Orangery, Conservatory or Extension: Which Do You Actually Want?
3 min read
The words get used interchangeably by people selling them, which is exactly why they confuse people buying them. A conservatory, an orangery and a glazed extension are three different buildings with different rules, different winters and different budgets, and the right choice depends on one honest question: do you want another room of your house, or a glazed place beside it?
What each one actually is
A conservatory is a mostly glazed structure, roof included, traditionally separated from the house by an external-quality door. An orangery is its solider cousin: proper masonry or framed walls, a substantial flat roof perimeter with a glazed lantern in the middle, more building than greenhouse. A glazed extension is simply a full extension of the house that happens to use generous glass: insulated, heated, open to the rooms beside it. Reading from left to right, the glass ratio falls, the solidity rises, and the building behaves more like the rest of your home.
The line the regulations draw
The legal distinction matters more than the stylistic one. A conservatory can be exempt from building regulations when it is single storey and at ground level, under 30 square metres, separated from the house by external-quality walls or doors, and heated independently with its own controls. Take away the separating doors and open it to the kitchen, and it stops being an exempt conservatory in the regulations' eyes and becomes an extension, required to insulate and perform like one. Most modern orangeries are designed open-plan from the start, which means most modern orangeries are, legally, extensions: built to full regulations, and better for it.
The February test
Choose by the worst month, not the best photograph. An exempt conservatory, separated and independently heated, is a glorious spring and autumn room and a cold one in deep winter unless you pay to heat glass. An orangery's solid walls and insulated perimeter hold their temperature far better, with the lantern still pouring light into the middle. A glazed extension, built to current standards, is simply a room of your house all year. If you picture Sunday breakfast there in February, you are shopping for an orangery or an extension, whatever the brochure calls it.
Value and cost, in order
Broadly the three climb in cost in the order conservatory, orangery, full extension, and they climb in year-round usefulness and long-term value the same way. The old wisdom holds: buyers pay for rooms they can use in all seasons. As an anchor from our own priced projects, new high-standard extension space in London generally runs 2,400 to 2,800 pounds per square metre before VAT; a true orangery, being a proper structure with a bespoke roof lantern, is priced the same way rather than off a conservatory brochure. The cheap glazed box is only cheap until you try to live in it.
Choosing well
Start with the room, not the product: what happens in it, in which seasons, opened to the kitchen or apart from it? If the answer is a true all-year room, design it as an extension with the glass where it earns its place, a lantern over the table, full glazing to the garden. That is the work we do daily. The Estimator will give you a realistic range for extension space in your postcode in minutes, and if you are torn between the three names, talk to us: the right one usually becomes obvious in one conversation about February.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between an orangery and a conservatory?
- A conservatory is mostly glass, roof included, and traditionally separated from the house. An orangery has solid, insulated walls and a substantial roof with a glazed lantern, behaving much more like a proper room of the house.
- Do conservatories need building regulations approval?
- A conservatory can be exempt when it is single storey at ground level, under 30 square metres, separated from the house by external-quality walls or doors, and independently heated with its own controls. Open it up to the house and it becomes an extension in the regulations' eyes.
- Is an orangery classed as an extension?
- Usually, yes. Most modern orangeries are designed open-plan to the house, which takes them outside the conservatory exemption, so they are built to full building regulations like any extension, and perform accordingly.
- Which adds more value: an orangery, a conservatory or an extension?
- Value follows year-round usefulness. A full extension or a well-built orangery reads as real living space in every season; a separated conservatory adds less because buyers discount rooms they cannot comfortably use in winter.
- How much does an orangery cost compared to an extension?
- A true orangery is a proper structure and prices like high-quality extension space: in London, generally 2,400 to 2,800 pounds per square metre before VAT from our own priced projects, with the roof lantern and glazing specification setting where in the band it lands.
