What is the best way of heating conservatories?

In order to comply with current building regulations, conservatories should have their own separate heating source, i.e. not a radiator connected to the property’s main central heating system.

In my opinion, and without doubt, the best and most effective way of heating conservatories is electric underfloor heating.

The reason I say this is because I have installed it in my own conservatory and have been using it every day throughout the colder months for the past 3 years.  It is an incredibly efficient and controllable way of heating conservatories.

I must say however, that in really cold weather, an additional heating source is required in conjunction with the floor heating to achieve a comfortable temperature in the conservatory. I use a small portable electric heater for this which I find works very well.

Renegade Conservatory Guy acquires guest bloggers

Matthew Glover, the man behind the industry-famous RCG (Renegade Conservatory Guy) website was seriously considering closing down the site due to the time-consuming nature of constantly having to find new material and writing articles about the double glazing and conservatory industry.

Eventually, Matthew decided not to close down the site, but instead acquire several guest bloggers from within the window and conservatory industry the help contribute to providing new material for his site.

At the time of writing this post, guest bloggers that have contributed so far are Ian Longbottom of Sliders UK and David Bingham of ConservatoryLand. I also understand that Jon Twigge of RoofWright is to contribute.

I think this is a real turning point for the RCG site and would expect that once the momentum increases with more articles written by Matthew and his guest bloggers, the site will become an important and interesting focal point for the entire double glazing and conservatory industry.

Conservatories set to rise in cost

Conservatories look set to rise in cost over the coming months due to various factors.

These include the rising cost of materials involved in their manufacture such as PVC polymers and soaring glass costs, particularly Pilkington Glass who have implemented huge price rises in recent months.

Other cost increases include steel and aluminium which affects conservatory roof manufacturing costs, reinforcing and window hardware for conservatories.

There is also another potential factor which will increase the cost for consumers looking to add conservatories to their homes in 2010.

There are proposed new building regulations for next year, which if introduced, will bring every conservatory, no matter what size or style in to the realms of building regulations.

This means that all conservatories will have to comply with certain criteria such as meeting minimum energy efficiency standards, i.e. thermally efficient glazing and insulation, and deeper foundations requiring more work for the installer.

Choosing the right conservatory company

The following article that I came across demonstrates the importance of a consumer choosing the right conservatory company.

I would advise anyone looking to buy a conservatory to ask the supplier for three references and to view a sample of their work they have carried out for a previous customer.

Here’s the article.

A couple who took a company to court in a dispute over a conservatory say they feel the legal system has let them down.

Linda and Julie Barnes-Frank took Oakland Conservatories Limited to county court last month and were awarded more than £13,000 in damages.

Oakland Conservatories Limited was ordered to pay damages of £13,358 and court costs of £45,865.

But although the women won the case, the company had gone into liquidation just days earlier with debts understood to be as much as £250,000.

Read the full article here: http://www.tamesideadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1098938_conservatory_nightmare_for_couple

DIY Conservatories – the Basics

I am now going to outline the basics of DIY conservatories.

This is a project that I personally have never carried out but one that I am looking forward to having a crack at, at some point in the future.

There are many companies that can be found on the internet that offer these and I have gathered the following information from various sites, articles and press releases.

The following is an extract from an informative press release I found and thought that this would be a good introduction to the subject.

Currently, one of the UK’s most popular and appealing home improvement projects for homeowners is adding DIY conservatories to their homes. The choice is vast and if you are considering a sizable investment it is wise to start with the company itself. Choose a company that has satisfactorily supplied or installed conservatories for friends, family or someone else you know. The next step is to decide what type of conservatory you want, or more importantly, what type will best suit your property and keep within your budget.

This is a very interesting article and you can read the full version at here.

After some research, It seems that DIY conservatories are relatively simple to build and the following is the basic step by step process.

• Measure the space you have available
• Decide the best style conservatory to suit your home (and of course your budget).
• Decide the model type, i.e. dwarf wall, full height glass, bottom panels etc. etc.
• Decide the colour. i.e. white or a woodgrain colour (other colours are available but they have to be spray painted which I don’t like the sound of).
• If applicable, apply for planning permission or at least contact your local planning department with the details and ask if you need it.
• Send the conservatory sizes and specifications to a company that supplies DIY conservatories, preferably one that manufactures them as this will make communications easier and probably save you money.
• Once you’re happy with your quote and all planning issues are out of the way, you can go ahead and order your conservatory at which point I believe most companies will provide you with a detailed base plan.
• Build your conservatory base and dwarf walls (if applicable) in accordance with the company’s base plan. Another good alternative is to use a steel base.
• Your conservatory will be delivered ready for fitting, following the instructions supplied by the company.

How NOT to get to the top of Google

As usual, acting upon my obsession with search engine rankings and browsing around looking who’s where, I suddenly remembered a competitor’s site that used to rank number 1 on Google for conservatories but now is nowhere to be seen for their main search terms, ‘conservatories‘ and ‘conservatory’.

So out of sheer curiosity, I typed in their URL to take a look at what could possibly be causing the damage.

Scrolling to the bottom of their home page, it soon became obvious what had caused the site to disappear off the face of Google, see screen shot below.

This is known as keyword stuffing or keyword spamming, a black-hat SEO tactic that was commonly used years ago but no longer works for good long term search engine rankings.

There is no longer quick or easy ways to achieve high search engine rankings and the three essential ingredients are work, money and time. There is no short cut.

A couple of interesting articles that I came across about black-hat SEO tactics that are well worth reading are Black-Hat SEO Tactics and 5 Reasons to Not Use Black-Hat Tactics. Although these articles do not relate specifically to conservatories, they do give a broad outline guide.

What are the differences between conservatories and DIY conservatories?

Normally within the conservatory industry, there is little or no technical or specific differences between standard conservatories that are fitted by installation companies and DIY conservatories that are manufactured and supplied for self-assembly by the consumer.

However, some suppliers of DIY conservatories add additional features and make simple modifications to make assembly far easier for the average DIY’er.

Typical features of some DIY conservatories that are not always featured on standard conservatories are:

• Steel conservatory bases, such as the well know Durabase system which minimises excavation work, spans manholes and can easily be installed by the end user without the need for a builder.
• Conservatory frame connectors, which enables the frames to be joined together without the need for screws.
• Clip-in glazing beads, which makes glazing the frames much easier and quicker by simply inserting the double glazed units and securing them with simple clip-in glazing beads on the inside.
• Co-extruded PVCu profiles, which eliminates the need to insert rubber gasket seals around the edges of every piece of glass which can be very time consuming.
• Purpose designed reinforced corner posts. These simply screw in to position at the corners, whereas some companies supply timber corner posts that need to be cut to size and cladded in PVCu after fitting.
• Easy fit conservatory roofs, which are supplied with easy to follow step by step instructions and incorporate nice little features such as twist-in gutter clips that don’t require screws which then allow the guttering to be simply clipped in to place.

These are just some of the design features that can be found with DIY conservatories, making it possible for consumers to save lots of money by carrying out the work themselves.