Centurion DIY Conservatories went on tour over the May Bank Holiday weekend this year, exhibiting at the prestigious Design Weekend Home & Garden Weekend at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire. This annual event is sponsored by Aston Martin, Ferrari and Coutts Bank among others, and showcases the very best in home, garden and furnishing design, so we were in good company.
We wanted to show a typical example from our range, and brought along an Edwardian style conservatory, in full height glass model with a clear glass roof. The conservatory measured 3000mm x 2400mm, and was to be built on a steel base tailor-made for the job. The conservatory featured double French doors on the front, with top-opening fanlight windows all round, glazed with pretty bevelled glass from our extensive range.
We have access to the site on the Friday before the show but it opens to the public on Saturday morning. The challenge is on - we have just one day and two fitters to complete the build and finish the conservatory interior, and must be off site for 6pm!
It's 8am on a fine Friday morning in Tatton Park when our ever-cheerful driver Didier arrives with the conservatory and base. We never use carriers or agencies for deliveries, and all our drivers are highly experienced at moving and offloading frames and glass. We stack your conservatory where you need it on your property, and never offload and leave at the kerbside.
All the parts laid out. Stewart had pre-assembled the steel base at our Factory. Apart from this it was a complete build from scratch. And the show opens to the public tomorrow morning so the pressure's on.
Stewart and Phil start by fitting the cill onto the steel base, then begin the construction process by standing the conservatory frames. Square posts join the frames neatly in the corners.
Because Centurion manufacture everything on a made-to-measure basis we could make the two side walls as single frames - so quick and easy to install compared to coupling together in individual sections.
The frames are up - now for the roof. The eaves beams are supplied already mitred in the corners and cut to length. Eaves beams fix onto the frames using Shield system turnbuckles, so there's no need for drilling and screwing - another time saving measure. Our steel bases are supplied complete with chipboard flooring, which Phil laid now so that they could use ladders inside the conservatory. The base comes with underfloor insulation as well.
The conservatory's taking shape, with all three eaves beams fixed. The aluminium rafters are being fitted now - they are all supplied cut to length in the factory, with captive bolts in place ready to drop into the pre-drilled holes in the ridge beam and eaves beam sections so no need to measure and cut or drill on site.
Because we were building a temporary exhibit at the show we had to fit a false back on our conservatory - usually it would of course fix back onto your house wall. (Which is much easier!)
Lunchtime, and a well-deserved break for for Stewart and Phil. We're all casting anxious looks at the sky - where's the sunshine!!
Phil took less than an hour to glaze the glass into the conservatory frames and French doors while Stewart finished the roof construction. Now it's all hands to work to get the roof glass in place and the rafter top caps knocked on before the rain starts in earnest.
The final roof glass goes in - and it's pouring! But at least it's dry and watertight inside now.
Stewart fits the decorative cresting and finial and seals the roof back to the temporary backing board. We used bitumen flashbanding for speed, but when weatherproofing back to a brick wall either bitumen or conventional lead flashing can be used. Centurion pitched roof conservatories have a specially designed channel in the wall rafter to tuck the flashing into for a quick neat finish.
The Tatton Park Show 2009 was a great success, running on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. Our conservatory looked great and attracted a stream of interested visitors impressed by the quality of the finish and wanting to know more.
Debbie, Julie and Paul had a great time manning the stand over the weekend and talking to all our lovely visitors. Thank you to all who attended, and of course to Stewart & Phil for their terrific building job. They've done it before of course, but we hope these pictures give an idea of how such outstanding results can be achieved. If you're inspired to consider a DIY project yourself please don't hesitate to call or email for quotations or information - we're always happy to offer useful, free, no-obligation design and technical advice.
