What is the Cost of an Oak Orangery or Conservatory?

It is the big question before you consider extending your home: how much does an extension cost?

Adding an extension to your house is a fantastic way to add value to your property and home lifestyle. 

There are a multitude of online calculators and estimates with costs ranging from £1500 to £4000 per square metre. It is obvious this variation is immense; it is also impractical and frustrating when you are trying to assess what your realistic budget should be.

As an estimate, most quality glass extension projects cost around £3,400 m² of new external area. So a 30m² seasoned Oak Orangery style kitchen extension including building work to building regs standards, lighting, underfloor heating, flooring & professional fees could be estimated at somewhere between £3,200 and £3,700 plus VAT at 20%. Other hardwood, aluminium or PVC framed extensions will be less, but bear in mind, the building work, the building out of the roof, the glass and all the professional fees will be the same. Also, as the Orangery size reduces, many of these costs are still the same, so Orangeries under 18-20 m² will cost disproportionately more.

As a homeowner, looking to gauge an accurate budget, this article will take you step by step through all the key considerations that you need to think about and plan for. It will take into account all elements that you need to deliberate.

Once these are thought of and planned, you will be able to have a more accurate idea of what your realistic budget should be.

What size will your glazed extension be?

Firstly, think about what the additional room will be used for. Will it be for a grand kitchen extension? A dining room? A family room? A lounge area? Will it flow through to the garden with bi-fold doors? Will it be more suited to an orangery or a conservatory design?

Whatever thoughts you have, the first thing we will look at is the actual dimensions, which is the primary factor in the design. This can be hard to imagine just from a sketch or guess.

Think about what you will be using the room for and consider the furniture that will be housed within.

Next, we advise standing in another room in your home and looking at the furniture within that room and how much of the room this takes up. This will enable you to have a very realistic view of how much room your furniture and appliances and the space required. We guarantee you will be surprised!

Every choice will affect the final investment required when extending your property, our design team includes professional costs such as technical site surveys, structural engineer costs, planning permission application fees and more.

Another way to get a specific idea of the floor space required is to ask our team to show images of previous work they have undertaken, which shows the completed extension with furniture in situ.

Also, considering the floor space and potential planning permission, there is the possibility that you will not require planning permission for your extension. However, it must fulfil the following criteria:

Planning Permission - Extensions

Under certain circumstances, an extension to a home may be considered permitted development, which doesn’t require a planning permission application to be submitted.

The main benefit here is avoiding the minimum current twelve-week wait that seeking planning permission takes, meaning you can start your project far sooner. Meanwhile, you will also save potentially hundreds of pounds on the application fees.

Extending your home without planning permission does come with some restrictions, namely:

There are other considerations to be considered and our Design Consultants and specialist Planning Consultant can advise.

Should you require planning permission to be submitted, this will be included within our service and is a very small part of the budget, at around £950 incl vat

Main areas of consideration for your budget

Size

The size you decide on will be one of the prevailing factors of consideration for your budget.

As an example, a home with a proposed 8-metre wide single-storey glazed extension extending out to 4 metres would be 32m² and approximately £40,000 including VAT for the associated building costs alone (including underfloor heating, flooring and electrics) excluding frame & glazing specification. Obviously, extensive alterations to ground levels and/or knocking brickwork out and installing steel lintels to open plan with the house can add considerably more.

This is an approximate cost since other factors that influence the final cost will need to be thought about.

Prepare for the unexpected

There are many news articles about the global construction industry currently, with fluctuating costs and supply chain issues that in turn are pushing up the cost of raw materials.

The greater the gap between quoting for a job, making the decision to carry out the project, and commencing work can lead to estimates becoming unreliable. Therefore, it is always preferable to move as quickly as possible on a confirmed project to guarantee a fixed price.

We want to make your experience as stress-free as possible. Therefore, we look at potential unexpected events, costs and avoidable situations that could lead to irritation.

Our experienced team can help guide you through this.

There are sometimes situations that are simply unforeseen and unavoidable. These are less so when in the hands of such an experienced company.

For example, drainage, essential to every home, can often be shared with a neighbour. This can also have legal obligations and Waterboard Build Over requirements if building within 3m of a shared soil pipe.

When our experienced team arranges a site visit, they will undertake tasks such as lifting manhole covers, and this may involve checking your neighbours too. This will ensure we have an accurate picture of the property drainage and anything we may need to plan for accordingly, including rerouting, new pipes, or any Build Over Agreements.

Groundworks

Before your conservatory or orangery is assembled, the groundworks are commenced. This entails removing earth, flattening the area and laying the foundations. This part is the messier process, but we do keep it as tidy as possible!

Whether you choose to use our recommended builders or your own, they will need to remove any earth and rubbish from the site, bring in any equipment required and ensure the area is perfect for the commencement of the actual oak and glass superstructure installation.

Why is this important to the budget? It is important to plan for things such as skips and lorries to remove earth, debris and hardcore. There could be the requirement of road permits should the space for a skip not be present.

Depending on the access to the area in which the glass extension is being erected, there may also be the requirement to factor in additional man-hours to remove and clear it in preparation.

Once we have surveyed the site, we will be able to give you the cost of all of this and any additional budget required to create a perfect area to start the building of the conservatory or orangery. 

Internal Design

It’s really important to consider the function of your new glazed extension before considering the size, shape and external design. It’s no good having a pretty building that doesn’t fulfil your practical requirements. Going back to the initial thoughts of what your glazed extension would be used for, you now should be considering the budget for the internal finish. If you are planning a kitchen extension for example, that will require new units, plumbing, heating, appliances and flooring, as well as decorating and lighting. An extension to a family room will require less planning but you will still need to consider seating arrangements, flooring, decorating and lighting. Remember, you will see your new extension from the inside for 95% of the time.

Having a clear plan from the very beginning can help with your design ideals and enables us to plan and design to a realistic brief.

Exterior Design

Possibly the most exciting part of the project budget is to think about the design that will suit your property. At Richmond Oak we have a wide variety of bespoke options and our team of designers will go through the aesthetics, the materials and the finish with you.

As an example, should you be looking at a traditional design for a conservatory, with measurements of 6m x 4m, the costs for an Oak framed design would be approximately between £80,000 and £90,000, including the associated building work and VAT.

Looking at designs for an orangery of the same proportions, pricing would be in the region of £90,000 and £100,000.

This cost for the super structure of the glazed extension and associated building works, will be subject to variables including the access, ground conditions, glass specification, roof, doors, materials and the finish.

Listed Buildings

Over 45% of all projects we undertake are either on properties that fall under ‘Listed Developments’, within Conservation Areas or AONB.

You can rest assured knowing we will handle everything from the design, right through to the planning application and build of your new bespoke oak glazed extension.

Conservatory Glass and Ventilation

The most important factors concerning the all year round use of your glazed extension is the specifications of the glazing used and the ventilation. Clients of Richmond Oak can expect only the top glazing specifications.

The budget for this will depend on the design and the glass used within the structure, as an example, High specification solar control glass can keep up to 86% of the heat out on a hot day and be up to 20% more efficient at keeping the heat in on a cold day. Whilst, this glass can be double the cost of non-solar control glass, the difference will be having an extension that can be lived in 365 days a year and NOT be too hot in the Summer or too cold in Winter.

While these figures may not match perfectly with other quotes or estimates and may differ depending on where you live in the UK, they should give you a good indication of the true costs involved for a premium quality oak glazed extension.

Guide prices are helpful in putting cost into perspective, but an accurately priced detailed Proposal complete with 3D visuals, will provide you with realistic information to consider.

For further advice, please click the link to read our Conservatory and Orangery Advice Hub

Are you ready to transform your home with a new Oak Glazed Extension?

Please contact us for more information or to book a Design Consultation so that we can give you a fair and accurate indication of the investment required for your new Oak Framed Orangery, Conservatory or, Tiled Roof Garden Room.