Increasing the value of your French property by adding a conservatory
Building and adding a conservatory to your house is a very good and quite simple way to increase the size of your home and raise your property’s value by 4 or 5 % (according to the RICS).
What is a conservatory/veranda?
Nowadays a conservatory (generally called veranda in French) is a bright and comfortable room adjacent to the house where people rest, eat, read or even paint while benefiting from the sunlight.
How to proceed?
As a conservatory has to be watertight and very resistant you should always ask for professionals’ services to build your dream conservatory.
During the appointment do not forget to explain to professionals exactly what you want and how you will use the veranda because the construction won’t be the same if you want a room that you could live in the whole year round, a winter garden or for example a greenhouse.
And after having explained everything correctly, the professionals will be able to take the exact measures to create a conservatory specially adapted to your house and requirements.
At the end of the appointment, the professionals will establish a quote: this document may comprise a complete description of the materials to be used, the execution outline for the construction works and the deadline for when the latter are to be finished.
→A conservatory is an important investment so do no hesitate to ask for several quotes from different professionals.
Here are some professional websites :
http://www.vdfrance.com/modulosite2/presentation.htm
http://www.verandarideau.com/index.php
There are different kinds of conservatories:
The cheapest conservatories are the ones made of PVC. These conservatories cost between 1200 and 1500 Euros whereas verandas made of wood or steel can reach 1500€ per square meter.
Wooden verandas:
Wooden verandas offer several advantages: first of all, they’re adapted for all kinds of houses whether character properties or modern houses. Moreover, wooden verandas are ideal if you want something made to measure and they can also be assembled with aluminium. Finally wooden verandas are very resistant and come with a very good thermal and phonic insulation while being the most attractive.
Aluminium verandas:
90% of constructed verandas in France are made of aluminium: robust and easy to maintain, aluminium means a durable veranda. This 100% recyclable material is perfect for all contemporary and modern style houses and offers a wide range of colours and forms which make the made to measure design easier.
However aluminium is a thermal conductor so you will need to have a thermal bridge which will raise the price of the construction.
PVC verandas:
One of the best advantages with PVC is that it is the cheapest and one of the best insulation materials used for verandas. So you will be able to use your veranda as a living room for the whole year even in winter without being cold. Moreover with its superb water tightness you will save a lot of energy and money.
PVC is also very easy to maintain and clean and it exists in a wide range of colours and forms which will enable you to create a veranda exactly as you wish it to be.
However PVC has some disadvantages that you need to know:
As the cheapest material, PVC is also the material which gets damaged fastest and is less aesthetically pleasing.
Finally PVC is not very resistant or suitable for large and spacious verandas.
Steel verandas:
Steel and wrought iron are prestigious materials which are perfect to create charming verandas for traditional properties and contrary to PVC they’re very strong and resistant, meaning you can create large or small verandas of any shape and style without difficulty. However, steel and wrought iron are liable to rust and must be treated against it. Also contrary to PVC, steel is a very bad insulation material and because of their price, they’re very uncommon in France (a steel veranda may cost 40 000 to 50 000 Euros).