Surrey Homes | SH43 | May 2018 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

SH Restoration & New Build Supplement
As solid
as an oak
Conservatory
Call it whatever you like – a conservatory, an orangery,
a sun room, or a garden room – an oak-framed
extension is a very fine thing to add to a house
James Ransley
The Oak Glasshouse Company
What’s the difference between a conservatory, an orangery
and a sun room? The biggest difference is the construction of
the roof. A conservatory has over 75% of the roof glazed, an
orangery has less than that. A conservatory by definition must
also have over 50% of its wall area glazed.
An oak-framed sunroom of the kind we do is a proper
extension and whereas five years ago people would have
a separate door going into it from the house, like a
conservatory, now they want it all open plan. The vast
majority of our business now is creating these to be eat-inkitchen
family rooms. They become like part of the house,
with an insulated roof supported by the oak frame, then
tiled to match the existing house. If necessary we will find
reclaimed tiles to make the match as good as possible.
What is the appeal of a sun room? English people used to be
indoors or outdoors, now we all like a more outside in healthy
feeling. It’s how people want to live now, how they want to
feel in there, how they want the light coming in. They gain
another room and with lots of glass, bifold doors and patio,
it’s much more linked to the outside. When you’re in one of
our rooms it feels like you’re standing in the garden.
Do you have any words of advice for people considering
adding a sun room? Most often it’s one big space that is
linked to the kitchen, back in the main house. The new room
gives them three times the space as they had before, one big
area they live most of their lives in. The ideal though is to
go the full Monty and put a new kitchen actually in the new
space, so it’s fully integrated.
Are there any particular kinds of houses that this approach
is better suited to? Up to ten or 15 years ago oak-framed
extensions were more of a farmhouse style for buildings in
the country, now we do them in London. They can go on a
bungalow or modern houses.
What is the difference in cost to have an oak-framed
extension rather than a standard one? A normal breeze
block and brick structure is a Ford - oak frame is the Bentley.
And oak with glass is very upmarket and it’s no more
expensive with us to have more glass, it’s part of what we do.
Garden room
Orangery
theoakglasshouse.co.uk
07522 544158
7 surrey-homes.co.uk