What is a Reasonable Conservatory Price?
As a rough guide a you can be charged from £5000 for very basic professionally fitted conservatory. If you can't afford that then maybe think of a DIY conservatory kit which could cost up to £1500 less. However, the actual price can vary hugely with costs for supplied and fitted large conservatories of £30,000 or more!
Very Cheap Conservatories!
DIY conservatory kits can start as low as £150 per square metre but for typical 3m x 3m conservatories come in between £225 to £300 per square metre depending on conservatory style (lean to cheaper than Victorian). Note this cost does not include any labour as you are expected to do it all yourself.
Cheap Conservatories
Typically, you can expect to pay about £500 per square metre for a basic conservatory (supply and fitting) including VAT. This cost will go up if the site is difficult, for example if the ground slopes away from the house in which case it will need leveling first. A basic conservatory is of uPVC frame and double glazed.
Premium Conservatories
A more luxurious conservatory could well cost £1000 per square metre, but more typically come in at around a price of £750 per square metre. For this extra you will get K glass (low thermal loss gas in double glazing panes) and the roof may be coated to minimise over-heating on hot summer days. You may also get some form of climate control air-conditioning unit thrown in with the price of the conservatory.
Luxury Conservatories
The price of your conservatory will go up even more if you choose a hardwood finish instead of PVCu. This will look very nice but will cost up to 50% more than a PVCu one. If your house has white PVCu windows already then maybe a white PVCu conservatory would be more in-keeping with the look anyway?
To comply with building regulations your conservatory cannot be permanently heated, but it can still have a radiator if its got a thermostatic control on it. The price will be about £500-1000 to have one or two controllable radiators fitted in your conservatory depending on existing plumbing.
Additional Conservatory Costs
An additional cost that you may forget about is that the conservatory is a new room for the house and will need furnishing, in particular somewhere to sit. You can add anything from £50 for a second-hand patio furniture, to £500 for a living room settee to a price of £1000 plus for cane furniture typical of many conservatories.
All-in-all you get what you pay for (up to a point) and if you want an addition to your house that will not only give you more living space, but will add value to your property, then think quality as well as low cost. A shoddily built, cheap conservatory could be more of a liability than an asset.
Prices valid as of Summer 2008
"Very useful information. Thank you, specific companies seem exceedingly reluctant to give any type of rough estimate!"
CM Jenkins
"Very useful informaton. Thanks"
Lizzy
"Can you tell me do you need planning permission to erect a conservatory? We have already got a brick extension but would like to add on a conservatory. "
Kim Allen
"It would be helpful if you stated whether the square-metreage you state is internal or external. Suppliers themselves tend to use external quotations."
Marcus
"Thanks for the info. I phoned six companies to get a rough idea about prices and it was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Thanks to \"
Philip Glancy
"great site !!! keep up the good work"
francisco
"Excellent information, very helpful !"
Sally
"Very useful overview without having to commit oneself to contacting a supplier - Would be useful to have an update on current prices, otherwise thank you for the information."
R V Taylor
"Good information,bit of an eye opener, may have to raid the piggy bank now!!"
terrydactyl
"hi, thank you very much for the information. This is really helpful."
asdf;lkjh
"I wondered how much could we expect to pay for the base or footings for a conservatory"
S Stewart
"Thank you for talking £s. All the sites I have visited insist on you calling for a quote! Then I guess they will keep ringing until you buy! All I was looking for was an estimate on how much I might have to pay. YOu gave me that. Great. "
Jennie
"I know nothing about conservatories and am looking at houses with and without them so this was a very useful overview, thank you."
conservatory virgin!
"Agreed. We do this already on a lot of newer pages. I will look at adopting a 'last updated' time stamp at the bottom of all pages."
Admin
"Any article quoting prices inevitably gets out of date. It helps if the date of the latest update of the article is shown."
Constructive Critic