Conservatory Installation Costs UK — uPVC, Aluminium and Oak Frame Pricing Guide (2026)

A conservatory can add anywhere from £8,000 to £80,000 or more to a homeowner's property — and the range is so wide that customers often have no idea what to expect before they call you. This guide breaks down exactly what drives those numbers: frame material, roof type, size, base work, and the regulatory checks that can derail a job before it starts.

Whether you're a conservatory specialist quoting jobs every week or a builder who adds the occasional glazed extension, knowing these figures helps you quote confidently and helps your customers understand what they're paying for.

Conservatory Types and Costs at a Glance

There are five main conservatory styles you'll encounter. Each one carries a different price tag based on its footprint, roof complexity, and the number of frame sections required.

Prices are supply and fit including standard polycarbonate or glass roof, base not included. Figures assume uPVC frames.

uPVC Conservatory Costs

uPVC is still the most popular frame material in the UK domestic market. It's cost-effective to manufacture, thermally efficient with modern multi-chambered profiles, and requires minimal maintenance — a wipe-down once or twice a year and occasional lubrication of the hardware.

For a straightforward lean-to on a rear wall, expect to quote £8,000–£14,000 supply and fit for a 3×2 m structure with a glass roof. The lean-to is the simplest design — a mono-pitch roof running back to the house — which keeps fabrication and installation time down. It suits bungalows and houses where planning height restrictions are tight.

An Edwardian conservatory at 4×3 m will typically run £15,000–£25,000. The box-bay, square-fronted design maximises floor space and suits a wide range of properties. The pitched roof with central ridge adds complexity compared to a lean-to, which pushes the price up.

A Victorian conservatory — characterised by its three or five-facet bay front and steeply pitched roof — sits at £16,000–£28,000 for the same size footprint. The faceted bay requires more cut sections and the roof is more complex to fabricate, hence the slightly higher cost versus the Edwardian equivalent.

Aluminium Conservatory Costs

Aluminium frames carry a price premium of 20–30% over equivalent uPVC structures. On an Edwardian 4×3 m, that takes the cost from around £15,000–£25,000 in uPVC to roughly £18,000–£32,000 in aluminium.

The premium is justified in several ways. Aluminium profiles are structurally stiffer, which means slimmer sightlines — more glass, less frame visible in the finished job. Modern thermally broken aluminium systems (where a polyamide strip separates the inner and outer face of the profile) perform excellently on U-value, often achieving 1.4 W/m²K or better on the frame alone. That matters if you're quoting into new-build or premium renovation markets where building regulations scrutiny is higher.

Aluminium is also available in any RAL colour through powder coating. Anthracite grey (RAL 7016) has dominated the premium end of the market since the mid-2020s. Unlike uPVC, the colour is baked on and won't fade or chalk over time — which is a genuine selling point you should be using in your quotes.

Oak Frame Conservatories and Orangeries

At the top end of the market sit oak frame structures. These are a fundamentally different product: engineered structural timber (green oak or engineered oak), often designed by an architect or structural engineer, and almost always bespoke to the property.

Prices start at around £30,000 for a modest oak-framed garden room with glazed elements, rising to £80,000+ for a full oak frame orangery with a lantern roof, brick or stone infill panels, and underfloor heating. At the very top of the market — listed buildings, rural properties, complex footprints — six-figure sums are not unusual.

Oak frame structures almost always require full planning permission rather than permitted development, because the scale and permanence places them firmly in the "extension" category in planning terms. They will also require building regulations sign-off, including structural calculations for the frame. If you're a conservatory company moving into this territory, you'll need either an in-house designer or a working relationship with a structural engineer.

Roof Types and Their Cost Impact

The roof is often the single biggest variable in a conservatory quote. There are four main options and each has a very different cost and performance profile.

Planning Permission — What You Need to Know

The majority of domestic conservatories fall within permitted development rights and do not require a formal planning application — but the conditions are specific and it's your job to confirm them before you take a deposit.

Under the current rules, a conservatory is permitted development if it meets all of the following:

• The eaves height does not exceed 3 m and the overall height does not exceed 4 m (or the ridge height of the main dwelling if lower)
• It does not extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by more than 4 m (detached) or 3 m (semi/terrace) without a prior approval application under the Neighbour Consultation Scheme
• The total area of all extensions (including the conservatory) does not cover more than 50% of the garden area
• It does not front a highway — a conservatory on the front or side elevation visible from a public road typically requires full planning
• The property is not in a conservation area, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or National Park — Article 4 directions in these areas often remove permitted development rights
• The property is not a listed building — any works to a listed building require listed building consent regardless of scale

The safe habit is to check the local planning authority's website for any Article 4 directions on the property postcode and to ask the customer whether they've had any previous extensions. Permitted development allowances accumulate — the customer's rear extension from five years ago may have already eaten into the 50% garden rule.

Building Regulations — The 2023 Changes

Conservatories historically benefited from a building regulations exemption. The old rule was that a conservatory was exempt if it met all of these: separated from the main house by external-quality walls, doors or windows; had at least 75% of the roof area and 50% of the wall area glazed; and had an independent heating system controlled separately from the main house.

The 2023 updates to Part L tightened thermal performance requirements significantly. Fully glazed conservatories attached to a dwelling now need to demonstrate that the overall thermal performance of the house is not made worse. In practice, this means:

• Glazing must meet a minimum U-value of 1.4 W/m²K for windows and 1.8 W/m²K for roof lights (in line with the broader Part L requirements for dwellings)
• Solid roof conservatories always require building regulations approval — they are now treated as extensions for regulatory purposes
• The door between the conservatory and the main house should ideally be retained as an external-quality door to maintain the separation requirement

If you're building solid roof structures, you must submit a building regulations application (either full plans or a building notice) and have the work inspected. FENSA or CERTASS registration only covers the glazed elements — the structural work needs a separate sign-off.

Base and Foundation Costs

The base is frequently underquoted or quoted as an allowance rather than a firm price — which causes problems when ground conditions turn out to be worse than expected. Build in a proper base survey or at least a provisional sum that reflects genuine risk.

Always include a clause in your contract that base costs are subject to ground investigation findings. If the customer has an old concrete slab from a previous structure, inspect it: cracking, subsidence, or inadequate thickness (under 100 mm) are common.

Electrical Installation Costs

A bare conservatory with no electrics is a cold, dark room with nowhere to plug in a lamp. Most customers want at least a couple of double sockets and a ceiling light — but the better conversations are about heating and smart controls.

All electrical work in a conservatory must be certified by a registered electrician (Part P). If your fitting team isn't Part P registered, build in a subbied-out electrical sign-off — and factor the cost and programme impact into your quote.

Heating Options for Conservatories

Heating is one of the biggest upsell opportunities on a conservatory job. A well-heated conservatory gets used year-round; a cold one is abandoned from October to March.

Guarantees and Warranties

Warranty commitments are a selling point you should be putting in every quote. Here's what the industry standard looks like and what customers should expect:

If you're a member of a trade body such as FENSA, GGF (Glass and Glazing Federation) or CERTASS, your warranties may be backed by an insurance deposit scheme — which gives customers protection even if your business ceases trading. This is a genuine differentiator, especially on high-value orders.

How to Quote Conservatory Jobs — Margins and Method

Conservatory quoting sits somewhere between the fixed-price product world of windows and doors and the variable labour-heavy world of general building. Most conservatory companies operate with a cost-plus model: fabrication cost or supply price from a trade fabricator, plus installation labour at a day-rate, plus site-specific costs (base, electrics, skips), plus margin.

Typical gross margins in the conservatory sector run at 30–45% on the overall contract value, with the fabrication element often the lowest-margin component (competitive fabricator market) and the installation labour being where experienced companies make their money.

Two approaches to quoting:

Red Flags — What to Watch Out For

The conservatory sector has historically attracted some of the most aggressive selling practices in the home improvement industry. Customers have become more cautious as a result — which means you can differentiate by doing the opposite.

• One-day sale pressure. The "this price is only valid today" tactic is a red flag for customers and it should be for you too. It suggests the salesperson is covering up a price that won't survive comparison. Reputable companies price confidently and give customers time to decide.
• No planning check at survey. Any conservatory company that doesn't confirm permitted development eligibility at the survey stage is a liability risk. If you build a conservatory that requires planning permission and it wasn't obtained, the enforcement risk falls on the customer — but the reputational and potential legal risk falls on you.
• No base survey or vague base allowance. "Base works as required" with a token £500 allowance is not a quote — it's a price that will inflate after the deposit is paid. Be specific about what your price includes and what conditions would trigger additional costs.
• No evidence of FENSA, CERTASS or equivalent registration. Installation of replacement windows and glazed structures must be notified to the local authority. FENSA and CERTASS members self-certify and notify on your behalf. Non-registered installers must use a building inspector, adding cost and programme time.

How Trade2Base Helps Conservatory and Window Companies

Conservatory companies typically run marketing across several channels at once: Google Ads, local directories (Checkatrade, MyBuilder), showroom walk-ins, referrals from past customers, and sometimes Facebook. The question that matters — and that most companies can't answer — is which channel is actually bringing in the jobs worth having?

A £500/month Google Ads spend might generate 20 enquiries. A handful of referrals from a satisfied customer three streets away might generate two enquiries — but both of them convert and both of them spend above your average. Without tracking where every lead came from, you're flying blind on your marketing budget.

Trade2Base connects your enquiries to their source at the job level. When you record a new lead, you log where it came from. As jobs progress — from enquiry to survey to deposit to completion — you can see which marketing source is producing your best conversion rate, your highest average job value, and your most profitable work.

For a conservatory company doing 40–60 installations a year, even one percentage point of improvement in how you allocate your marketing budget can mean several additional jobs annually. That's worth knowing.

Start a free trial — no credit card required, and you can be logging leads within ten minutes.