The Building Regulations are performance standards and deal with the health and safety of the occupants and other technical issues such as the conservation of fuel and access to and about buildings.

Conservatories are generally exempt from the building regulations when the following circumstances apply:

1. They are built at ground level and are less than 30 square metres in floor area
2. At least half of the new wall and three quarters of the roof is either glazed or translucent material
3. The conservatory is separated from the house by external quality door(s).
4. The glazing satisfies the requirements of part N, Schedule 1 (toughened/safety glass).
5. Electrical installations comply with the applicable building regulations requirements of Part P
6. The conservatory does not contain any drainage facilities. (i.e. sink, WC, or washing machine)
7. Any heating or cooling systems must have independent controls / thermostat.

Any new structural opening between the conservatory and the existing house will require building regulations approval, even if the conservatory itself is an exempt structure.

If you require building regulations approval because one of the above does not apply then you will need to make an application and get the works inspected (see our factsheet on Making a Building Regulations Application).

In certain situations, it is possible to build a conservatory with no separating door (see item 3. above) but it will be necessary to provide thermal calculations as the work will require building regulations approval.

The calculations will generally based on an overall assessment of the entire property and are likely to require you to upgrade various components to the existing elements such as existing thermal insulation or replacing the boiler to a modern condensing type.

A specialist energy consultant will be required to provide these calculations and we will be pleased to help you with any specific project.