This conservatory was worth saving a replacement would cost at least 5 times more than the renovation work that I carried out. It was saved just in time,another winter would have seen it rot beyond repair.

The basic skeleton was under attack from long term leaks that meant wet rot was beginning to take hold. The reason for this as always seems to be around the glazing and the glazing beads.

Also the roof panels where they meet the roof beams had similar issues. Poor quality sealant and not enough of it meant that rainwater was sitting in the rebates and finding its way into the joints of the window frame. The roof leaks were the result of beads lifting.Nearly every window renovation project I work on is the result of this ingress of water around the beads or putty. 

The roof I felt was not sufficiently strong enough to take my weight so rather than take the roof off and do a rebuild I came up with the idea of encasing each bearer in a U shaped timber cap machined from 4×2 stock which worked out to be successful in stopping the leaks and also kept the costs down. The cills  had to be replaced as they were made up of several lengths butted together which meant that water was making its way into those particular joints as well.

New beads cills and timber caps were machined and fitted.All in all my objective was not only to save the conservatory from rotting beyond economic repair and to replace that which had already perished, but to future proof it against the changing climate we are now all experiencing. We are definitely seeing heavier and longer periods of rain accompanied by strong winds that drive rainwater into any weak spots on exterior joinery.