Conservatory spraying and painting in Cambridge
Conservatory painting often comes up once a house has had its windows and door sprayed and the conservatory is the last white thing left. We spray uPVC conservatories in place, frames and roof bars included, and our decorators paint timber conservatories by hand. In both cases the glass and roof panels stay where they are.
A conservatory is closer to a room made of window than to a set of windows. It has frames on three sides, a roof grid overhead, a dwarf wall underneath, guttering, and inside faces you look at every day, so it needs a plan of its own.
The roof: glazing bars, ridge and gutters
The roof is what makes a conservatory harder than a window. Glazing bars run from the ridge down to the eaves, each with a cap and gaskets either side of the glass or polycarbonate. Then there's the ridge, the end caps, any finials or cresting, and the gutter to deal with. On many conservatories the outer bar caps are white uPVC and need the same clean, key and coat as the frames.
Conservatory roofs aren't built to be stood on, so the bars are reached from access equipment set up around the outside, never from the roof itself. On a large or tall conservatory, or one tight against a fence or boundary, that access takes more planning, and it's one of the first things Graham looks at.
The roof is cleaned before anything is keyed. Moss and algae collect along the bars and in the gutters, and coating over grime is the quickest way to make it peel. Polycarbonate panels that have gone brittle or yellow won't look any better next to freshly sprayed bars, so it's worth deciding whether they need replacing first.
Working round the household
If the inside is being sprayed too, the conservatory is out of use for a while. Furniture, plants and blinds come out, the floor is covered and the glass is masked from the inside as well. Blinds fixed to the frames normally have to come down, and it helps to have them off before the first day.
A conservatory heats up quickly in the sun and turns cold and damp overnight, and both affect how a coating dries. The usual approach is to work in mild, settled weather, keep the doors open for ventilation while inside faces dry, and avoid spraying a south-facing roof in full midday sun.
Children and pets need to stay out while spraying and drying are going on, and the door from the house into the conservatory may be masked shut for part of the day. Graham will talk you through the timing so you know which parts of the house you can use.
Timber conservatories are painted by brush
Older and many bespoke conservatories are timber rather than plastic. These aren't sprayed with a uPVC coating. Flaking paint is scraped and sanded, bare wood is primed, soft spots are checked, and the frames are finished in exterior paint or stain by brush. Rotten sections of sill or bottom rail need our carpenter before decorating, and Graham will point them out at the visit.
One customer who had us repaint the wood exterior of their conservatory wrote on Checkatrade: "From early consultation about best methods, through preparation of awkward surfaces, to final inspection of the finished job, this was outstanding in every respect."
If the dwarf wall is brick or render, it can be done at the same time as part of our masonry and render painting, so the whole conservatory is finished together.
What changes the price of a conservatory respray
Conservatories vary more than any other frame job, and these are the things that move the quotation:
- Size and style: a lean-to has far fewer roof bars than a Victorian or P-shaped design
- Outside only, or the inside faces as well
- Whether the roof bars, ridge, gutters and fascias are included
- Access around the outside, especially against fences or boundaries
- How much cleaning the roof and frames need before keying
- uPVC spraying, or brush painting for timber
Seeing each part priced
The written quotation separates the frames, the roof and the inside faces, so you can see what the roof bars add compared with frames alone and choose accordingly.
Arranging a conservatory visit
Graham will look at the conservatory inside and out, check the frames, the roof and the seals, and ask how you use the room so the work can be timed around it. If the roof leaks or panels have failed, he'll say plainly that a conservatory repairer should sort that first, because a coating won't stop water getting in. The quotation usually arrives by email, and you pay once you've seen the finished conservatory and are happy with it.
Many people have the house windows and back door done on the same visit so everything matches; see spraying uPVC windows and respraying a back door. Our uPVC and window spraying service explains the coatings and the process.