How to begin the journey to building an orangery?

Where do you start your journey to building an orangery? Let us guide you through the steps we take to turn that dream home into a reality.

When it comes to building an orangery, our team at Westbury work alongside many expert tradespeople up and down the country to ensure a smooth and streamlined process. From builders laying the foundations, ready for our timber structures to go up, to the electricians that liven up that glorious pendant light, hung from an impressive roof lantern.

What core tradespeople are involved in building an orangery?

As with any other building or renovation project, the process of building an orangery requires a great deal of expertise and is a highly collaborative project from start to finish. Your new room does not only need elegant timber windows and a magnificent roof lantern, but it also needs heating, electricity, and even plumbing if you’re looking to build a kitchen within your orangery.

Westbury

Our role is to not only expertly craft the timber structure of your new orangery; We design the space to your exact requirements, offer our expertise and advice on how to maximise the space within your new room, provide a scope of works and architectural plans for all the contractors involved, and apply for planning permission on your behalf (where required).

We recognise there are quite a few decisions to make along your journey with us, which is why we provide all our clients with a top-of-the-line synthetic leather-bound Project Journal at the start of their project. To help not only gain a greater understanding of our materials and processes but also assist in making important decisions. A space to jot down interior ideas, important contacts, colour and finial preferences, and a checklist to compare like-for-like quotations.

This year, we also launched our online portal as a way to manage your entire project online, send messages to your designer, and view every detail of your project as it progresses through our workshop. Any time, anywhere.

Builders

Orangeries require foundations and brickwork to take place before the installation of any windows, doors and the final timber structure, including the roof and its roof lantern. Alterations may also be necessary to the openings into the room, particularly if doorways and walls are to be removed.

Once the building is complete, we make it our responsibility to ensure that your room is watertight, so the sooner we can begin to align our schedules with your builder the sooner the room can receive the next exciting developments.

Electricians and plumbers

First and second fix electrics such as running rings for lighting, plug sockets and (if required) any underfloor heating. In addition to any electronics such as ovens or sound systems.

Plumbers may also be required if you’re installing any sinks or central heating into the new orangery space.

Plasterers, tilers and decorators

For any rendered walls that require plastering and subsequent painting, and flooring that may need tiling.

Working with the right Contractors

How to find the best contractor

Paul Green, Managing Director at Green County Developments advises that ‘the best way to find a good builder is by recommendation. At GCD we rely totally on word of mouth recommendations. By all means, check out a firm’s social media and look at projects they have completed, but there’s nothing more important than positive testimonials and great word of mouth. Talk to friends and people you know in the area to see who they’d recommend.’ Further explaining that the best way to begin asking for a quotation is to simply send photographs – ‘A picture says a thousand words. A simple drawing, along with a simple specification of what you are after is a great place to start. This should be enough to allow a competent builder to give you an accurate price.’

Paul details that the benefit to hiring an experienced and recommended building contractor is their ‘coordination, timing and efficiency’ continuing that ‘a good builder should bring [all three qualities] to your project. A controlled project leads to a successful build so it’s worth investing in someone that has a team of brilliant and experienced tradespeople they’ve worked with for a long time.’

Hiring a groundworker or building contractor

There are several ways to tackle this. Most simply we can assist you in approaching several building contractors with architectural drawings and scope of works. They will be able to use these to provide you with quotations to fulfil all works to the exact requirements we have laid out. Once you have decided on your contractor, we work directly with them. Managing each trade and planning a thorough timeline of events to ensure the entire project comes together in perfect unison.

In your project journal, you will find a ‘Working Together’ book – A manual that has been put together to ensure excellent precision and workmanship within your home.