to clean it occasionally, but I was fighting a losing battle and eventually I looked for solutions on the internet to see if there was anything else that could be done to try and make the conservatory into a room again, but without suffering all the issues we were having. My biggest concern at the time was that it was obviously going to involve forking out a substantial amount of money to do so, but as a last resort I decided to at least take a look at some of the options that were available.

After doing some in depth research I came across a possible solution, which was to replace the old conservatory roof with new panels and add good quality insulation to keep the temperature at a reasonable level. Apparently this would stop the condensation and was going to solve the problem of the conservatory being too cold during the winter. It would also keep the room at a comfortable temperature in the summer as well, without it getting too hot. It sounded like a good idea because it meant we could use the room all year round and the kids could also use it as a playroom when they wanted to.