Conservatory roof ideas: finishes, colours, skylights and lanterns

A new roof is a chance to change how the room looks and feels, not just to stop it leaking. The ideas below are grouped by roof type, then by what happens inside. Every product named comes from makers’ published ranges. We have not seen them in person, so ask installers for samples and photos of finished jobs before you choose.

What are the options for replacing a conservatory roof?

There are five main routes: a lightweight tiled or solid roof, a glass roof with performance glass, a hybrid that mixes the two, an orangery-style roof with a solid perimeter and a lantern, and new polycarbonate or insulated panels on the existing frame. Each changes the look, the light and the running temperature differently.

Route	The look	Typical price, medium conservatory
Tiled or solid roof	Like a small extension, with a plastered ceiling	£7,400 to £12,100
Glass roof	Sky and daylight, tinted to cut heat	£3,500 to £7,000
Hybrid roof	Tiled or solid, with glass panels or roof windows	£6,600 to £12,600
Orangery conversion	Solid perimeter ceiling around a central lantern	£14,000 to £35,000
Polycarbonate or panels	Keeps the existing shape and frame	£2,700 to £5,200; panels £1,800 to £4,600

Prices are our typical ranges for a conservatory of about 4m x 3.5m. Installers usually quote including VAT, but check. If you are not sure which route suits you, our roof picker narrows it down in three questions.

Tiled roof ideas: finishes and colours

Which? says tiles make a conservatory feel more like an extension. The tiles on a lightweight tiled roof are not concrete or clay: they are synthetic slates made from limestone and polypropylene, stone-coated steel shingles, recycled polymer tiles or GRP sheets. Each roof system works with particular tiles, so the system you choose decides the colours you can have.

Tile	Type	Colours listed by the maker	Used on
TapcoSlate Classic	Synthetic slate	Stone Black, Mist Grey, Pewter Grey, Brick Red, Chestnut Brown, Plum, Red Rock, Olive Green, plus blends	SupaLite, Leka, Warmer Roof, Prefix and others
Britmet LiteSlate	Composite slate	Slate, Ash, Oak, Sunshine, Sunset, Amethyst, Charcoal	Prefix, Warmer Roof, Leka
Metrotile Shingle	Stone-coated steel	Charcoal, Burnt Umber, Antique Red, Iron Bark, Coal Black, Scarlet, Bister Brown, Forest Green	Guardian, UltraRoof, Leka, Warmer Roof
Guardian Slate	Synthetic slate	Black, Grey, Mulberry, Terracotta	Guardian
Ultraframe Authentic	Copolymer slate	Carbon Grey, Harvest Brown, Terra Brick	UltraRoof
SupaLite ExtraLight Shingle	Stone-coated steel	Charcoal, Ember, Walnut	SupaLite
Envirotile	Recycled polymer	Brown, Slate Grey, Anthracite (textured and slate-effect)	Eurocell Equinox, Prefix

Not every solid roof is tiled. Ultraframe’s LivinRoof uses grey aluminium-faced insulated panels, RAL 7016 Urban Grey as standard, for a modern look that may not sit as well next to a tiled house roof. The trims matter too: Eurocell offers Equinox fascias and gutters in colours including white, cream, oak effects, black ash and anthracite grey. Our guide to lightweight roof tiles compares the tile types in more detail.

On matching the house, England’s permitted development rules say the materials of a conservatory do not have to match the house. Whether that still applies once the roof is solid is not settled, so a tiled roof that resembles the house roof is the safe choice. Wales has a stricter matching rule.

Glass roof ideas: tints and performance glass

Modern roof glass comes in blue, neutral, aqua, bronze and clear tints, usually with a self-cleaning coating. The tint is a trade-off between daylight and heat. Ultraframe’s figures for its 4S range, all with a U-value of 1.0 W/m²K, show it clearly:

Ultraframe 4S tint	Light let through	Sun’s heat rejected
Clear	65%	52%
Blue	48%	67%
Bronze	42%	66%
Neutral	38%	70%
Aqua	28%	81%
Ultimate Blue	24%	82%

Ultraframe recommends high light transmission glass for north or east facing rooms and high solar rejection glass for south or west facing ones. The GGF gives similar advice. Self-cleaning coatings need a pitch of at least 10° to work, and ExpertSure puts solar control glass at about £100 to £180 extra per panel and self-cleaning at £120 to £200. See glass conservatory roofs for the full picture.

An insulated pelmet is a good idea for a glass roof. Ultraframe’s version is a plastered perimeter soffit, 300mm to 1,200mm deep, that hides wiring for downlights and speakers and gives a glass roof an orangery feel from inside. One price calculator lists it at about £900 as an extra.

Adding light to a solid roof: skylights, roof windows and glazed panels

A hybrid roof keeps pools of daylight in a warm roof. The makers offer different ways to do it:

• Glass in the roof panels. Ultraframe says LivinRoof’s glass panels can replace any of its grey panels, in almost any shape including triangular patterns, without additional cost. UltraRoof takes full-length rectangular glass panels.
• Glazed panels in a tiled roof. SupaLite’s SkyVista panels are solar control and self-cleaning, letting through up to 47% of the light; its SkyVista Glow version adds heated glass. Guardian offers its Solstice glazed panel, Leka its Skylite section, and Icotherm inline glass pods up to 800mm wide.
• Roof windows. Guardian offers VELUX windows, Eurocell manual or electric centre-pivot windows on Equinox, and some Guardian installers list sun tunnels.

Price guides put a roof window or glazed panel at about £450 to £2,000 each. In England a new roof window must reach a U-value of 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating Band B, and Guardian’s roof windows suit pitches from 15°. Our guide to conservatory roof lighting covers skylights and spotlights together.

Lantern and flat roof ideas

An orangery conversion swaps the pitched roof for a flat insulated perimeter with a glass lantern in the middle. Leka, SupaLite, Warmer Roof and Icotherm all sell flat roof systems built to take a lantern, finished outside in EPDM rubber, GRP or felt. Ultraframe’s Ultrasky takes a different route: a lantern-style glazed roof with an insulated pelmet, which gives the flat-roof-and-lantern look from inside, and a decorative cornice outside in one, two or three tiers.

Lantern frames come in more colours than you might expect. Korniche stocks gloss white, matt grey and matt black, with dual colours at no extra cost. Guardian says its most popular combination is anthracite grey outside and white inside. The S1 lantern comes in pure white, anthracite grey and jet black, and Liniar’s PVC-U lantern roof in colours including cream, rosewood, Chartwell green and oak effects.

MyJobQuote puts the average fitted cost of a roof lantern at about £2,250, and price guides range from roughly £800 to £3,000. One retailer sells lanterns supply-only from £1,299 for a 1m x 1.5m unit to £3,429 for a 2m x 4m one.

Inside: ceilings, lighting and finishes

The inside of a solid roof can look very different from system to system:

• Vaulted plastered ceilings follow the roof line, as on LivinRoof and UltraRoof.
• Flat ceilings with a lighting pelmet give a more conventional room; SupaLite has offered a flat ceiling at 2,400mm with a 350mm pelmet.
• Timber ceilings. Equinox and SupaLite offer tongue and groove timber-effect finishes. ExpertSure puts pine cladding at £800 to £1,500 extra, and a vaulted ceiling with exposed beams at £1,200 to £2,500.
• Downlights. A set of LED downlights in the new ceiling typically costs £300 to £600. Use correctly rated fittings in the insulated ceiling, and get an electrical certificate.

Lean-to conservatory roof ideas

A lean-to is the simplest roof to replace, but many are shallow, and pitch limits the finish. SupaLite’s ExtraLight Shingle is approved from 10°, Britmet LiteSlate from 12° and Britmet’s Pantile 2000 from 5°. LivinRoof works from 5°, Equinox goes down to 5° with its SlateSkin finish, and Icotherm offers a low-pitch roof down to 3°. Self-cleaning glass needs at least 10°. Raising the roof to get more pitch can take the work outside permitted development, so check the height limits first. Our lean-to style page has more.

Budget ideas that stop short of a new roof

• Blinds. Which? says blackout or thermal blinds can reduce the heat coming in. MyJobQuote puts blinds for a small conservatory at £500 to £900 on a budget, rising to £1,500 to £2,500 for electric pleated blinds. Ultraframe notes roof blinds also block the sky and daylight.
• Solar control film. Which? puts this at around £1,000 for the roof glass of an average-sized conservatory.
• Insulated panels. Some come in tile-effect, woodgrain and colour finishes, and cost £1,800 to £4,600 on a medium conservatory, but they insulate less well than a new roof.
• New polycarbonate. Tints run from clear and opal to bronze and Solarguard, which lets through as little as 8% of the sun’s heat.

When you get quotes, ask each installer to show you samples of the tiles or glass tint they are pricing, and photos of a finished job on a conservatory like yours.