The size is likely to be the most significant choice you will make when you plan a glass veranda. Too small and you have spent money on something that does not even provide you with the space that you needed to use. Big enough and you have either spent too much, caused planning permission pain, or you have a structure that is disproportionate to your house.
No magic formula here, it all depends on your garden, your budget and what you really want to use the space. There are, however, certain practical things to consider, before you make any commitments to measurements.
Work Out What You Will Use It For
This may seem like a given, but it is worth telling the truth to oneself. Many claim that they have a desire to have a dining area, only to realise that they only eat out thrice a year. Some do not have the right ideas of the amount of space they require to put their lounging furniture or a hot tub.
When you are considering a six seater dining table, you will require a minimum of 3 metres by 3 metres only to place the table and chairs and space to move around it.
Glass Verandas that must be attached to your house wall and this automatically restricts the width. When you happen to have a typical semi-detached house somewhere in a city such as Manchester or Birmingham, your back wall may only be 5 or 6 metres across. Subtract the metre at each end of the structure and fixings and you have a working width of approximately 4 metres.
Terraced houses are even narrower still – 4 to 4.5 metres of back wall is typical. That does not leave much space when you want the veranda to be centred on your patio doors.
The other thing that people forget is windows. You can not simply screw a veranda over bedroom or kitchen windows and shut out all the light. It must be lower than the window or to the side which once again limits your choices.
Projection: To What Extent?
It is at this point that the majority of the population is stalled. The projection – the distance of the veranda outside your house into the garden – is normally between 2 metres and 4 metres with residential installations.
Two metres will provide you with protection near the house but will not make a room. That is okay in a small sitting area or in a covering area just outside your door, but you will not fit much more.
Most people have a sweet spot of three metres. It is just big enough to be a good outdoors room without occupying the whole garden. With an ordinary garden, say at Reading or Nottingham, 8 or 10 metres deep, a projection of 3 metres will allow you to have a useful lawn or planting-bed beyond.
Four metres begins to be weighty. You have a really big covered area, which requires the garden to sustain it. It can take over in smaller urban sites as well.
Planning Permission and the 2.5 Metre Rule
This is one of the things that misleads people. In England under the permitted development rules, you generally do not need planning permission to construct a veranda, provided that it does not exceed 2.5 metres in height at the eaves (where the roof meets the posts).
Glass Verandas are comfortable under this, and in case you have a raised patio, or are attempting to match the height of bifold doors, you may creep over. When you do, you require planning permission which is additional time and expense.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the rules are a bit different and are stricter when in a conservation area.
Percentages Matter More Than You Think
Even a veranda which is technically the correct size on paper can appear wrong in the real world. A small deep veranda, 2 metres by 4 metres, is strange. So does a very broad shallow one.
Approximately, a ratio between square and a 2:3 ratio is a good target. The veranda is a 3-metre by 4-metre, which is balanced. One with dimensions 2 metres by 4 metres resembles a corridor.
Go out in your garden and literally measure the size you are thinking of. Take some chairs where you think they will go. You will have a far better idea of whether the size is going to work than you will looking at drawings.
Be Realistic About Budget
Bigger costs more, obviously. But it’s not always linear. Increasing 3 metres to 3.5 metres may not increase the price significantly, but increasing 3 metres to 5 metres may almost doubles the cost since you are required to have heavier structural posts, thicker glass and more complicated engineering.
Obtain price estimates on two sizes. It may be that the additional half metre is not expensive, or it may be that it will take you into a whole new price range.
The correct size of Glass Verandas is not about the largest and smallest. It is about what suits your house, what works in your garden, and something that provides you with space that you will actually utilise instead of what looks great but does not fit the lifestyle you live.