Planet Springwell A Personal Guide To Building Your Own Conservatory

Purchasing

One of the first decisions you will have make about a conservatory is the type and price you are willing to pay and if you are willing to build it yourself. I wanted to buy a conservatory direct and miss out the middle man and build it myself. Over the years i have found the price of double glassing windows varied considerably from company to company, and felt it would be the same when selecting a conservatory. Therefore I wanted to deal with a company who openly displayed their costs without the need to have a sales rep contact me, this was one of my primary reason for selecting Carlton Conservatories. In fact i initially found EasyFrame Conservatories (http://www.easyframeconservatories.co.uk/) who only appeared to manufacture preset conservatory sizes none of which suited my requirements. I then found that one of their sister companies (Carlton) manufactured conservatories made to measure and even offered a price calculator so that you can obtain an approximate cost (how many conservatory/double glassing companies do you find offering a facility like this?). I won't mention the price of my conservatory in this guide i would suggest you visit the Carlton web site (http://www.carltonconservatoriesdirect.co.uk/main.html) and see for yourself, all i will say is the prices are excellent. After a few emails and telephone conversations i decided to provide Carlton with my requirements (type, colour, door location, dwarf height, window height, etc).
Tip: Ask Carlton to email you a copy of instructions showing how to construct the conservatory you are interested in. This will provide good insight regarding whether you feel confident you can complete the project before actually parting with your money. The instructions i received where very close to the actual final printed instructions that came with my conservatory.
Based on my requirements Carlton produced 3 drawings

1. Showing the conservatory from various angles and overall dimensions
2. A base plan showing overall length,width and diagonal measurements
3. A dwarf wall plan displaying any key dimensions to be taken into account e.g. doorway position and size.

Once i had checked, double checked and was sure they were as expected, i signed them, scanned them and emailed them back. The signed drawings and my order confirmation were thereafter taken as a commitment to purchase and carlton proceeded to design and manufacture the conservatory. Delivery was to be between 4 -5 weeks, I spent alot of time studying the pdf construction instructions whicle awaiting delivery so that when the conservatory came i would be ready to make a start.

Delivery
Approximately 1 week before the conservatory was ready Carlton telephoned to arrange delivery. They tend to wait until a number of conservatories are due to be delivered within your area, in my case they were delivering a few to central Scotland. My delivery day was Friday and the lorry that arrived was one of the largest i have seen as it contained quite a few conservatories. Each conservatory comes as a number of packages (mine was approximately 12), the driver has a manifest that he checks as each pack is off loaded. Depending upon the size of your conservatory will decide the amount of storage space you will require. As mentioned the lorry is large and so unless you live in a mansion getting it up your driveway will not be possible so ensure at least one able bodied person is available to help the driver. The windows and doors are fairly heavy (i could just about carry one pane by myself) and some parts are very long (guttering, facias, etc) so its important to have a plan regarding where you wish to store your conservatory before the lorry arrives. As the items where being taken off the conservatory i double checked the manifest with the driver as i knew the first i would notice anything was missing would be when i came to use it, not ideal as there woulld then be a delay having to wait on its arrival.