Consultancy
A phone call, or request via this website, will start the process. You will then be contacted by Ian Harrington (company architect) or Jonathan Hey (MD) to arrange a site visit at your home. They will discuss what it is you wish to achieve and set to find the right solution for your home. With over 35 years of experience between them and enthusiasm to create great conservatories, orangeries, garden rooms and poolhouses with space and light that integrate well into your home, you will be in safe hands.
Armed with details of your needs and photographs of the site, we will then start the design work. If a meeting is not possible, please send us a photograph of your house to help us start thinking.
Back at our design studio, we will draw up detailed plans. These will include a watercolour illustration showing your new building in place. We will also send you a quotation. Then, following approval of the quote, our architect / surveyor will visit your home to take a series of precise measurements.
Once planning permission has been obtained, we will send you a schedule showing the work sequence from our proposed start date. Work will begin on that day, when Westbury staff (not subcontractors) will dig the foundations. If necessary, they will adjust the drains and lay rainwater soakaways.
Meanwhile, at our Essex workshop, our joiners will put the finishing touches to the frame, doors and windows. They will assemble the components, check the finished measurements and apply two coats of paint. As our bricklayers finish the wall, the timber sections will be delivered to your site.
Our fitting team will then construct the conservatory by first building the timber frame, then fitting the roof, timber windows and hardwood doors. We know that it can be awkward having workers around your house so we make sure that all our craftsmen are polite and professional. Your project manager will deal with any concerns. Meet our experts.
Pre-build Survey
In order to make sure that your project runs smoothly and quickly we will complete a survey of your home. This entails sending an experienced member of our team to take external and if necessary internal measurements of your home. This is a crucial part of the process as it highlights any potential challenges such as drainage that need to be addressed as part of the project management programme.
Planning Permission & Listed Building Consent
Planning permission may not be a necessary requirement. There have always been limits to the size of extensions not requiring planning permission and these limits were changed on 1st October 2008 by a new law intended to streamline the planning process.
Westbury can advise in detail, but generally an extension 3m deep at the rear of an attached house or 4m deep at the rear of a detached house, or at the side if not facing a highway, do not require permission. These new permitted development rights now also apply in Green Belt areas. Volume limits are no longer applicable.
If you live in a conservation area (and the conservatory is to the front elevation), or in a listed building, approval is essential. If listed building consent is granted, your conservatory will be exempt from VAT. As Westbury has vast experience in dealing with local authorities in listed building and planning consent, we prefer to make all applications for you.
The planning process has recently changed nationally to rationalise the form of application and also allow it to be submitted electronically. This increases efficiency into the system, but also brings complexity in that the form is now more sophisticated. In addition, it has become a necessary requirement in more cases, for support assessments to be produced, such as flood risk, heritage statement, design and access, tree survey report, etc. Our Planning Department has mastered the new system.
The Government’s has a website called The Planning Portal. It is an online planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales.
Building regulations
Building regulations are constantly being amended and we can advise on the up-to-date situation for individual cases. Here are the current categories:
Traditional all glazed conservatories which are less than 30m² in floor area and have thermal separation from the rest of the house by windows and doors are exempt.
Orangeries and garden rooms having thermal separation from the rest of the house must comply with floor, walls, roof and glazing meeting specific ‘U’ values.
Orangeries and garden rooms which are to be completely open to the house must comply with specific ‘U’ values and be limited in the amount of glazing equivalent to 25% floor area of the extension, plus the area of any existing windows and doors now contained within the extension. Otherwise, full SAP rating calculations by energy consultants showing compliance must be provided.
After care
When your new building is complete our MD will inspect the workmanship and once satisfied he will instruct the Project Manager to issue you with a care pack and guarantee. We will keep a detailed record of your glazing, so if you break a pane we can supply a replacement. You will never be left with a leaky conservatory.