DIY Conservatories

I've been following a great new blog at www.conservatoryblogger.wordpress.com, and he raises the subject of DIY conservatories.

Looking at the cost angle there is an advantage there. But for me there are many things that can go wrong when installing a conservatory yourself.
Firstly the product, in order for Joe Bloggs to install a conservatory themselves, surely can't be made of much. I suspect there would be very little in terms of reinforcement, affecting badly the overall quality of the product. Secondly planning permission. With planning very often a grey area, two calls to the same planning department to inquire if the proposed conservatory would need planning permission can often lead to two different answers. Joe Bloggs will not want to install something illegally I'm sure! The next problem I envisage would be the fitting of the conservatory and the scenario if something went wrong with the product. Now the problem this industry has is that there are plenty of people out there who think they can fit windows, doors and conservatories well, and can't. With a conservatory being such a large item to install, the person that would be installing would need to have some good background knowledge on how to fit them. I'm assuming also that no guarantee would be supplied with a DIY conservatory, so if something was wrong with the conservatory, the downside would be that it would cost the customer to buy the relevant part/parts to replace those that may be faulty.

These are just a few of my main views on the disadvantages of DIY conservatories. From my point of view, it would only benefit the customer, long and short term, to spend a bit more money to make sure that professional fitters install their conservatory. With that, they would get a guarantee, a much better quality of product (depending where you chose to buy from of course!) and providing that the company is a reputable one, there will be no discrepancies when it comes to planning permission.