Simple common sense will tell us that building a lean to conservatory yourself will be much cheaper than hiring professional contractors to complete the manual work on your behalf. As a result of the increasing popularity of DIY conservatory projects, the range of self build lean to conservatory kits available has increased at quite a rate over the last few years. As competition increases the prices have also started to drop, allowing you to save even more money if you are willing to invest some time and effort into building a conservatory yourself. Any good self build kit will come with detailed instructions that should give you a clear idea of how the work needs to be completed and in what order. Some suppliers even offer a DVD which shows the different stages of your individual conservatory being constructed. Here we will attempt to highlight some of the major steps you will need to undertake when building a lean to conservatory. It is however important to understand that their will always be major variations in the process for each different structure.
The first stage will be to check that all the measurements are correct for the area where the conservatory will be built. These should be marked on the ground to help you visualise where the boundaries will be. The individual self build conservatory components should also be checked for size and dimensions. When you are sure that the base plan is correct and everything is the correct size, it is time to lay the concrete base. If you have dwarf wall then these should be installed when the base is complete.
The frame will now begin to take shape as you position the outer cills of the conservatory. These are manufactured according to the specific conservatory design you have chosen and should have already been checked to make sure they are the right size. If everything is ok then the cills will match the base and dwarf walls perfectly. Now the first frame can be attached to the house that will act as the fourth conservatory wall. Specific components should have been provided in your self build Lean to Conservatory kit to secure the frames in place. When this initial frame is in position, the remaining frames can be secured to it and to each other. You will now want to secure the doors to the relevant frames, again specially designed connection components should be provided for this exact purpose. When all doors and frames are secure, the final frame can be put in place. This should be the remaining frame that has contact with the property.
Now all attention should shift to the roof section of the structure. The hip bars and any roof ridge components are attached above the frames. It is important to ensure that these are securely in place as the next stage is to install the roof rafters themselves. Glazing should be your next concern. A popular glazing material with self build lean to conservatories is polycarbonate. When the roof structure is in place the polycarbonate sheets can be installed carefully. If there are any decorative items that need be applied to the roof then this a great time to fix them to the conservatory. These will usually be some kind of cresting that simply clip to the structure securely. Lastly, clip any guttering and down pipe systems to the roof. You may want to test them with some water to ensure that there are no gaps that could cause rain water to leak through and stain the side of the conservatory.
The self build conservatory structure is now as good as finished. Any other work that needs to be completed will be merely cosmetic. You are now free to work on the interior of the structure and get it looking fantastic so that you can use the area to relax in permanently. If you have managed to get to this stage then congratulations, there is a lot of satisfaction to be had from completing these kinds of self build projects. You should now be able to enjoy using the conservatory even more as a result of your hard work and persistence.
