Solving a space problem

By Ultraframe.

For decades, the conservatory industry has helped homeowners add cost-effective space to their properties. Whether it’s for a playroom, second living room or just a light and bright space to link the home with the garden, for millions of growing families, the addition of a conservatory has enabled them to enjoy their home for longer.

Fast forward to 2018 and the new build housing market provides a real opportunity for the conservatory installer. Houses aren’t being built fast enough to cope with demand, and the pressure on developers to fit more homes onto less land has resulted in the construction of thousands of three-storey town houses, designed to maximise bedrooms on the smallest footprint possible.

This solves an immediate housing problem but in terms of liveability, this style of property often means families miss out on valuable living space – a perfect opportunity for the conservatory installer.

Alex Hewitt, Ultraframe marketing director, said: “Conservatories have always provided a cost-effective way to add space to your home, and today’s housing market is accelerating this demand. A new build home may eventually require the addition of a glazed extension as the needs of the family change, but as an immediate need, the opportunity has until recently been negligible.

“But that’s changing, particularly, on developments with three-storey townhouses where the living space can take up as little as 30%-35%% of the overall footprint of the property leaving families with a smaller, inflexible living space. This style of property perfectly lends itself to our Livinroof extension, which on some new housing developments, simply sells itself.”

Mike Parry, managing director at BellaVista, said: “We’re just completing three Livinroof extensions on the same row on a development in Cheadle. The requirement for each client is exactly the same: give us extra living space but without an over-looking issue.

“The challenges that we’ve needed to overcome are not only the privacy issue of the upstairs bedrooms of the neighbouring property being able to see into the extension but also the challenge of how to bring plenty of natural light into the house.

“All three properties share the same footprint; the houses are reasonably deep but quite narrow so adding an extension with a solid roof – or even a roof with roof lights – would reduce the light into the existing room at the back of the house.

“Livinroof is the answer. It’s enabled us to design a roof and project light into the back of the property while retaining the families’ privacy. On this development alone there are 14 similar properties and we’ve been approached by a further two homeowners to design a Livinroof extension.

“Livinroof has enabled these families to enjoy all the benefits of a new build property and add on valuable space in a cost effective way.”

Alex said: “Livinroof was initially designed to meet the needs of the renovation market with its inherent flexibility to meet the challenges of any existing roof regardless of pitch, shape or design. It is still the fastest growing roof system we have developed and to see it being used regularly in the new build space is incredibly exciting.

“We will continue to see huge numbers of townhouses being constructed over the next 10 years, and for many families a Livinroof extension might well be the solution to enable them to really enjoy their new home, without compromise.”